[Section 15] CBC The National - Threat to the 'Net and Political Free Speech ...

This Tuesday night, please watch the CBC news story on the threats to blogs, wikis, and your right to know.

This news story on The National covers political Internet freedoms of speech that you surely hold dear, but are currently in peril.

A handful of current Canadian lawsuits currently pose an enormous threat to the Internet and politics in Canada, namely:

• the enormous social and global potential of collaborative computing, social networking, and open source dialogue;
• open and frank political speech in Canada, currently being "chilled" as truth disappears;
• silencing, real and potential, of Internet whistleblowers, satirists, political humourists, anonymous sources and political dissidents;
• the potential liability to anyone writing or hosting a blog or a wiki, for fear of legal and financial liability

Political correspondent Leslie Mackinnon interviews Professor of Internet Law Micheal Geist, seasoned blogger Mark Francis, and former Green Party-turned Liberal Party activist Kate Holloway about lawsuits currently opened against them from Wayne Crookes of BC.

Crookes is also currently suing Wikipedia, Google, Yahoo, Myspace, and P2PNet and many more.

Please watch this show to understand the issues better. Please invite all you know on Facebook to this event. Please go to cbc.ca/national and/or to libelchill.ca afterwards to comment and to share your thoughts and read the thoughts of others.

Please take this issue seriously, and finally,

After you see the story, go to libelchill.ca and donate to the Defense Fund (a legal trust fund for the defendants) to make sure that the champions of online truth can keep fighting for your right to know, share and create online.

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Posted By Mark Francis to Section 15 at 7/22/2007 05:06:00 PM