NewsTrust - Freedom of Speech - Most Recent Stories: News (Independent)

Afghanistan: Media ban on attack coverage is ‘to protect journalists’

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Raw Story - By Raw Story - Mar. 03 (News Report) - The government of Afghanistan sent out mixed messages on Tuesday about its plans to restrict media coverage of insurgent attacks, at once denying that it was banning live coverage of attacks while defending the plans as being "to protect journalists."

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Free Speech and Funding in Israel

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

American Prospect - By Gershom Gorenberg - Feb. 13 (Special Report) - Attacks against a major left Israeli philanthropic organization are symptomatic of the complex role foreign money plays in political debates.

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Single Payer Docs Arrested Outside Baltimore Hotel While Obama Speaking to Republicans

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

singlepayeraction.org - By Russell Mokhiber - Jan. 29 (News) - Two single payer doctors were arrested this morning outside the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel where President Obama was scheduled to speak to a retreat of House Republicans. Dr. Margaret Flowers and Dr. Carol Paris were carrying a sign that said: Just Letting You Know: Medicare for All. Dr. Flowers went to the White House yesterday to deliver a letter to Obama asking him to consider a single payer, Medicare for all health care system.read more

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The Man Who Took Down Campaign Finance Reform

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Mother Jones - By Stephanie Mencimer - Jan. 22 (News Analysis) - Thursday's Supreme Court decision striking down limits on corporate spending in elections marks the latest in a remarkable string of victories for a Republican lawyer in Terre Haute, Indiana. James Bopp Jr. did not argue Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission before the high court, but the case was entirely his brainchild.

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The personhood of corporations

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

SCOTUSblog - By Lyle Denniston - Jan. 22 (News Analysis) - Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens may have had his tongue in his cheek, or perhaps wanted merely to taunt the majority, when he wrote in Thursday’s opinion on the role of corporations in national politics: “Under the majority’s view, I suppose it may be a First Amendment problem that corporations are not permitted to vote, given that voting is, among other things, a form of speech.” It is a tantalizing notion.

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In Landmark Campaign Finance Ruling, Supreme Court Removes Limits on Corporate Campaign Spending

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jan. 22 (News Analysis) - In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court rules corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money to elect and defeat candidates. One lawmaker describes it as the worst Supreme Court decision since the Dred Scott case justifying slavery. We speak with constitutional law professor, Jamin Raskin.

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Google puts its foot down.

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Rconversation - Jan. 12 (News Report) - Google's announcement that it will "review" its business operations in China and is no longer willing to censor its Chinese search engine, Google.cn, is generating a range of reaction in China. Conversation over at the #googlecn hashtag on Twitter - created shortly after the announcement - has been raging fast and furious. The Chinese Twittersphere - comprised exclusively of people who are tech savvy enough to know how to get around censorship or they wouldn't be there - is generally cheering the news. Some need no translation, like this one which says: "Google's Do No Evil vs. CPC's Do No.1 Evil"(CPC means "Communist Party of China"). There's a report that the Tsinghua University security department has announced that students can't take flowers to Google without permission. Another person reports that all the Chinese Internet portals have been told by authorities that they're only allowed to use Xinhua News Agency and People's Daily reports on the subject - they're not allowed to use reports from other sources, and they should not feature today's news about Google on the front pages of their sites. Here is a report on how somebody posted a translation of Google's announcement on the Chinese web portal, Netease, and it was censored. One person suggests that leaving China frees up Google to focus on building the anti-censorship business instead of the censorship business.

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Analysis: Two precedents in jeopardy

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

SCOTUSblog - By Lyle Denniston - Sep. 10 (News Analysis) - If supporters of federal curbs on political campaign spending by corporations were counting on Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., to hesitate to strike down such restrictions, they could take no comfort from the Supreme Court’s 93-minute hearing Wednesday on that historic question. Despite the best efforts of four other Justices to argue for ruling only very narrowly, the strongest impression was that they had not convinced the two members of the Court thought to be still open to that approach. At least the immediate prospect was for a sweeping declaration of independence in politics for companies and advocacy groups formed as corporations.

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Web crackdowns spread

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

GlobalPost - By David L. Stern - Jul. 21 (News Report) - With less than six months until it takes over the chairmanship of one of Europe’s flagship human rights organizations, Kazakhstan has thumbed its nose to Western governments and introduced a draconian internet law.

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Stripping Away Free Expression: A Pennsylvania town tries—and fails—to ban a form of exercise.

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Reason Magazine - By Shawn Macomber - Jun. 27 (Special Report) - Despite its cheeky name, the city of Mars isn’t always amenable to cultural efforts perceived as alien. The “pink-and-black color scheme of Ms. Babines’ website and the high-heeled shoe in her logo” were enough, according to court documents, to convince Code Enforcement Officer Gary Peaco to protect the community from these exercise classes.

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Voice of Iran

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Link TV - By Erin Cokin - Jun. 26 (News Analysis) - A propaganda war is underway. Following the extraordinary presidential election, Iran's state-controlled media are aggressively promoting their own version of news events. It is a very different story from the one that is being told in the Western media.

