Blogging

Blogging, Free Markets, Press

Markets Need a Vigorous, Vigilant Defense

While everybody benefits from a competitive market system, nobody benefits enough to spend resources to lobby for it. Business has very powerful lobbies; competitive markets do not. The diffused constituency that is in favour of competitive markets has few incentives to mobilise in its defence.

This is where the media can play a crucial role. By gathering information on the nature and cost of cronyism and distributing it among the public at large, media outlets can reduce the power of vested interests. By exposing the distortions created by powerful incumbents, they can create the political demand for a competitive capitalism.

Via A strong press is best defence against crony capitalism @ The Financial Times.

 

Blogging, Censorship, Regulations

Registration for Russian bloggers

Russia: the home shirtless autocrats, vodka and a love of free speech rivaled by only China. The Kremlin is taking another step to squash people speaking their mind online. After building out an infrastructure that allows the government to more easily block sites it finds objectionable, now it’s building a registry of bloggers. A newly…

Blogging, Censorship, Free Speech, Liberty, Tyranny

Vietnam Torments Another Blogger

(New York) – All charges against the blogger Pham Viet Dao, 62, should be dropped, and he should be released immediately and unconditionally, Human Rights Watch said today. Pham Viet Dao, 62, was arrested on June 13, 2013, in Hanoi, for allegedly violating Vietnam penal code article 258, which provides for up to seven years…

Blogging, Liberty, Technology

An Online Magna Carta

Sir Tim Berners-Lee told the Guardian the web had come under increasing attack from governments and corporate influence and that new rules were needed to protect the “open, neutral” system. Speaking exactly 25 years after he wrote the first draft of the first proposal for what would become the world wide web, the computer scientist…

Blogging, Law, Press

Law bloggers as a gift to reporters and publishers

Veteran blogger and developer, Dave Winer (@davewiner), hit on why bloggers are so important to reporters in a post last week. “Bloggers are your sources. They are the people who previous generations of reporters had to reach by telephone. These days reporters can skim hundreds of perspectives on the web, prioritized by search engines. The…

Blogging, Censorship, Crime, Liberty, Tyranny

Vietnam censors and represses, again

The 30 month prison sentence for Vietnamese human rights lawyer and blogger, Le Quoc Quan, was today upheld by a Hanoi appeals court. Quan, who has frequently blogged about human rights violations by the government, was convicted in October 2013 on tax evasion charges. He has been arbitrarily detained since December 2012. A crowd of hundreds…

Blogging

Russia seeks registration of popular bloggers

It’s the responsibilities to the state that are worrisome: Russian lawmakers suggest that internet authors whose works attract 10,000 or more visitors a day should be accredited as journalists, receiving all rights and responsibilities commensurate with this status. The changes in state attitude to the blogosphere are the main part of the fresh package of…

Blogging, Free Speech

The View from Cambodia

Cambodian bloggers and journalists often self-censor out of fear that they could face legal or physical threats, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights said in a report on freedom of expression released yesterday. The policy brief, a summary of six roundtable discussions held over the past two years with bloggers, students, journalists, civil society groups,…

Blogging, Free Speech, Liberty, Tyranny

West denounces repression of bloggers, religions in Vietnam | Reuters

Still a tyranny: (Reuters) – Western countries on Wednesday denounced Vietnam’s jailing of bloggers and curbs on the Internet and called on its Communist government to respect basic freedoms of worship and expression. Britain’s diplomat Ruth Tumer told the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council that her country regretted “recent trends to control the Internet” and,…

Blogging, Crime, Free Speech, Law

Delaware subpoena targets blogger’s Facebook page

The easiest rationalization is always a ‘criminal investigation’: WILMINGTON, Del. — Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden’s office wants to force Facebook to identify the creators of an anonymous page that often excoriates Wilmington and New Castle County officials, saying the identities are needed in an ongoing criminal investigation. The American Civil Liberties Union has intervened…

Blogging

ISA move to block academic blogging draws criticism from almost everyone

When the International Studies Association attempted to regulate the blogging activities of some of its members, the reaction was unsurprisingly hostile. The row has prompted coverage in academic outlets and mainstream publications, and reignited the debate about why academics blog. Specifically, the leadership of the ISA, its executive committee, had proposed that the various individuals…

Blogging

20 years on: Interview with internet pioneers

Before Twitter, Whisper and Snapchat there was the Blog – the platform that made it possible for non-techies to publish on the internet. And if you grew up in the 90s, chances are you probably had one at some point – a Livejournal, a Blogger, a WordPress or Diaryland. This year, the Blog turns 20.…

Blogging

Voeten on ‘Another ill-conceived attempt at regulating academic blogging’

WaPo Blogger Erik Voeten writes about an academic associations’ attempt to prohibit members’ blogging: Last month I reported on an effort by the Kansas Board of Regents to make “improper use of social media” a ground for firing tenured faculty. Now Steve Saideman  reports that the executive committee of the International Studies Association (ISA) wants to compel all members…

Blogging

International Studies Association proposes to bar editors from blogging

It’s 2014, but not for the ISA: The political science blogosphere has erupted in protest after the International Studies Association unveiled a proposal to bar members affiliated with its scholarly journal from doing just that — blogging. “No editor of any ISA journal or member of any editorial team of an ISA journal can create…

Blogging, Free Speech, Law, Liberty

Of course they do: ‘Bloggers have rights, too’

From Ken Paulson, president of the First Amendment Center, dean of the College of Mass Communication at Middle Tennessee State University, and a member of the USA TODAY Board of Contributors: ….The purpose of the free press clause of the First Amendment was to keep an eye on people in power and maintain a check…

Blogging, Law, Liberty

A Win for Bloggers’ Rights

Citizens’ rights, really, when properly considered: GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — A federal appeals court ruled Friday that bloggers and the public have the same First Amendment protections as journalists when sued for defamation: If the issue is of public concern, plaintiffs have to prove negligence to win damages. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of…

Blogging

Steps for Blogging on a Policy or Proposal

For bloggers who cover politics, policy-making, etc., just as would have been true of essayists and pamphleteers in an earlier time, it helps to have a method to one’s writing.  In the paragraphs below, I’ll list steps one should take when approaching a topic.   The steps are in a rough order, but in any…

Blogging, Elections, Law

Foes Attempt to Revoke Blogger’s Right to Vote

The voting rights of a single Cincinnati resident took center stage this week in the never-ending drama over the city’s under-construction streetcar. Cincinnati blogger Randy Simes was forced to defend his right to vote this week in the face of conspiracy allegations by a Tea Party-affiliated anti-streetcar group. Image: Business Journals Members of the Tea…