Make no mistake, China’s censorship of the internet is a crime against liberty on a mass scale. Still, American firms can’t just steer clear of the world’s biggest market. What to do?

By Peter Scheer

A milestone of sorts was passed in the first quarter of this year when China blew past the United States to become the biggest internet market in the world. At 225 million users, and still growing at double-digit rates, China’s internet is a business opportunity so grand and irresistible that it can blind normally circumspect people to the moral compromises that…

More...
Posted in: News & Opinion

Locy and Risen cases renew debate over protecting journalists’ confidential sources

By Peter Scheer

Just when you thought it was safe again for journalists to promise anonymity to confidential sources, federal judicial power is being applied with renewed enthusiasm to force reporters to out their sources.

A federal grand jury in Alexandria, VA has subpoenaed New York Times reporter James Risen to testify about his confidential sources for a chapter in his book, “State of War,” dealing with the CIA’s efforts to infiltrate Iran’s nuclear program during the Cinton and Bush administrations.  Whether the…

More...
Posted in: News & Opinion

Using free trade to force China to permit more free speech

By Nick Rahaim

With the Beijing Summer Olympics approaching, the world has turned its focus toward China.  From alt/pop musician Bjork lending her support to the Free Tibet movement while recently performing in Shanghai, to Steven Spielberg stepping down as artistic adviser of the Beijing Games citing objections to China’s ties to the Sudanese government, many see this as an opportune moment to put pressure on the People’s Republic.  Here at the California First Amendment Coalition, we have had our eyes on China’s “Great Firewall”…

More...
Posted in: News & Opinion

Lights back on at wikileaks

Wikileaks.org, which had gone dark as a result of a court order, is now back online. Following a 3-hour hearing Friday in San Francisco, federal Judge Jeffrey White ruled in favor of the whistleblower website on jurisdictional and 1st Amendment grounds.

The judge previously had issued an order locking the wikileaks domain name--effectively shutting down the entire website--in response to a suit by Julius Baer Bank, a Swiss and Cayman Islands bank, over leaked banking records that had been posted to wikileaks.

The judge both rescinded the locking order…

More...
Posted in: News & Opinion

Public Citizen and CFAC seek to overturn court orders shuttering wikileaks.org

San Francisco--Public Citizen and the California First Amendment Coalition, in pleadings filed in federal court today, seek to overturn injunctions that have shut down wikileaks.org, a whistleblower website

CFAC and Public Citizen argue that the court did not have jurisdiction in the case, and therefore had no power to issue a temporary restraining order against wikileaks and a permanent injunction against wikileaks’ internet domain name registrar. The organizations also argue that, even if the court had jurisdiction, both court orders are invalid under the First…

More...
Posted in: News & Opinion

Federal judge’s order shutting down wikileaks.org, a whistleblower website, is 1st Amendment travesty

By Peter Scheer

Wikileaks.org, a whistleblower website that enables the anonymous (and, in theory, untraceable) leaking of confidential government and corporate documents, has gone dark.

Although Wikileaks’ silencing was sought by antidemocratic governments worldwide--including China, whose censors work mightily to block all access to the site--wikileak’s plug was pulled, ironically, by a federal judge in San Francisco.

Acceding to the wishes of a Swiss bank complaining that Wikileaks had published confidential bank records, federal district Judge…

More...
Posted in: News & Opinion

Rating the leading Presidential candidates on First Amendment issues. And the winner is .  .  .

By Peter Scheer

Voters generally don’t pick a presidential candidate on the basis of a single issue--nor should they. But with the presidential campaign accelerating toward potentially decisive primaries in the next few weeks, it’s worth considering how the leading contenders compare in their commitment to First Amendment rights.

All political leaders are champions of free speech and open-government--in a vacuum. The real question is how they would balance those principles against competing interests in decisions involving issues…

More...
Posted in: News & Opinion

Acting globally and locally: From internet censorship in China to a TRO against Atherton, CA

By Peter Scheer

This is to update CFAC supporters on our latest efforts to stir up trouble on behalf of First Amendment freedoms. I’m pleased to report that CFAC has managed to create a whole lot of trouble, both globally and locally, in the last 2 months.

First globally: CFAC has initiated a proceeding that will attempt to use international trade laws to force the government of China to end its censorship of the internet. In a submission and…

More...
Posted in: News & Opinion

Anonymous speech, although constitutionally protected, is mostly digital graffiti. Freedom of expression means taking responsibility for what you write.

By Peter Scheer

A Chinese blogger, defying a government censorship decree, publishes information about the crash of a military transport plane. Another blogger, an Egyptian, posts photos of the scarred body of a teenager who was tortured by Egyptian police.

Both bloggers are anonymous.

No one can doubt these speakers’ need to hide their identities. Their internet postings are in the venerable tradition of the Federalist Papers and other revolutionary pamphlets and manifestos…

More...
Posted in: News & Opinion