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Call for Iran 'rioters' to be executed

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Australian Broadcasting - Jun. 26 (News Report) - A hardline Iranian cleric has called for the execution of "rioters", in a sign of the authorities' determination to stamp out opposition to the June 12 presidential election result. Iran's top legislative body, the Guardian Council, said it had found no major violations in the election, which it called the "healthiest" vote since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

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Voice of Iran

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Link TV - Jun. 26 (News Report) - (Global Pulse: June 26, 2009) A propaganda war is underway. Following the extraordinary presidential election, Iran's state-controlled media are aggressively promoting their own version of events. It is a very different story from the one being told in the Western media. SOURCES: FOX News, U.S; CBS, U.S; BBC, U.K; IRIB, Iran; Press TV, Iran; CCTV, China; RT, Russia

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What White Supremacists Are Saying Today About Holocaust Museum Gunman

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Greg MitchellAuthor, 'Why Obama Won' - Jun. 11 (Special Report) - To find out the answer to that question, I visited, for the first time (trust me) the site of Stormfront, the major white nationalist/white supremacist --some say, neo-Nazi -- hate site. You can do the same, if you wish. It may take awhile, as traffic overload is an issue today, for obvious reasons.

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Reporters' families seek mercy, N.Korea makes threats

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

news.asiaone.com - Jun. 09 (News Report) - Relatives of two U.S. journalists sentenced to 12 years hard labor in North Korea called on the reclusive state to show compassion, while Pyongyang threatened to use nuclear weapons to defend itself.

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Judge sides with censored blogger against Chinese ISP - Ars Technica

Tue, 26 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Ars Technica - By Jacqui Cheng - May. 26 (News Report) - Do not adjust your monitors: a Chinese government critic has won a court case against his ISP in Beijing for taking his website offline. Economics professor Hu Xingdou's website was shut down by Beijing Xin Net for containing "illegal" content earlier this year, but a Daxing district court ruled last week that the ISP could not provide proof for its claims and ordered Xin Net to repay Hu's service fees from the past two years.

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Day One: New FOIA Rules

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Columbia Journalism Review - By Clint Hendler - Jan. 22 (News Analysis) - In restoring the Reno standard—a move that CJR, among many other voices, called for—on his first full day in office and via such a high profile legal instrument, Obama has struck a quick and prominent victory for government openness. Let’s hope it’s one of many to come.

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Speak no evil?

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Boston Phoenix - By Adam Reilly - Jan. 16 (News Analysis) - "If somebody tried to assassinate Obama," says Lewis, "and upon further examination it turned out that they were a regular listener to Sean Hannity [of Premier Radio, ABC Radio, and Fox News] — and decided, on the basis of Hannity's many broadcasts, that Obama was trying to destroy the United States — would that justify shutting Hannity down and curbing speech in some way? It's hard to say . . . but if it had that effect, surely the imminence requirement is at least partially met."

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Toxic talk: Hating Obama

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Boston Phoenix - By Adam Reilly - Jan. 15 (News Analysis) - Given the manifold wellsprings of dislike and distrust for Obama, it might have been inevitable that things got as ugly as they did. Still, what made this festering animus so dismaying — apart from what it revealed about the deep recesses of our political id — is that it jeopardized Obama's promise as a political unifier.... In recent weeks, though, there's been a distinct drop-off in repugnant anti-Obama invective — in the conservative press, among the general public, even among white-supremacists.

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Iranian government uses Gaza conflict to repress

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Global Voices - By Hamid Tehrani - Jan. 08 (News Analysis) - While several Iranian bloggers (including Islamist ones) multiplied their posts and digital initiatives, such as a “Google bomb” to condemn Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip, some other bloggers are saying the Iranian government is using the “Gaza conflict moment” to repress media and civil society inside the country.

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Agencies Move to Restrict FOIA Access in Last-Minute Regs

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

ProPublica - By Jennifer LaFleur - Jan. 06 (News Report) - As one of the most secretive presidential administrations in history gets ready to close up shop, it's closing a few more things -- records. Over the past few months, some federal agencies have issued rules that would eliminate public disclosure of information -- or, in some cases, make it more difficult for requesters to get information.

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Al Jazeera Breaks the Israeli Media Blockade

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New America Media - By Shane Bauer - Jan. 06 (News Report) - Throughout the 11 days of Israel's pummeling of Gaza, live coverage of the war hasn't made it into most American living rooms.That's because Israel, America's staunch ally, isn't allowing journalists to enter Gaza while Al Jazeera, called anti-American and pro-terrorist by many in Washington, is the only network broadcasting live images from Gaza to the world.

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Pre-Emptive Strikes Against Protest at RNC

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Marjorie Cohn - Sep. 02 (News Report) - The raids targeted members of "Food Not Bombs," an antiwar, anti-authoritarian protest group that provides free vegetarian meals every week in hundreds of cities all over the world. They served meals to rescue workers at the World Trade Center after 9/11 and to nearly 20 communities in the Gulf region following Hurricane Katrina. Also targeted, were members of I-Witness Video, a media watchdog group that monitors the police to protect civil liberties. The group worked with the National Lawyers Guild to gain the dismissal of charges or acquittals of about 400 of the 1,800 who were arrested during the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York.

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Don't Tase Me, GOP

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

In These Times - By Jacob Wheeler - Aug. 05 (News Report) - The St. Paul Police Department is arming itself with Tasers. Local activists and media say that the department ordered 230 stun guns in late February -- adding to the 140 already in its possession -- in preparation for protests at the upcoming Republican National Convention (RNC), which St. Paul will host from Sept. 1 to Sept. 4. Police spokesman Tom Walsh denies any connection between the arrival of the Tasers and the upcoming RNC.

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Beijing Games: Charm and Control

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Link TV - Aug. 01 (News Analysis) - (VIDEO 4:36) China promised journalists complete freedom at the Olympics. But the press found that crashing Beijing's great wall of censorship was an Olympic sport in itself. Did media control, doping and a "tough love" charm offensive tarnish China's Olympic gold? Sources: CCTV (China), Al Jazeera (Quatar), BBC (UK), Deutsche Welle (Germany) and TV5 (France).

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