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Weiye Loh

In Europe, sharp criticism of US reaction to WikiLeaks - The Boston Globe - 0 views

www.boston.com/...sm_of_us_reaction_to_wikileaks

Wikileaks Democracy Double Standard

shared by Weiye Loh on 10 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • Washington’s fierce reaction to the flood of secret diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks displays imperial arrogance and hypocrisy, indicating a post-9/11 obsession with secrecy that contradicts American principles.
  • John Naughton, writing in the same British paper, deplored the attack on the openness of the Internet and the pressure on companies such as Amazon and eBay to evict the WikiLeaks site. “The response has been vicious, coordinated and potentially comprehensive,’’ he said, and presents a “delicious irony’’ that “it is now the so-called liberal democracies that are clamoring to shut WikiLeaks down.’’
  • A year ago, he noted, Clinton made a major speech about Internet freedom, interpreted as a rebuke to China’s cyberattack on Google. “Even in authoritarian countries,’’ she said, “information networks are helping people to discover new facts and making governments more accountable.’’ To Naughton now, “that Clinton speech reads like a satirical masterpiece.’’
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • The Russians seemed to take a special delight in tweaking Washington over its reaction to the leaks, suggesting the Americans are being hypocritical. “If it is a full-fledged democracy, then why have they put Assange away in jail? You call that democracy?’’ Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin said during a news briefing with the French prime minister, Francois Fillon.
  • Even The Financial Times Deutschland (independent of the English-language Financial Times), said that “the already damaged reputation of the United States will only be further tattered with Assange’s new martyr status.’’ It added that “the openly embraced hope of the US government that along with Assange, WikiLeaks will disappear from the scene, is questionable.’’
  • Assange is being hounded, the paper said, “even though no one can explain what crimes Assange allegedly committed with the publication of the secret documents, or why publication by WikiLeaks was an offense, and in The New York Times, it was not.’’
  • But Renaud Girard, a respected reporter for the center-right Le Figaro, said he was impressed by the generally high quality of the American diplomatic corps. “What is most fascinating is that we see no cynicism in US diplomacy,’’ he said. “They really believe in human rights in Africa and China and Russia and Asia. They really believe in democracy and human rights. People accuse the Americans of double standards all the time. But it’s not true here. If anything, the diplomats are almost naive.’
Ang Yao Zong

Cyber Cold War? - 1 views

The following websites relate to "Cyber Warfare" that is conducted over cyberspace. 1) http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90780/91343/6699021.html (China) The above article first starts off by de...

online warfare

started by Ang Yao Zong on 13 Oct 09 no follow-up yet
Weiye Loh

Russia and Belarus: It takes one to know one | The Economist - 0 views

www.economist.com/16646450

Postmodernism Media War Democracy

shared by Weiye Loh on 03 Aug 10 - Cached
  • RUSSIA and Belarus are unlikely champions of democracy and freedom of speech. But a postmodernist approach to politics can yield odd results in the post-Soviet world. In recent weeks these authoritarian regimes have denounced each other’s authoritarianism and deployed state-controlled media to attack each other’s lack of media freedom. Bizarrely, this war of words has been waged in the name of brotherly ties and economic union.
  • Weiye Loh on 03 Aug 10
     
    Russia and Belarus It takes one to know one A media war of words breaks out between two supposed allies Jul 22nd 2010 | MOSCOW
Weiye Loh

Johann Hari: The Pope, the Prophet, and the religious support for evil - Johann Hari, C... - 0 views

