Committee to Protect Bloggers

Jerusalem Post reported that a law that would make websites responsible for the content of their comments has been introduced by a government minister. Yisrael Hasson of the right-wing Israel Beiteinu party has introduced a bill that would define all websites with at least 50,000 hits a day as a newspaper, in terms of libel. […]

Several decisions in U.S. courts recently, in Arizona and New Jersey, have recognized the right to blog anonymously. A Dodd-led filibuster in the U.S. Senate pushed back a vote on a bill that would have made more spying on U.S. citizens legal and would have given telecoms who’ve helped in illegal surveillance activities immunity.
[…]

According to OpenNet Initiative, Australia has taken another, most more drastic step to censor the Internet for the whole country.

The Australian Telecommunications Minister Stephen Conroy announced on December 31 2007 that mandatory filtering of the Internet would be instituted there. This announcement follows the Rudd government’s plan to provide a “clean feed internet service […]

According to the New York Times, a Boston area judge has issued an injunction stopping a blogger from posting. Judge Thomas Devine in the U.S. state of Vermont has ordered William Krasnansky to take down all posts referring to his wife or marriage from his blog. Krasnansky and his wife, Maria Gallido, are in the […]

Update: Telecom immunity back on the table, according to EFF.
Congress returns to Washington DC this week, and with them returns the battle over telecom immunity. Recall that on the eve of a key vote in December 2007, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid delayed action on the surveillance bill until January, giving Senators additional time to […]

Here are a couple of recent news stories regarding privacy, the Internet and communications law in the United States.
Arizona Affirms Strong Protections for Anonymous Speech Online (Electronic Frontier Foundation)
Congress to examine “the Internet” as a tool for homegrown terrorism (Ars Technica)
EFF Moves to Block New Jersey Township’s Attempt to Unmask Critical Blogger (Electronic Frontier […]

According to Law.com, a judge in Manhattan has ruled that Google, the ISP of a blogger critical of a school board, is under no obligation to disclose the name of the blogger, known as Othormom. The ruling, based on the details of the complaint against the blogger, are not necessarily going to further establish blogging […]

E-Bangladesh reports a “crackdown on internet users” in that country.
RAB & BTRC pinpointing internet users with fast connections.
ISPs instructed to reveal admin password, user data.
“Traffic scanners” to monitor internet users.

The Bangladesh Telecommunications regulatory commission are even going house to house to find users with fast connections, according to E-Bangladesh, who received a leaked memo […]

Former Thai Senator Jon Ungphakorn published an op-ed today in AsiaMedia on the measures that Thailand has taken against free speech.
Since the military coup of Sept 19, 2006, Thailand has almost caught up with China as a world leader in the field of internet censorship and control, particularly with regard to freedom of political expression. […]

On Friday, September 7, Mark Verzo, who blogs at Thoughts in Binary, became the first blogger to be arrested by Philippine authorities. Verzo runs a company called Bembang! which features a chain of websites, Bembang! Links, and a blog network Bembang! Blogs (via PinOy Spy!). Some of the material is erotic.
Verzo was arrested, by the […]