There is an article in today’s Globe and Mail titled “After six years, diplomatic lifeline allows Chinese dissident to reunite with family“. Jiang Weiping, a Chinese journalist who had been put in prison for exposing political corruption.

Since he was convicted on subversion charges in 2001, Mr. Jiang’s story was heard around the world. The courageous Chinese journalist won the prestigious international Press Freedom Award, and an inaugural award from PEN Canada, which has long pressed for his release.

Mr. Jiang was convicted after exposing corruption at the local and provincial levels in China’s industrial northeast. One of his stories revealed that the vice-mayor of Shenyang had gambled away $3-million in public funds. Another reported that the mayor of Daqing had used state money to buy apartments for his 29 mistresses.

Mr. Jiang, who has a serious stomach ailment, was released from prison in January, 2006.

The Chinese had reduced his eight-year sentence under pressure from international organizations, including PEN, an association that defends the freedom of expression of writers around the world. But he could not be involved in political activity in China, nor was he granted the travel documents that would have allowed him to leave the country to join his family in Canada.

I suspect that the link to the full text of this article will disappear in the next day or so.  You can access the full text through Canadian Newsstand, a database that is available for free through most (all?) public libraries in BC.

Posted in freedom of speech, government censorship   Tagged: china, corruption, journalism, journalist, PEN   

Come join the B.C. Library Association Intellectual Freedom Committee as we make buttons, discuss current events, have a drink, and listen to local authors read from some challenged and banned books. Did you know that Harry Potter was a challenged book? Authors to be announced.

Saturday February 28th, 7pm-midnight at Rhizome Cafe 317 East Broadway. Come early for dinner! Rhizome Café has a delicious menu, available throughout the event, and is fully licensed.

By donation, no one turned away.  For more info please email bclaifc@gmail.com.  RSVP on Facebook.  See you there!

Posted in Freedom to Read Week   Tagged: event, FRTW, IFC, Vancouver   

Over breakfast today I read an article in the Georgia Straight about Kimberly Baker’s intent to challenge the changes Vancouver City council has approved to be in line with the federal Bill C-47, the federal Olympic and Paralympic Marks Act. According to a City of Vancouver administrative report, the amendments are necessary to allow the city to remove graffiti and ‘illegal signs’ from private property without notice.  The City can also fine repeat offenders up to $10,000/day. Kimberly Baker’s artist statement on the Olympics series says:

My intention within this work is to create a visual narrative that can address controversial social / political intersections within our contemporary world so as to encourage public awareness and engage dialogue.

The Straight article states that City councillor Heather Deal insisted that the charter amendments are not meant to stifle free expression. I think that this is not good for art, free expression, or democracy.  Bill C-47 scared me, but the knock on effect on municipal and provincial legislation scares and worries me even more. Thanks to Brian Campbell for sending this to BCLA’s Intellectual Freedom Committee and Information Policy listervs, to Annelle Harmer who directed me to that-artist-who-might-have-been-an-Emily-Carr-student-who-makes anti-Olympic-art’s website and for helping me find “that book that’s about this big, that is red”, and to the friendly City of Vancouver staffer who helped me find the Council agenda, report, and minutes. Posted in freedom of speech

Issue 65 of Colors, “a magazine about the rest of the world”, is about Freedom of Speech.

The issues are thematic. Other themes have included slums, food, home, shopping, race, sports, and 2 issues on HIV/AIDS (Issue 7 in 1994, and Issue 67 in 2006).  They are smart, quirky and have lots of interesting images.  They are pretty to look at too.

Some of the issues have been controversial.  Wikipedia says “Issue 4 [1], released in spring 1993, covered the topic of race, and created an international uproar [2] by running full-page photos of the face of Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain doctored to look like a black woman [3], filmmaker Spike Lee as a white man, Pope John Paul II as Asian, among others.”

For me, it's more than a little weird that Benneton is behind this magazine, but I still think it's worth checking out. According to Outlook Online, Greater Victoria Public Library is the only library that has a subscription to the print copy of this magazine, but I can’t tell if they have this issue. If you are not lucky enough to be in the Greater Victoria area, enjoy the websites (current archive Issues 21-70, past archive Issues 1-60), or suggest your library purchase a subscription.

Posted in collection development   Tagged: freedom of speech, magazine, pretty websites, serials