Information Policy

Vietnam: Programmed Death Of Freedom Of Information

In January 2011, the Arab Spring transformed Tunisia. Egypt followed suit. Then Burma had its own spring. But no spring ever came to Vietnam. On the contrary, the political chill deepened. When National Assembly speaker Nguyen Phu Trong took over as Vietnamese Communist Party general secretary, he was ready to do anything to maintain order and, above all, stay in power. He inaugurated a new era marked by a growing crackdown on journalists and bloggers. Since his promotion, those who refuse to submit to the single party’s censorship have been subjected to waves of arrests, trials, physical attacks and harassment. The Trong era’s statistics are impressive, if not glorious. In 2012 alone, the Vietnamese authorities prosecuted no fewer than 48 bloggers and human rights activists, imposing a total of 166 years in jail sentences and 63 years of probation. Vietnam is now the world’s second biggest prison for blogger and netizens, after China. Relative to population size, the situation is much worse in Vietnam than China. A total of 35 bloggers and netizens are currently detained just for exercising their right to information and expression, of whom 26 were arrested since Trong took over.

Source: http://fr.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/ok_gb_rapport_vietnam_web.pdf

Rich media on the rise in Central and Eastern Europe

User-engaging advertising formats are gaining ground. They are increasingly used by advertisers in Ukraine, Poland and Hungary – Gemius research on advertising activities in Central and East Europe shows.

According to Gemius data, the average share of rich media formats in online campaigns in CEE accounts for almost 40 per cent. This means a 40 per cent increase compared to the first 6 months of the same year.

China Finally Says No to Internet Censorship

In efforts to restructure foreign business relations, Beijing has finally decided to allow Internet access with no censorship within a free-trade zone in Shanghai. Such a landmark decision includes access to New York Times, Facebook, and Twitter, which were among the many banned websites. The issue was raised for the purpose of welcoming businesses from foreign countries without limiting their means of business communications.

Russian company buys owner of Estonian Piletilevi ticket sellers

Google launches 'Constitute,' a new tool for designing governments

The process of drafting a constitution is usually long, intricate and politically fraught — but with 160 different active constitutions to draw from, it's also uniquely amenable to data analysis. With that in mind, Google has partnered with the Comparative Constitutions Project to launch a new site called Constitute, devoted to comparing the world's constitutions. It examines nearly 350 constitutional themes, organized into topics like the duties of a citizen and the role of the executive. The result is a comprehensive view of how countries structure their governments, and a powerful tool for any would-be founders. As one co-founder put it, "If want to see what African constitutions have to say about the rights of women after 1945, you can do that in just a few clicks."

Link: http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/23/4761922/google-launches-constitute-a-new-tool-for-designing-govern...