Tag Archives: journalism

 
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Shot in the heart


"This soldier probably pushed Mr. Nagai first. This soldier then seemed to shoot him, judging from the angle of his gun."
— Koichi Ito, who previously worked for the special rapid attack squad of the Japanese police, speaking about the death of the Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai.  Mr. Nagai was killed in Burma while filming the protests, led by Buddhist monks, on September 27th. 

Protests — initially led by Buddhist monks who are now being confined to their monasteries after a series of crackdowns — have been demanding democracy and opposing the military junta for almost two weeks. Although the Burmese authorities claimed that Kenji Nagai, 50, a journalist experienced in working in danger zones and who worked for APF News, had been killed in the crossfire, Japan’s Fuji Television released footage in which Mr. Nagai appears to be pushed to the ground by a Burmese soldier and shot in the chest at point blank range. The footage shows Mr. Nagai grasping his camera as he lies dying on the ground as a crowd flees to escape oncoming soldiers.

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No free Internet here


As the U.N. pressures the Egyptian government to release jailed bloggers and journalists, and Bangladeshi blogger Tasneem Khalil is released after less than 24 hours in jail, freedom of citizen media seems to be taking the front page.

Belarus, Egypt, Bangladesh, Iran, China, Singapore, and Libya have all detained bloggers or other Internet personalities thus far.  Although Morocco has not, freedom as it pertains to the Internet has a long way to go.

In December of 2006, two journalists were arrested for analyzing jokes made on the Moroccan street in Nichane, Morocco's only magazine written in dialect.  Reporters Without Borders called the actions "insane and archaic," a sentiment which was echoed throughout the Moroccan blogosphere.

And yet few have even mentioned the fact that Morocco censors the Internet.  Unlike China's extreme censorship, Morocco has only banned a few sites, mostly related to the Western Sahara.  Additionally, Livejournal has been banned for a little over a year, and Google Earth is only sporadically accessible, allegedly because its close shots offer views of the Moroccan royal family's many palaces.

Reporters Without Borders has offered help; the 2005 publication of "The Handbook for Bloggers and Cyberdissidents" (available for free online) teaches Internet users how to sidestep government censorship by the use of proxies and other innovations.

But beyond that, I say it's time we take a stand against Internet censorship!  Who's with me? 

 

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