Power from the Sun

Electronic Frontier Foundation (@EFF)

Elective Affinities

Human Rights Foundation (@HRF)

Garry Kimovich Kasparov (@Kasparov63)

隧道协议 (Tunneling protocol)

• Banjamin Haas, China moves to block internet VPNs from 2018, The Guardian, July 11, 2017

Google+

“Great Firewall” that blocks western websites is too restrictive and hinders economic progress while discouraging foreign investors, says 罗富和 (Luō Fùhé) China’s sprawling internet censorship regime is harming the country’s economic and scientific progress, a senior official has said in a rare public rebuke of longstanding Communist party policy. [Read more].

• Benjamin Haas, Chinese official calls for easing of internet censorship, The Guardian, March 4, 2017

China restricts outside websites including Google. Photo: Sinopix/REX.

The Importance of Not Being Arcovazzi

Ukrainian publishers have reacted angrily to their government’s ban on importing books from Russia, claiming it will create a black market and damage the domestic industry. The ban, passed by Ukraine’s parliament, is the latest front in the battle between Kiev and Moscow that has been running since Russia annexed Crimea and pro-Russian forces seized power in parts of eastern Ukraine in 2014. Books from Russia account for up to 60% of all titles sold in Ukraine and are estimated to make up 100,000 sales a year. [Read more].

• Danuta Kean, Ukraine publishers speak out against ban on Russian books, The Guardian, February 14, 2017

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita”

超時空甩尾 (Redline)

A photograph provided by 艾未未 (Ài Wèiwèi) shows the red line drawn by organizers of an exhibit at the 银川 (Yínchuān) Museum of Contemporary Art to indicate where he could (and above all, where not) place his art. Immediately the Chinese contemporary artist was caught by a “transgressive” idea: he planned to sculpt a “Redline”, so to give a shape and a form to his censorship. As a reply the director of the Museum informed him that his participation in the 银川 (Yínchuān) Biennale (scheduled from September 9 to December 18) was cancelled. 艾未未 (Ài Wèiwèi), however, said that he will finish his “Redline” anyway, even if it would not be displayed in 银川 (Yínchuān), China. Photo: 艾未未 (Ài Wèiwèi).

Arcovazzia coup d’état (when he was deposed by he himself)

Istanbul, Turkey: Women react during the funeral of a victim of the failed coup. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, refused to rule out executing the ringleaders of the attempted coup, despite repeated warnings from western leaders who said the use of the death penalty would end Turkish hopes of joining the European Union. Photo: Gürcan Öztürk/AFP/Getty Images.

Made in Arcovazzia

More than 1,500 university deans asked to resign and 257 PM’s office staff dismissed, with 35,000 public servants now affected Turkey has escalated its purge of government officials in the aftermath of the failed coup, with about 35,000 public servants affected by the end of the day despite a government spokesman insisting that the crackdown was being carried out in accordance with the rule of law. In the latest developments on Tuesday, the government fired more than 15,000 employees at the education ministry, sacked 257 officials at the prime minister’s office and 492 clerics at the directorate for religious affairs. Additionally, more than 1,500 university deans were asked to resign. It followed the firing of nearly 8,800 policemen, and the arrests of 6,000 soldiers, 2,700 judges and prosecutors, dozens of governors, and more than 100 generals – or just under one-third of the general corps. Some 20 news websites critical of the government have also been blocked. [Read more].

• Patrick Kingsley, Turkey sacks 15,000 education workers in purge after failed coup, The Guardian, July 19, 2016

Tourists from Algiers taking a selfie in front of an abandoned tank in Taksim Square, Istanbul, Turkey, on July 17, 2016. Photo: Reuters.

I’d like to change posture

余少鐳 (Yú Shǎoléi), culture editor of Southern Metropolis Daily, says: “I’ve been kneeling so long I can’t bear it. I’d like to change posture” The editor of a Chinese newspaper has published a resignation letter denouncing increased controls on the media under Xí Jìnpíng, according to a cached version of his online post. Yú Shǎoléi, the culture editor of the Southern Metropolis Daily, posted a photo of his resignation letter on his Weibo social media account. [Read more].

• Agence France-Presse in Běijīng, Chinese journalist denounces Xí Jìnpíng in resignation letter, The Guardian, March 29, 2016

“This spring, let’s make a clean break. I’m getting old; after bowing for so long, I can’t stand it anymore. I want to see if I can adopt a new posture. To the person responsible for monitoring my Weibo and notifying his superiors about what I should be made to delete: you can heave a sigh of relief. Sorry for the stress I’ve caused you these last few years, and I sincerely hope your career can take a new direction. And to those friends who care about me, I won’t even say goodbye, Southern Media Group”. [Chinese].