Archive for the ‘Free speech’ Category

Eighty-three Indian guestworkers who fell victim to a massive human trafficking scheme filed suit today against Signal International, LLC. The lawsuits allege that the defendants trafficked over 500 Indian guestworkers after Hurricane Katrina and forced them to work for Signal in grossly exploitative and abusive conditions after they were lured to the United States under fraudulent assurances of becoming lawful permanent U.S. residents. Today’s filing represents ... Full story

Reporters Without Borders hopes that the reason will soon be known for radio journalist Pierre-Richard Alexandre's fatal shooting by an individual identified as Baudelaire Augustin in Saint-Marc, in the north-central department of Artibonite, on 17 May. A correspondent for the national radio station Radio Kiskeya and the host of a daily political discussion programme on local Radio Delta, Alexandre died of his gunshot injury to ... Full story

In yesterday's flurry of activity in the Senate Judiciary Committee on the comprehensive immigration reform bill, there were two big wins for civil liberties: Blumenthal 2, an amendment that limits solitary confinement in immigration detention, and Blumenthal 8, an amendment that restricts Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers from conducting raids in schools, churches or hospitals. First, Blumenthal 2. Solitary ... Full story

Reporters Without Borders is shocked by a government decree, called Decision 20/2011/QD-TTG, which has prevented local retransmission of four categories of foreign TV channels since 15 May by requiring them to pay for simultaneous translation of all their programming into Vietnamese. Vietnam Satellite Digital Television Company (VSTV), a pay-TV operator launched by French broadcaster Canal+ and Vietnam's national TV broadcaster, suspended retransmission of 21 TV ... Full story

Reporters Without Borders is dismayed to learn of radio journalist Guylain Chandjaro's death in Bunia, a city in the eastern region of Ituri. He was a Swahili-language journalist with Radio Canal Révélation, a community radio station, and freelanced for the Bunia branch of the national broadcaster RTNC. His body was found in the bed of the River Ngezi – which crosses the city – on ... Full story

The journalism world has been rightly outraged by the Justice Department dragging the Associated Press (and now a Fox News reporter) into one of its sprawling leak investigations. As we wrote last week, by obtaining the call records of twenty AP phone lines, “the Justice Department has struck a terrible blow against the freedom of the press and the ability of reporters to ... Full story

EFF has been on the ground in Lima, Peru for the 17th round of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations. The TPP is a secretive, multinational trade agreement, and one chapter carries overreaching copyright enforcement provisions that pose a huge threat to the Internet and users' access to devices and digital content. This is a video from a protest outside the J.W. Marriott where TPP talks ... Full story

Representative Ted Deutch (D-FL) introduced a new transparency bill last week called the End Anonymous Patents Act (H.R. 2024, PDF)—the third piece of legislation in the last year to take on the problem of patent trolls. The bill sets out to solve what Professor Colleen Chien refers to as the "Who Owns What" problem: we currently don't have an effective way of confirming who ... Full story

This week in Nebraska, a handful of senators – four in particular – used filibusters and frivolous amendments to stall a full debate on whether Nebraska is done with capital punishment. Why are these foes of justice running scared? Why were they afraid of having a real vote on the death penalty? You. That's why. Popular support for the death penalty has waned with each ... Full story

Another day, another amendment to the Senate immigration reform legislation from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) that would harm immigrants' civil liberties. Amendment 17, which will be up for consideration this week in the Senate Judiciary Committee's m... Full story