Free speech

Netherlands Netherlands Article: Genocide - just another word?

Article: Genocide - just another word?

A fierce row has broken out between Ankara and Paris following a French decision to adopt a law criminalising the denial of the Armenian genocide by the Turks (1915- 1916). Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan today accused France of...

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Article: Who set the Cairo institute ablaze?

Cairo’s historic Institute of Egypt went up in flames at the weekend, along with most of its nearly 200,000 unique documents. The stories doing the rounds about who was responsible for the blaze say a lot about the PR tactics being...

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Article: The Arab Spring: is this what we wanted?

“This is not what we hoped for, when we marched to Tahrir Square and occupied it for three weeks,” young female journalist Abir Salim told me as we stood in front of a police station which was being hastily turned into a voting...

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Article: Tsering Woeser: “The Prince Claus Prize offers me protection”

Tibetan writer Tsering Woeser (1966) is one of the winners of this year’s Prince Claus Prize. The honour is named after the late husband of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. Woeser will receive the award, not only for her poetry and...

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Article: Havana losing grip on social networks

Despite all the restrictions and impediments, a growing number of Cubans are finding their way on to the internet and joining social networks. The Cuban government has also joined the cyber revolution and has a cautious presence on line....

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Article: Six million Dutch euros for web freedom

Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal has pledged six million euros towards internet freedom projects. Speaking in The Hague at the international Freedom Online conference, Rosenthal said on Thursday that it was unacceptable that countries...

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Article: Clinton and Rosenthal should practice what they preach

Almost a year ago, Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire, sparking the revolution in Tunisia. The transitions in the Arab world are a wake-up call to many, and have made us rethink the balance between interests and values. It was also a...

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Article: Blogger brings the Arab Spring to Moscow

At Moscow’s biggest opposition demonstration in recent years, Russia’s most popular blogger, Alexei Navalny, is showing that it’s not just via the web that he can work a crowd. “One for all!” he shouts at the...

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Article: Salafists disrupt liberal Islam debate in Amsterdam

Radical Belgian Muslims disrupted a debate on Wednesday evening about a liberal approach to Islam. The leading debaters were Canadian writer and Muslim activist Irshad Manji and Green Left Party MP Tofik Dibi. Both describe...

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Article: Dutch Foreign Minister calls for online freedom

Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Uri Rosenthal has called on the world to support bloggers and cyber-dissidents. The appeal comes on the eve of the 2011 Online Freedom conference, which will be opened by US Secretary of State Hilary...