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Freelance writers lead charge against alleged G20 police brutality
A freelance writer who worked on contract for Britain’s Guardian newspaper was one of several who claim to have fallen victim to police brutality in Toronto, during the G20 summit last weekend. Freelancer Jesse Rosenfeld filed a formal complaint against Toronto police, along with three colleagues. Twenty-six year old Rosenfeld was reportedly punched and beaten by Toronto police officers, including particularly painful blows to his abdomen and ribs. According to the freelance writer’s account, the officers who physically abused him had noted that Rosenfeld was a “loud-mouth kid” who they had recognized from protests the day before.
Twitter hacker receives suspended prison sentence
An infamous hacker who wrecked havoc for Twitter and obtained confidential information stored by the micro-blogging site received a five month suspended prison sentence yesterday in a French criminal court. Francois Cousteix is a 24 year old man from central France who managed to hack the accounts of top Twitter executives, and stole their personal information, including mobile and e-mail contacts not only for their friends and family, but even the coordinates of the likes of President Barack Obama, pop singer Britney Spears and Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher. But Coustiex claimed that he never intended any harm by stealing highly confidential information and simply wanted to call everyone’s attention to the risks of “social engineering” led by popular internet-based social media.
Fury grows over alleged killing of Egyptian blogger
The European Union stepped into a growing scandal this morning, over the death of an Egyptian blogger. According to media reports, 28 year old Khaled Said was killed by Cairo police, after being forcibly removed from an internet cafe and brutally beaten on the street. The police officers wore plainclothes, rather than their uniform during the alleged beating, but a handful of witnesses came forward and noted that they had brutally attacked the young blogger. Egyptian authorities continue to claim that Said had actually swallowed a bag of controlled substances when he realized that he had been intercepted by police and died of choking. The European Union, however, appears sceptical and called on Egypt to launch an independent investigation into the blogger’s death.
Environmentalist freelance writers face threats
Freelance writers who write about the environment and call on governments to do more to tackle climate change face physical threats, according to Jean Francois Julliard, general secretary at Reporters Without Borders. Julliard likened the dangers that freelancers must tackle when writing about the environment with the threats that journalists faced twenty or thirty years ago, if they spoke out in defence of human rights. The environment has become a hot button issue and freelancers who investigate these topics often face imprisonment in dictatorial countries and death threats even in more liberal, democratic states. Mikhail Beketov, a Russian journalist, ended up in hospital with severe, life threatening injuries after writing an article on corruption and environmental concerns surrounding the construction of a new road between Moscow and a rural town. Unknown perpetrators attacked Beketov, and brutally beat him, resulting in the amputation of one of his legs.
Freelance writer leaves mark on US military
Freelance writers are increasingly at the centre of breaking stories and nothing illustrates their growing importance in the world of journalism and communication better than the events surrounding American General Stanley McChrystal. Michael Hastings is a freelancer who had the chance to interview the general as part of a piece that he was writing for Rolling Stone magazine. In the infamous interview, McChrystal made deeply controversial and disparaging remarks about President Barack Obama’s administration; comments which lost him his job earlier this week as commander of the international security force in war-torn Afghanistan. McChrystal made mocking comments about the Vice President, Joe Biden, as well as the American ambassador to Afghanistan. Among a series of insulting remarks, McChrystal asked “who’s that” when the subject turned to Biden and then sarcastically noted that the vice president’s name sounded like “bite me.”
WordPress brings major changes to world of blogging
WordPress released a brand new blogging platform this week and as such aims to make a range of new tools available to the users of the world’s most popular blog content management system. It took developers over six months to perfect the newest version of WordPress, but bloggers, as well as companies that use the [...]
Hollywood celebrity calls it quits on Twitter
Amanda Byrnes, the multimillionaire actress who starred in a handful of feature films and television shows geared towards teenage audiences decided to announce her decision to quit the world of acting on Twitter, catching traditional print journalists by surprise. Byrnes added that she has no interest in returning to acting anytime in the future and told her Twitter followers that her decision was based on the fact that she no longer had much of a say in the content of the films and television shows that she starred in. In her tweet, Byrnes wrote that “being an actress isn’t as fun as it may seem [and] if I don’t love something anymore, I stop doing it.”
Kuwait continues to persecute bloggers
Human Rights Watch, an international watchdog based in New York, published a report in which it shows that Kuwait continues to persecute bloggers who express critical views of the country’s leadership. The organization pointed out that one such blogger, Mohammad Abdul-Kader al-Jassem, may receive an 18 year-long prison sentence if he is convicted of “insulting” Kuwait’s emir sheik. Al-Jassem was taken into custody more than one month ago, following a complaint by the sheik’s office. Joe Stork of Human Rights Watch observed that Kuwait appears to be giving up on its relative liberalism and acceptance of free speech.
Twitter slur brings trouble for Chris Evans
A BBC Radio journalist found himself in a storm of controversy, after posting a tweet that many deemed to be racist. Chris Evans of BBC Radio 2 was commenting on the World Cup in South Africa and in particular, about an African horn called a vuvuzela, which many fans used to cheer on their favourite team. Evans told his 84,000 Twitter followers that “you give an African £2 a month and what do they do? Buy a bloody trumpet.” The comment was actually a joke that someone else had circulated during the World Cup and it appears as though Evans simply reposted this. The BBC host did, however, remove the tweet from his Twitter feed, after he infuriated some of his fans, who posted irate comments in response. According to The Guardian, some of his fans labelled Evans a “backwards racist.”
Prominent freelancer speaks about benefits of content writing
Chris Alden has years of experience writing for some of Britain’s most respected publications, including The Guardian, the Sunday Times and The Telegraph, but he made a life changing decision when he moved to Cyprus and became a content writer. In 2003, Alden was still based in the United Kingdom and was employed by The Guardian, but what he wanted more than anything else was the flexibility of mixing travel, leisure and work, and the ability to see more of the world, while still enjoying a steady income. A year later, Alden moved to Athens for a freelance writing project during the Olympics, before ultimately settling in a small village in Cyprus. As a freelance writer, Alden now manages to send in his articles by e-mail to the UK on a daily basis from his placid, comfortable home in a historic Cypriot village.