www.independent.co.uk/...-support-for-evil-1923656.html

Religion Freedom of Speech

shared by Weiye Loh on 20 Mar 10 - Cached
  • What can make tens of millions of people – who are in their daily lives peaceful and compassionate and caring – suddenly want to physically dismember a man for drawing a cartoon, or make excuses for an international criminal conspiracy to protect child-rapists? Not reason. Not evidence. No. But it can happen when people choose their polar opposite – religion.
  • people can begin to behave in bizarre ways when they decide it is a good thing to abandon any commitment to fact and instead act on faith. It has led some to regard people accused of the attempted murders of the Mohamed cartoonists as victims, and to demand "respect" for the Pope, when he should be in a police station being quizzed about his role in covering up and thereby enabling the rape of children.
  • One otherwise liberal newspaper ran an article saying that since the cartoonists had engaged in an "aggressive act" and shown "prejudice... against religion per se", so it stated menacingly that no doubt "someone else is out there waiting for an opportunity to strike again".
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • if religion wasn't involved – would be so obvious it would seem ludicrous to have to say them out loud. Drawing a cartoon is not an act of aggression. Trying to kill somebody with an axe is. There is no moral equivalence between peacefully expressing your disagreement with an idea – any idea – and trying to kill somebody for it. Yet we have to say this because we have allowed religious people to claim their ideas belong to a different, exalted category, and it is abusive or violent merely to verbally question them. Nobody says I should "respect" conservatism or communism and keep my opposition to them to myself – but that's exactly what is routinely said about Islam or Christianity or Buddhism. What's the difference?
  • By 1962, it was becoming clear to the Vatican that a significant number of its priests were raping children. Rather than root it out, they issued a secret order called "Crimen Sollicitationis"' ordering bishops to swear the victims to secrecy and move the offending priest on to another parish. This of course meant they raped more children there, and on and on, in parish after parish.
  • when Ratzinger was Archbishop of Munich in the 1980s, one of his paedophile priests was "reassigned" in this way. He claims he didn't know. Yet a few years later he was put in charge of the Vatican's response to this kind of abuse and demanded every case had to be referred directly to him for 20 years. What happened on his watch, with every case going to his desk? Precisely this pattern, again and again. The BBC's Panorama studied one of many such cases. Father Tarcisio Spricigo was first accused of child abuse in 1991, in Brazil. He was moved by the Vatican four times, wrecking the lives of children at every stop. He was only caught in 2005 by the police, before he could be moved on once more.
  • Weiye Loh on 20 Mar 10
     
    This enforced 'respect' is a creeping vine: it soon extends from ideas to institutions
Weiye Loh

On newspapers' online comments « Yawning Bread Sampler 2 - 0 views

yawningbread.wordpress.com/...on-newspapers-online-comments

Online Freedom of Speech

shared by Weiye Loh on 18 Apr 10 - Cached
  • Assistant Professor Mark Cenite of Nanyang Technological University’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information said: ‘This approach allows users to moderate themselves, and the news site is seen as being sensitive to readers’ values.’
  • But Mr Alex Au, who runs socio-political blog Yawning Bread, cautioned that this could lead to astroturfing. The term, derived from a brand of fake grass, refers to a fake grassroots movement in which a group wishing to push its agenda sends out manipulated and replicated online messages in support of a certain policy or issue. His suggestion: user tiers, in which comments by users with verified identities are displayed visibly and anonymous comments less conspicuously. He said: ‘This approach does not bar people from speaking up, but weighs in by signalling the path towards responsible participation.’
  • what is astroturfing? It is when a few people do one or both of two things: create multiple identities for each of themselves and flood a forum or topic with similar opinions, or get their friends to post boilerplate letters (expressing similar opinions of course) even if they do not totally share them to the same degree. The intent is to create an impression that a certain opinion is more widely held than is actually the case.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • user-rating will have the tendency of giving prominence to widely-shared opinion. Comments expressing unpopular opinions will get fewer “stars” from other readers and sink in display priority. In theory, it doesn’t have to be so. People may very well give “stars” to well-thought-out comments that argue cogently for a view they don’t agree with, lauding the quality of expression rather than the conclusion, but let’s get real. Most people like to hear what they already believe. That being the case, the effect of such a scheme would be to crowd out unpopular opinion even if they have merit; it produces a majoritarian effect in newspapers’ comments sections.
  • it is open to abuse in that a small group of people wanting to push a particular opinion could repeatedly vote for a certain comment, thereby giving it increased ranking and more prominent display. Such action would be akin to astroturfing.
  • The value of discussion lies not in hearing what we already know or what we already believe in. It lies in hearing alternative arguments and learning new facts. Structuring a discussion forum by giving prominence to merely popular opinion just makes it an echo chamber. The greater public purpose is better served when contrary opinion is aired. That is why I disagree with a scheme whereby users apply ratings and prominence is given to highly-rated comments.
    • Weiye Loh
      Weiye Loh on 18 Apr 10
       
      But the majority of users who participate in online activism/ slacktivism are very much the young, western educated folks. This in itself already make the online social sphere an echo chamber isn't it? 
  • nonymous comments have their uses. Most obviously, there will be times when whistle-blowing serves the public purpose, and so, even if displayed less prominently, they should still be allowed.
  • Weiye Loh on 18 Apr 10
     
