Jan 05 2008
CityView: Vancouver bloggers’ free speech on same level with Saudi Arabia?
Canadian bloggers facing the same threat to free speech as geeks in the Middle East’s famously liberty-starved kingdom? A report by the Vancouver blog Downtown Eastside Enquirer gives the update on a Twilight Zone-rated farce involving Vancouver City Hall bureaucrats, police, allegedly improper behavior by employees at a Vancouver Downtown Eastside community centre, a homeless blogger and the intangible yet irrevocable principle of free speech in Canada.
There are excellent backgrounders both here and here. Not quite sure how I missed this the first time around.
Weird, wild stuff.
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Not so weird and not so wild.
A similar situation is unfolding between a Virginia tax assessment official and a Realtor. Simply, it began with the Realtor publishing a opinion on the calculation of property assessments. As opposed to publishing an explanation or correction to the statements made by the Realtor, the official (Todd Kaufman) chose to censure and threaten.
This has escalated into a “first amendment” issue and the right to freedom of speech in blogs.
Google – Loudoun County Tax Assessor – Todd Kaufman to witness the battle.