Being out about being an atheist can put you on the outs with a lot of theocratic-minded authoritarian types. We received reports this weekend that the outspoken and occasionally controversial blogger Fariborz Shamshiri, who blogs at Rotten Gods, has received threats on his life. Fariborz has a long online career in standing up for human rights including work with Amnesty International Blogs and Freedom House. Read the rest of this entry…

The Electronic Frontier Foundation recently launched a way for you to protect yourself from spies eyeing your search queries with a new Firefox Extension .

This Firefox extension was inspired by the launch of Google’s encrypted search option. We wanted a way to ensure that every search our browsers sent was encrypted. At the same time, we were also able to encrypt most or all of the browser’s communications with some other sites:

Google Search
Wikipedia
Twitter and Identi.ca
Facebook
EFF and Tor
Ixquick, DuckDuckGo, Scroogle and other small search engines
and lots more!

Firefox users can install HTTPS Everywhere by following this link.

As always, even if you’re at an HTTPS page, remember that unless Firefox displays a colored address bar and an unbroken lock icon in the bottom-right corner, the page is not completely encrypted and you may still be vulnerable to various forms of eavesdropping or hacking (in many cases, HTTPS Everywhere can’t prevent this because sites incorporate insecure third-party content).

The Committee to Protect Bloggers has covered the trials and tribulations of John “Wes” Osburn before, when he was denied entry to Canada to cover protests outside the Olympics. In this interview with Submedia.tv, Wes talks about the circumstances of his arrest while filming protests after the Oscar Grant killing verdict, and his time in jail. Caution: Strong language. Read the rest of this entry…

REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS—Reporters Without Borders calls for the immediate release of two Venezuelan users of the social-networking service Twitter, a 41-year-old man and a 35-year-old woman, who were arrested on 8 July for criticising the Venezuelan banking system. They are facing the possibility of 9 to 11 years in prison under a 2001 banking law on charges of “disseminating false rumours” to “destabilise the banking system.”
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From Meedan: Three Lebanese men have been placed under arrest by Prosecutor General Saeed Mirza for “slandering” the country’s President Michel Suleiman on Facebook. A search warrant has been issued for a fourth man.

Explaining the decision, Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar said that “media freedom in Lebanon and any civilised country reaches its limits when the content is pure slander and aims at undermining the head of state.”

Change and Reform MP Nabil Nicolas expressed shock at what he said were arrests for the “crime of expressing an opinion,” and called upon the President to “set the university students free immediately.” Arabic text follows: Read the rest of this entry…

CHICAGO INDYMEDIA/25 JUNE 2010—Two Chicago Indymedia journalists were detained and denied entry to Canada Friday evening, in what is emerging as a dominant dynamic confronting independent journalists seeking to enter the country to cover this weekend’s G20 gathering and protests being organized around it. Read the rest of this entry…

“Terrorizing Dissent” and “Democracy 101″ director targeted on way to cover Toronto protests

JUNE 24TH/2:31PM EST—In a telephone conversation with the RNC ’08 Report, protest film-maker Vlad Teichberg—director of the 2008 RNC documentary Terrorizing Dissent, and 2009 G-20 documentary Democracy 101—described his experiences at the border with Canada, while on his way to cover the G-20 in Canada, taking place this weekend. Read the rest of this entry…