    A popular suggestion among media watchers interviewed is to let users rate the comments and display the highly ranked ones prominently.
Olivia Chang

Boys in blue raid Perth's Sunday Times - 2 views

Story URL: http://www.somebodythinkofthechildren.com/boys-in-blue-raid-perths-sunday-times/ Summary of the article: In February, a Sunday Times reporter Paul Lampathakis wrote an article about a ...

censorship free press

started by Olivia Chang on 02 Sep 09 no follow-up yet
Elaine Ong

Cyberwars for the ultimate good? - 4 views

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/us/politics/02cyber.html?_r=1 In 2003, the Pentagon and American intelligence agencies made plans for a cyberattack to freeze billions of dollars in the bank acco...

started by Elaine Ong on 13 Oct 09 no follow-up yet
Weiye Loh

Rights of Conscience vs. Civil Rights - Pew Research Center - 0 views

pewresearch.org/...ion-protections-in-health-care

Health Care rights

shared by Weiye Loh on 06 Jul 10 - Cached
  • Should doctors, pharmacists and other health care workers have the right to refuse to provide services that conflict with their religious beliefs?
  • n March 2009, Julea Ward, a student at Eastern Michigan University (EMU), was dismissed from her graduate-level counseling program when she refused to counsel a gay man about a same-sex relationship.
  • The supervisor claimed that Ms. Ward's refusal violated the ethical obligations of a counselor not to discriminate against clients based on sexual orientation or to impose one's personal beliefs on clients. Based on this judgment, the school expelled Ms. Ward from the counseling program.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Ms. Ward filed suit in federal district court in the Eastern District of Michigan, alleging that the school violated her constitutional rights to free exercise of religion and freedom of speech.
  • she argued that counselors do not have a professional obligation to counsel all clients about all issues. Instead, she said, they are permitted to refer clients to other counselors if a client's needs conflict with the counselor's moral convictions.
  • Weiye Loh on 06 Jul 10
     
    Rights of Conscience vs. Civil Rights Are Health Care Workers Obligated to Treat Gays and Lesbians? June 3, 2010
Weiye Loh

'I Am Spartacus:' Man Convicted For Tweet; Virtual Protest Erupts : The Two-Way : NPR - 0 views

www.npr.org/...r-tweet-virtual-protest-erupts

Twitter Freedom of Speech

shared by Weiye Loh on 12 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • Earlier this year, Paul Chambers was concerned that he would miss a flight to Belfast. In jest, he tweeted: Robin Hood Airport is closed. You've got a week..otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high. Well, the government came after the 27-year-old accountant and in May convicted him of sending a menacing electronic communication. He appealed the conviction and the 1,000 pound fine but the Guardian reports that, yesterday, he lost.
  • The BBC quotes a civil rights group analyzing the verdict: "The verdict demonstrates that the UK's legal system has little respect for free expression, and has no understanding of how people communicate in the 21st Century," said the [Index on Censorship's] news editor Padraig Reidy.
  • thousands of twitter users all over the world decided to protest virtually by reposting Chambers' exact tweet. They identified the protest with the hashtag #iamspartacus in reference to the scene in the 1960, Stanley Kubrick film Spartacus. In it, one-by-one slaves proclaim that they are Spartacus in order to keep the real Spartacus, a gladiator leading a slave rebellion, from detection. Minutes ago, the #iamspartacus hastag was the second most popular on all of Twitter.
Weiye Loh

Humanist census posters banned from railway stations | UK news | The Guardian - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...humanist-census-posters

