Freedom of Speech

The Hong Kong Education Bureau is planning to make patriotic education compulsory for primary and secondary school children.

Three films which give a rare glimpse inside the North Korea have been introduced during the North Korea Freedom Week, an annual event jointly held in Seoul and Washington hosting lectures and film screenings focusing human rights abuses in the North. Mike Paarlberg posted a detailed introduction to the films in the City Paper blog.

Over the past few months, the cold-blooded murder of a young woman, Zhang Miao, by affluent music student Yao Jiaxin, has been the most heated topic on the Chinese Internet.

Written by Sara Moreira

Written by Flora Thomas

Written by Gilad Lotan

In this post, we reflect on Egyptian blogger Hani Morsi's writing about technology driven activism and the role social media plays in providing incremental societal change. Hani's core argument focuses on the long term effects of social media. Rather than looking at it as a cathartic outlet for the oppressed, he stresses its value in making an otherwise impossible popular political discourse possible.

Written by Oiwan Lam

Since his release from prison on September 8, 2010, blind Chinese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng has been held under 24 hour home surveillance by security police in Shandong, a province in eastern China.

Written by Alexey Sidorenko

By Mong Palatino

By Raphael Tsavkko Garcia