Michael Collins

Also published here and here.

As I have been offline and in bed for most of the day trying to get over this lingering bug, I'm now just seeing the news that Iran is keeping the global media from covering the protests of this weekend's election.

When I saw this on CNN my first thoughts were of what China did after the Tiananmen Square massacre.

The YouTube 1989 video is from NBC News as Tom Brokaw reported on the Monday afternoon in a Breaking News Report.

Wikileaks servers are overloaded and cannot operate. They recently posted a secret list of a proposed banned sites.

According to Forbes, the scope of Australia's internet censorship has developed far beyond its initial aim to block child pornography and web pages associated with terrorism. Free speech advocates fear it could be used to block legitimate activity.

Wikileaks recently published a complete list of the proposed blacklist sites currently under review in Australia, under the guise of protecting the people of Australia from child pornography.  The Australian government has issued a statement calling the list a fake and threatening action against Wikileaks.  Wikileaks is standing behind the list's authenticity and has issued a statement informing the Australian government of their full rights to publish the list as well as a promise to pursue legal action against anyone attempting to censor Wikileaks.

Via EFF, thus ends one of their oldest and longest running cases and causes:

originally posted 2008-08-25 13:45:45 -bumped -- cho

Where would journalists be without sources? While reporters get the bylines that win awards, their best sources often risk loss of a job. Reporters used to honor whistleblowers’ commitment by doing hard-hitting exposes. That relationship soured with the war in Iraq. Many sources these days are taking their stories straight to the public, because self-important journalists by and large ignore or belittle them.

That’s what’s happened with many whistleblowers who challenge the official version of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. With Bush apologists dominating television talk shows and newspaper op-ed pages, dissenters issue books and blogs to get past a virtual news censorship of informed criticism of the War on Terrorism. The infrequent exceptions to this pattern of the US media muzzling savvy watchdogs are stunning for being so rare.

At a time when the American economy appears to be suffering from a financial decline, or a recession, there is a constant need and a certain desperation for production to continue-wherever it is possible. Having said that, in the entertainment industry, shouldn't the business (among other prospects) be allowed to expand beyond their simple conquests and explore new pastures, starting with the decrease of censorship?

It Would Be Banned By The United States Air Force.

If the word "Blog" appeared in the URL it would be banned.
Of course none of the sites operated by the "Traditional Media" are banned because they are "legitimate sources of news and information."

To think that Fox News is now considered a legitimate news organization right along with the Washington Times, National Review On Line and UPI. Isn't that wonderful.

The story of Wei Wenhua's killing appeared in the Thursday 10 January edition of the Guardian.

What was Mr. Wenhua filming that would cause a large group of government workers set upon him?

On Monday, Wei Wenhau accidentally found himself a witness to a confrontation in the town where he lived in the central Chinese province of Hubei.

Villagers were quarreling with city officials who had arrived in the area to dump waste near their homes. When the officials started to unload the rubbish, a scuffle broke out.

Wenhau worked at a senior level for a construction company and was also a member of the Communist party. He was an upstanding member of the community and on seeing the violence he thought he'd record it.