Russia approved Internet censure

Under the pretext of "combating pornography and violence" Russia increases government control over the Internet. Several websites have joined in protest.

The Russian Parliament approved unanimously a draft law allowing the government to control the content posted on the Internet.

The bill, designed to combat child pornography, promotion of drugs abuse and youth suicide, now hopes the signing of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The opposition fears that this measure is only the beginning of something similar to what is already happening in China, where there is a closed control that blocks access to several other sites like YouTube.

Russians websites fear "great firewall of China"

Faced with protests, Parliament took into account some of the concerns of critics of this new legislation and withdrew more vague language that would make the authorities' interpretation of what is or is not considered "inappropriate content".

Even so, some of the most popular Russian websites have joined in protest. The search engine Yandex, the blogging platform "LiveJournal" Russian version of Wikipedia and closed access to their pages.

With the temporary closing of the initiative, the sites they wanted to alert you to what will be the "creation of the Russian version of the great firewall of China", as one can read in the press left on the Russian front page of Wikipedia, has now reopened to the public.

China censors "anti-party" and "anti-society" content

In China, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) said this week, in a statement, which will enter into force new rules on censorship to broadcast videos online.

Censorship will be reflected in a previous screening that will delete any content deemed unsuitable by the authorities.

Like Russia, and consistent with what has already happened, China has justified the measure on behalf of the fight against pornography, violence, pedophilia, drug use and other content deemed objectionable.

In a statement issued by SARFT, there is no definition of what is considered inappropriate or objectionable, and may pave the way for free agency in the selection of content.

Greece already has government

Greece now has a new government. Has not yet taken possession and its constitution is not yet known, but the three parties were in negotiations - New Democracy, PASOK and Democratic Left - agreed. The challenge now is to negotiate with Europe the conditions of the second bailout of the country, a task with many opponents and against the clock.
The most voted party leader Antonis Samaras, is sworn today as prime minister, along with the rest of the executive, but negotiations with the European partners will also be up to the Minister of Finance, several Greek newspapers take for granted that the President will National Bank of Greece, Vassilis Rapanos.
«New Democracy, PASOK and Democratic Left are facing the responsibility to renegotiate the rescue. It's a shame that some choose to move away from this effort», said the leader of PASOK in announcing the accord. Evangelos Venizelos announced yesterday the creation of a team to try to renegotiate the rescue package agreed with international partners.
Greece should be one of the topics on the table not only in the mini-summit that brings together this Friday the leaders of Spain, Italy, France and Germany, but also at the meeting of Heads of State and Government of the European Union, marked for 28 and 29.
Also in the coming days should be given the return of the troika to Athens. The International Monetary Fund suspended its contacts with the country during the political crisis, but has said that once the new government taking office, will return for further negotiations and monitoring of the situation.