Kremlin Pushes Critics Off Internet Stage for Advocating Violence
Internet blogs of several noted commentators were frozen by order of Russian prosecutors earlier today due to quotes from a house-arrested Ukrainian spokesman and calls for illegal violence. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/13/us-russia-internet-idUSBREA2C21L20140313
Commentators included former chess champion and now Internet-news-editor Garry Kasparov, owner of Ej.ru, which had quoted a far-right Ukrainian leader presently under house arrest and forbidden from making news statements. Other bloggers were shut down because they advocated violent action against Russian authorities, in violation of Russian laws enacted since President Vladimir Putin’s last election. http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-blocks-websites-critical-of-kremlin/25297188.html
Cries of Russian censorship and violation of free speech rights met the Russian Internet actions across European and Asian blogs. http://world.topnewstoday.org/world/article/10305863/
As HFS analysts have maintained in discussions about Internet freedom, the world wide web is free only so long as the governments where people live and communicate permit such freedom. In the larger view, the web exists at the pleasure of political powers.
What do you think?
