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Deutsch: Die neuesten Versuche der russischen Regierung das Internet zu zensier...

Especially during the period before and immediately after the Russian parliamentary elections of 4 December 2011, government censorship attacked not only traditional media, but also the Internet, which plays now a very important role in the political debate in Russia with more than 51 million users.

An order from the Federal Security Service (FSB) asked social network Vkontakte, with more than 5 million Russian users, to block the websites of seven groups calling for demonstrations durin

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Deutsch: US-Razzien gegen Domains und IP-Adressen gehen weiter

US authorities have resumed their "Operation in Our Sites" in order to attempt to fight counterfeit and piracy-related websites. During this second annual "Cyber Monday" crackdown, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has shut down 150 websites from all over the world.

The recent introduction of draft bills, such as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) now aims at providing a legal basis for domain names and IP address seizures.

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Deutsch: Berlusconis Abhörgesetz bedroht Online-Medien

The Italian Parliament has resumed discussions on the very criticised governmental bill that would limit the publication of wiretaps in the news media, forcing at the same time websites to automatically publish corrections at request. But on 12 October 2011 the decision on the final text was postponed, after the paragraph 29 was amended so it will not apply to any blog.

The draft bill was approved by the Senate in June 2011 but has been put aside due to strong criticism from civil society.

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Deutsch: EGMR prüft Beschwerde von Azeri Bloggern wegen unrechtmäßiger Inhaf...

The Azeri bloggers that have been imprisoned for one year and a half under alleged hooliganism accusations, have filed a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights which will decide whether their detention was in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade were arrested in Baku in July 2009, being accused of hooliganism, after having reported to the police that they had been physically attacked in a restaurant.

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Deutsch: Frankreichs Internet-Rat ohne Konsumentenvertreter

On 27 April 2011, French President Nicolas Sarkozy officially installed the National Digital Council (Conseil national du numérique - CNN) which is to advise the French government on digital issues.

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Deutsch: ENDitorial: Europarat – Eine neue Begriffsbestimmung für Medien

The fourth meeting of the Council of Europe (CoE) Committee of experts on new media (MC-NM) was held on 28-29 March 2011 in Strasbourg, with two main points on its agenda. The first one was a discussion on comments received in response of its public consultation on two draft recommendations on the protection of human rights with regards, to search engines and to social network services, respectively. This MC-NM work is led by The Netherlands representative (Sjoera Nas), with the help of the Secretariat.

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Deutsch: Aserbaidschan: Dissidenten mit neuen Internet-Tools ausgeforscht

As freedom activists have increased their activity on Facebook, the Azeri government has also increased its attention and surveillance of social networks.

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Deutsch: Ungarn überarbeitet umstrittenes Mediengesetz

As a result of the concern expressed by the European Commission and following the meetings with the Commission's experts on 7 and 15 February 2011, the Hungarian authorities have decided to amend their new controversial media legislation.

The main issues of concern were related to four issues:

1.