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By Michael Allen on March 23, 2009
The Internet has had a polarizing effect on democracies, argues Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein, who is scheduled to join the Obama administration’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
He laments the decline of newspapers, magazines, television, and radio which play a vital role as “general-interest intermediaries”, and believes a healthy democracy requires not just free [read full story]
Posted in Global, Tools/technology, media | Tagged Global, media, Tools/technology |
By Michael Allen on February 5, 2009
Wireless technology could become one of the “greatest tools the world has ever seen in promoting democracy,” according to a recent report. Others have drawn attention to the use of cell phones to monitor elections.
But the internet has not had the subversive effect on authoritarian regimes and closed societies that many predicted. Autocratic regimes are [read full story]
Posted in Global, Tools/technology, authoritarianism | Tagged authoritarianism, Global, Tools/technology |
By Michael Allen on February 2, 2009
China’s communist authorities’ harassment of signatories of Charter 08, the democratic dissidents’ manifesto, reflects an anxiety that the economic crisis will “spur calls for swifter political reform and challenge its monopoly on power.”
“Many people in the west think China is afraid of elections and democracy,” charges Premier Wen Jiabao, currently on a European charm offensive, [read full story]
Posted in Blogs, China, Tools/technology, authoritarianism, corruption, economic crisis | Tagged authoritarianism, Blogs, china, corruption, economic crisis, Tools/technology |
By Michael Allen on January 13, 2009
Authoritarian regimes have traditionally managed news media through direct censorship, assuming control over media outlets or by intimidating and arresting journalists and outlet owners. But “a more insidious form of censorship has emerged, according to Soft Censorship: How Governments Around the Globe Use Money to Manipulate the Media, a new report from the Center for [read full story]
Posted in Global, Tools/technology, authoritarianism, media | Tagged CIMA, media, Soft Censorship, Tools/technology |
By Michael Allen on January 5, 2009
China’s government is hunting down signatories of the Charter 08 reform manifesto and upgrading its internet censorship software to allow the authorities to identify and suppress dissent much earlier and efficiently.
Nearly 7,000 intellectuals, farmers, students, journalists, and activists have endorsed Charter 08, modeled after the Czechoslovakian dissidents Charter 77, which warns of “the possibility of [read full story]
Posted in Asia, Human rights, Tools/technology, authoritarianism, dissidents | Tagged Asia, authoritarianism, china, dissidents, Human rights, Tools/technology |
By Michael Allen on December 12, 2008
A new administration committed to change should maintain continuity in at least one respect – keeping the door open to democratic dissidents. So argues Jackson Diehl in the latest of a series of recommendations that the Obama administration should not ditch the Freedom Agenda.
He notes that President George W. Bush this week marked Human Rights [read full story]
Posted in Global, Human rights, Tools/technology, authoritarianism, dissidents | Tagged authoritarianism, dissidents, Global, Human rights, obama, open door, Tools/technology |
By Michael Allen on December 9, 2008
Today’s must-read article comes from The Financial Times, which describes how civil society activists in Ghana are “pioneering a system that aims to harness the power of Africa’s mobile phones to prevent politicians from stealing elections.” The innovative use of cell phones and SMS text messaging (or should that be txt msg?) to monitor elections [read full story]
Posted in Africa, Elections, NGOs/Civil society, Tools/technology | Tagged Africa, cell phones, Elections, NGOs/Civil society, Tools/technology |
By Michael Allen on July 24, 2008
Caption: Chinese Communist propaganda initiatives on the Web represent a shift from traditional censorship-based methods.
China’s ruling Communist Party is engaged in an extensive effort to police and influence the Internet using thousands of pro-government Web commentators. Up to 280,000 Party-backed monitors, otherwise known as the “red vests”, the “red vanguard” or the “Fifty Cent Party” [read full story]
Posted in Asia, Blogs, Regions, Tools/technology | Tagged Asia, authoritarianism, Blogs, Tools/technology |
By Michael Allen on June 27, 2008
Never mind checking the sports scores. Wireless technology can help promote free expression and democracy, according to a report in the journal Science.
Providing wireless access isn’t easy where repressive regimes distrust open communication. But states have international obligations to respect citizens’ rights to communicate freely via any medium, says Agnès Callamard, executive director of Article [read full story]
Posted in Global, Regions, Tools/technology | Tagged democracy promotion, Global, Tools/technology |
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