Internet

James Fallows has a highly relevant article about China’s new “cyber warrior” culture and leanings towards asymmetric warfare in this month’s Atlantic. After that, be sure to check out Fallows’s blog entry on the same subject rounding up reactions to the imagery of a “digital Pearl Harbor” and whether or not that really is a...
Read more »

Last month I complained, far too prematurely, that in the wake of revelations about Chinese cyberattacks against Google services, international rhetoric was largely ignoring the insidious underlying signals about the dangers of Chinese cybermilitary prowess. Since then, of course, news outlets have seen a deluge of commentary about the next “digital war,” enhanced by...
Read more »

By now, the very public news of Google’s threat to end operations in China following the discovery of some very troubling cyberattacks has been well circulated, picked apart, lauded, and analyzed. Free speech advocates who have lambasted the company in the past for ever agreeing to abide by the Chinese government’s policy of information...
Read more »

Every couple of months, a news organization does a special feature on the threat of cyber warfare — armies of hackers, both from private groups and trained military personnel, digging into top secret files of foreign governments with just a few swift keystrokes. Most recently, 60 Minutes featured an analysis of the threat of...
Read more »

On Friday, three bloggers and activists in Cuba were detained and beaten by the Cuban authorities. Yoani Sanchez, Claudia Cadelo, and Omar Luís Pardo Laz were dragged into a car, violently beaten, and left in the street. Global Voices Online translates Sánchez’s own harrowing account of the incident: We were left aching, lying in a...
Read more »

Global Voices Online, a website that translates blog entries from around the world, recently launched Threatened Voices, an advocacy website that aims to build a global database of bloggers who have been killed or threatened for their work. The website has a great interactive map; a timeline of reports; profiles of bloggers who have...
Read more »

To follow up on the David Rohde story, here’s a great interview he had on NPR’s Fresh Air yesterday with Terry Gross. In other news, last week, a five-week legal battle between oil trader Trafigura and the UK’s Guardian newspaper came to a close when Trafigura ended a secret injunction with the news organization. How...
Read more »

Reporters Without Borders has published its 2009 Press Freedom Index, documenting the current state of media repression and threats to independent and critical reporting worldwide. One of the report’s major findings for 2009 was that Europe, long considered a model for free press, was slipping in press freedom rankings. France, Slovakia, and Italy were...
Read more »

Summer is nearly officially over (and the weather here in New York shows it). This means the Perspectives on Global Issues blog is back from its sun-drenched hibernation. Our editors have already been churning out their thoughts and analyses on the latest breaking news in the world of international affairs — but just...
Read more »

March 12th is World Day Against Cyber Censorship — a day to remember that in 2008, more online journalists were killed than journalists in any other media, and that the rights of bloggers and other attempts of free expression over the Internet are still being stifled around the world. Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International...
Read more »