Internet Freedom in Latin America: Key Threats and Opportunities

Sounds like a great conference later this week.

Date: Thursday, April 25, 2013 – 6:00pm to 8:00pm

LOCATION: Casa Lamm, Alvaro Obregón 99 Roma Norte, Cuauhtémoc. 06700 México City, México

Freedom House along with co-sponsors Hack Hackers Mexico, the International Center for Journalists, and the Graduate Program for Journalism and Public Affairs at the Center for Research and Teaching Economics (CIDE) invites you to a regional conversation about internet freedom. Over the past year, a number of developments, both positive and negative, have altered the landscape of Internet freedom in Latin America. The discussion, as moderated by Alba Mora Roca, a distinguished journalist from Spain, will bring together media freedom specialists from Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, and Mexico to offer insight into the positive advancements and potentially restrictive legislation impacting internet freedom across Latin America.

Introductory remarks by: Mariclaire Acosta, @FHespanol, Freedom House, Mexico

Moderated by: Alba Mora Roca, @albamoraroca Hacks Hackers, Mexico

Concluding comments by: Ricardo Raphael de la Madrid, @ricardomraphael, CIDE, Mexico

Featuring speakers:

• Eleonora Rabinovich, Director of Asociación por Los Derechos Civiles, Argentina
• Cristiana Gonzalez, Senior Researcher and Ph.D. candidate University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
• Ernesto Hernández Busto, Blogger and Essayist, Cuba/Spain
• Carlos Correa Loyola, Senior Counsel to the Rector Technical Particular University at Loja, Ecuador
• Alejandra Ezeta, Social Media Consultant at EEB Consultoria/Ciudadanos en Medios, A.C, , Mexico
• Jorge Luis Sierra, ICFJ Knight International Journalism Fellow, Mexico

To register, click here.

Follow the event at @FHespanol on Twitter and by using hashtag #netfreedom

 

Freedom House: Yoani Sanchez World Tour Review

There is so much to write about Yoani Sanchez’ global tour that it is just better to click on the Freedom House summary   rather than have me copy a bunch of excerpts.

Through Digital Media, Activist Yoani Sánchez Redefines the Borders of Cuban Civil Society

March 21 marked the end of the New York leg of Cuban blogger and activist Yoani Sánchez’s highly publicized international tour. Since beginning the 80-day, 12-country whirlwind of speaking engagements in February, Sánchez, whose blog Generación Y is now translated into nearly 20 languages, has been met with equal measures of protest and warmth in Brazil, Mexico, Europe, and the United States. Arguably the most influential blogger writing within Cuba, Sánchez was denied an exit visa 21 times over the last five years, but she finally received permission to leave the island last month under a broader government initiative to loosen travel restrictions.

While Sánchez’s success in securing a passport after years of formal requests is significant, it would be a mistake to view the shift in exit requirements—or the recent activation of a highly anticipated fiber-optic cable (ALBA-1) to enhance the island’s internet connectivity—as evidence of a sea change in the regime’s attitude toward civil liberties such as freedom of movement and access to information.

Rest of story here.

1984 logic remains alive and well in China

A Sky News reporter was detained (oh, wait, no he wasn’t but he wasn’t allowed to leave either) in Tiananmen Square. He was taken to a nearby park and then told he could not do any reporting there because he did not have permission to film in that park.

The Chinese security forces thought he was recording material for a later report but instead he was live. The whole mind-boggling episode went out to the world.

How much you want to bet “the appropriate authorities” find a “problem” with his visa?

Many thanks to Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing for putting this forward. (And kinda ironic for a Yank to see this hit the Internet on the birthday of James Madison, the father of the U.S. Constitution and author of the Bill of Rights.)

How Chinese secret police talk about their jobs when they think the camera isn’t rolling

 

Hong Kong journalists object to new law

A while back the New York Times and Bloomberg used public data to show how wealthy the leaders of China are. And where their wealth is stashed away.

Lots of that information came from documents in Hong Kong. The pro-Beijing forces in Hong Kong just could not let that continue.

So the new government in Hong Kong put forth new laws that would restrict access to information about directors of companies listed on the Hong Kong exchange.

Under the proposal, corporate directors could apply to have their residential address and full identity card or passport numbers blocked from public view — a bid the government said was meant to protect their privacy.

But the plan has sparked an uproar among journalists as it comes amid concerns over Beijing’s meddling in local affairs and after a number of reports focusing on the wealth and assets of China’s ruling elite grabbed headlines.

And so journalists in Hong Kong have spoken up: Hong Kong journalists publish press freedom petition

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Hong Kong reminded Hong Kong Chief Executive, C.Y. Leung of his promise to not restrict press freedom. (FCC Letter of Concern on a Proposed Change to the Companies Ordinance)

In your address to us last month you pledged to uphold the importance of a free and open media in Hong Kong and we believe that the ability of foreign correspondents and journalists to legally access information about individuals and their companies is vital to our role of reporting on issues of public interest.

We call on the government to withdraw this amendment and to maintain its support for the free flow of information in Hong Kong.

And seeing how the Hong Kong exchange is linked with markets in Europe and the Americas, it seems that any law that restricts vital access to information about Hong Kong companies also affects American and European companies.

Looks like what goes on in Hong Kong does indeed have an impact on what goes on in the United States. (There’s that old Local-Global thing again.)

Freedom in the World — Freedom House Report

It’s that time again. 

The Freedom House Freedom in the World report is out.

Some highlights:

Worst of the Worst: Of the 47 countries designated as Not Free, nine have been given the survey’s lowest possible rating of 7 for both political rights and civil liberties: Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Two territories, Tibet and Western Sahara, were also ranked among the worst of the worst.

An additional 5 countries and 1 territory received scores that were slightly above those of the worst-ranked countries, with ratings of 6,7 or 7,6 for political rights and civil liberties: Belarus, Chad, China, Cuba, Laos, and South Ossetia.

(You know things are bad when a country is worse than China and Cuba when it comes to freedom issues.)

Americas

Gains: The region of the Americas saw no substantial improvements. Declines: Ecuador, Paraguay, and Suriname suffered notable declines.

Asia-Pacific

Gains: Improvements were seen in Burma, Bhutan, Indian Kashmir, Mongolia, and Tonga. Declines: The most serious declines in the Asia-Pacific region for 2012 took place in the Maldives and Sri Lanka.

The Map of Freedom is always a great item to hang in your office.