thoughts on freedom
On October 5 Latvian police detained three persons in center of capital Riga spontaneously protesting against the actions of a political party. Also three bystanders were detained as well. Read more here: http://freespeechlatvia.blogspot.com/2011/10/latvian-police-deliberately-detain.html
Journalist and host of political Latvian TV show Skats no malas (A View from The Sidelines) Kārlis Streips was fired for calling the Latvia’s Green and Farmer’s Union political party a "whores" during his show. Here is more info on that: http://freespeechlatvia.blogspot.com/2011/09/latvian-talk-show-host-booted-after-16.html
As each year 1st May in Riga Critical mass took place. Police didn’t took the event in their hands as last year (they escorted cyclers with flashing lights) and was intolerant and rude as usual. Though men at power tried another tactics to steal the event – Riga city mayor Nils Ušakovs organized his own cycling event earlier that day so bicyclers were split between the two events. Still there were enough participants to make the mass critical.
Pictures and articles (in Latvian) from event:
http://www.xlt.lv/blogs/15127/atskats-uz-kritisko-masu-11/
http://ojars.kapteinis.lv/kritiska-masa-2011-riga/
http://andzh.kw-art.org/node/11
http://teikasgaisma.blogspot.com/2011/05/ar-velo-pa-rigu.html
http://foto.delfi.lv/album/76966/
http://foto.delfi.lv/album/76968/
http://www.leta.lv/foto/sources/leta/album/1BA21D5C-D6FB-4C3E-8EAD-A4F150352FAC/
An interesting piece by Al Jazeera on latvian forestery.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe recently published annual report on hate crimes for year 2008.
European Parliament and the Council has adopted Directive that requires user consent to internet cookies. Directive will be in force across the European Union within 18 months.
See: Directive amending Directive 2002/22/EC, 2002/58/EC and 2006/2004 (PDF).
Today I stumbled upon one piece about Estonian digital revolution. Report is interesting though superficial.
Though it there has been no official announcement, it seems that YouTube now blocks access for visitors from Latvia to official music video clips. When you try to access one you get a notice: “This video is not available in your country.”
Most probably this happened because Latvian copyright holders agency AKKA/LAA claimed too much money from YouTube for license. Agency already has been involved in several court cases with local radios and TV stations on license fees. Radios and TV stations disagreed to fees offered by agency stating these fees are too high and inappropriate. Several radio and TV stations already won these cases in part – AKKA/LAA had to lower the fees.
Now the greed of agency resulted in no videos for Latvians. AKKA/LAA earlier this year was criticized for claiming money from bloggers for embedding YouTube videos. As well it has been criticized by artist for nontransparent distribution of money levied by AKKA/LAA.
Last week Reporters Without Borders issued a report entitled “Enemies of the Internet” in which it examines Internet censorship and other threats to online free expression in 22 countries.
“The 12 ‘Enemies of the Internet’ – Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam – have all transformed their Internet into an Intranet in order to prevent their population from accessing ‘undesirable’ online information,” Reporters Without Borders said.
“Not only is the Internet more and more controlled, but new forms of censorship are emerging based on the manipulation of information,” Reporters Without Borders added. “Orchestrating the posting of comments on popular websites or organising hacker attacks is also used by repressive regimes to scramble or jam online content.”
A total of 70 cyber-dissidents are currently detained because of what they posted online. China is the world’s biggest prison for cyber-dissidents, followed by Vietnam and Iran. Though it should be noted that Internet is monitored and controlled even in democracies.
Download the Internet Enemies report.
Liberty Voice