Freedom of Speech Atheism Religion Capitalism Censorship Market Censorship

shared by Weiye Loh on 05 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • The posters, bearing the slogan "If you're not religious, for God's sake say so", have been refused by the companies that own the advertising space, which say they are likely to cause offence.
  • The British Humanist Association (BHA), which published the posters, said it was astonished that such an everyday phrase should be deemed too contentious for public display. "It is a little tongue-in-cheek," said the BHA chief executive, Andrew Copson, "but in the same way that saying 'bless you' has no religious implication for many, 'for God's sake' is used to express urgency and not to invoke a deity.
  • "This censorship of a legitimate advert is frustrating and ridiculous: the blasphemy laws in England have been abolished but we are seeing the same principle being enforced nonetheless."
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • The posters ask those who are not religious to tick the "no religion" box when they fill in forms for the 2011 census."We used to tick 'Christian' but we're not really religious. We'll tick 'No Religion' this time. We're sick of hearing politicians say this is a religious country and giving millions to religious organisations and the pope's state visit. Money like that should go where it is needed," says one of the banned posters.
  • The ban followed advice from the Advertising Standards Authority's committee of advertising practice that the advert had the potential to cause widespread and serious offence.The poster display company involved also said it did not want to take adverts relating to religion.
  • British Humanist Association has amended the campaign slogan on the adverts to read simply: "Not religious? In this year's census say so." The posters are being displayed from this weekend on 200 buses in London, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Birmingham, Cardiff and Exeter.
  • Weiye Loh on 05 Mar 11
     
    The posters, which encourage people to tick the 'no religion' box if they do not believe in God, were judged too likely to offend
Weiye Loh

Blogger jailed over critical restaurant review - Taipei Times - 0 views

www.taipeitimes.com/...2003506487

Blog Food Objectivity Review Freedom of Speech

shared by Weiye Loh on 23 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • Weiye Loh on 23 Jun 11
     
    OBJECTIVITY:The judge said the blogger should not have criticized the restaurant's food as 'too salty' in general, because she had eaten dried noodles and two side dishes The Taichung branch of Taiwan High Court on Tuesday sentenced a blogger who wrote that a restaurant's beef noodles were too salty to 30 days in detention and two years of probation and ordered her to pay NT$200,000 in compensation to the restaurant.
Weiye Loh

nanopolitan: Blogging by experts and non-experts - 0 views

nanopolitan.blogspot.com/...y-experts-and-non-experts.html

Blog Expertise Freedom of Speech

shared by Weiye Loh on 19 Jul 10 - Cached
  • Fed economist Karthik Athreya's rant -- Economics is hard, don't let bloggers tell you otherwise -- against bloggers (both experts and non-experts, and he names them) holding forth on the Big Economic Questions of our time has had at least one good effect: many bloggers, including those not named in Athreya's rant, have risen up to defend the role of blogs in policy debates; some have also used this occasion to talk about the role of blogging in their professional lives.
  • Weiye Loh on 19 Jul 10
     
    Blogging by experts and non-experts
Weiye Loh

Join Us | Save the Internet - 0 views

www.savetheinternet.com/about

Net Neutrality Internet Law Capitalism

shared by Weiye Loh on 19 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • The SavetheInternet.com Coalition is two million everyday people who have banded together with thousands of nonprofit organizations, businesses and bloggers to protect Internet freedom. The Coalition believes that the Internet is a crucial engine for economic growth, civic engagement and free speech. We're working together to preserve Net Neutrality, the First Amendment of the Internet, which ensures that the Internet remains open to new ideas, innovation and voices. Because of Net Neutrality, the Internet has always been a level playing field. People everywhere can have their voices heard by thousands, even millions, of others online. The SavetheInternet.com Coalition wants our leaders in Washington to pass strong Net Neutrality protections. We're calling on the president, Congress and the Federal Communications Commission to stand with the public and keep the Internet open.
Jun Jie Tan

Judge Rules Against Wiretaps - NSA Program Called Unconstitutional - 3 views

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/17/AR2006081700650.html After 11 Sept 2001, President Bush commissioned a warrant-less wiretapping program. Since its exposé, it has co...

surveillance

started by Jun Jie Tan on 08 Sep 09 no follow-up yet
Weiye Loh

Court rules that newspaper does not have to identify commenters | Law | guardian.co.uk - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...ue-commenters-libel-daily-mail

Social Media Online Internet Freedom of Speech Libel Defamation

shared by Weiye Loh on 08 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • Mrs Justice Sharp said that the posters' rights to privacy were more important than the woman's right to take legal action about comments that were little more than "pub talk".
Weiye Loh

Vatican Declined to Defrock U.S. Priest Who Abused Boys - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...25vatican.html

Religion Freedom of Speech

shared by Weiye Loh on 25 Mar 10 - Cached
  • Weiye Loh on 25 Mar 10
     
    Vatican Declined to Defrock U.S. Priest Who Abused Boys
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