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The Romanian Authority for Communication (ANC) requested ISPs last week to block the access to 40 websites hosted in Romania, considering they don't meet the criteria imposed by article 7 of Law no.196/2003 on preventing and fighting pornography.

Article 7 of the law states that "the natural and legal persons creating pornographic sites are obliged to password them, and the access to these will be allowed only after paying a fee per using minute, established by the creator of the site and declared at the fiscal bodies."

However, five years later after the law was adopted, no specific fee is foreseen in any normative act.

According to the ANC press release, its in

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A new report conducted by Privacy International (PI) for the Council of Europe Media and Information Society Division reveals effects of new counter-terrorism laws on media and free expression rights in European countries.

The report "Speaking of Terror" examines how the "war on terror" has affected access to information, the growth of incitement, glorification and "extremism" restrictions on speech, blocking of internet sites, increased surveillance of journalists and limits on protection of journalists' sources.

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There is no censorship in Italy, but...

"Censorship" was abolished and outlawed in Italy sixtytwo years ago. Freedom of the press and of personal opinion is not only established by the Constitution, but also deeply rooted in custom and in all perceptions of civil society. There are, however, some worrying facts. The concentration in a few hands of a large part of the information system. A general, "centralized" myopia of the "dominant culture", that is partly deliberate manipulation and partly unintentional ignorance.

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Russian and Ingush human rights organizations, as well as OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe), are asking for an investigation into the circumstances of the murder of Magomed Yevloyev, the publisher of ingushetiya.ru, an independent news website in Ingushetia region.

Yevloyev was a strong critic of Ingush President Murat Zyazikov. His website had reported on alleged Russian security force brutality in Ingushetia, a poor Russian region of about half a million people, mostly Muslims.

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The conflict between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia region has extended to Internet, both countries having launched cyber-attacks and blocking each other's broadcasting sites.

Georgian authorities have blocked access to Russian news broadcasters and websites, the action being justified by Georgia's Interior Ministry with the argument that Russian broadcasts would "scare our population" which the government could not allow.

Mamia Sanadiradze, founder and CEO of Caucasus Online, the biggest Georgian ISP, told Reuters: "People from the (Georgian) security agencies asked me to block Russian sites.

On 18 July 2008, the Dutch Court in Nijmegen dismissed the initial claim in its preliminary ruling in the case of Chip maker NXP against the publication by the University of Nijmegen of the security problems regarding Mifare Classic Chip, dismissing the initial claim.

NXP had asked the judge to order the University of Nijmegen to stop the publication of its research results on the way to crack the security of cards using the NXP chip, arguing that the publication would allow law infringers to easily break into security systems and to fraudulently use the public transportation. In NXP's opinion, the publication would cause considerable damage and security risks for NXP and users all over the world.

The Rechtbank Arnhem court decided that prohibiting the publication of the University article would violate the researcher's freedom of expression

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Dutch chipmaker NXP Semiconductors has sued the Dutch Computer Security Group of Radboud University in Nijmege in order to stop the publication of research results showing security flaws in NXP's Mifare Classic wireless smart cards used in transit and building entry systems around the world.

The technology is used for the transit system in The Netherlands, in the subway systems in London, Hong Kong and Boston, as well as in cards for accessing buildings and facilities, covering 80 percent of the market.

The security researchers of the Dutch university have checked the Mifare system used with Oyster cards for transport in London and recently succeeded in cracking the encryption on a card and clone it. They added credit to it

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On 6 June 2008, the blog of the Italian journalist Antonino Monteleone was closed, without notification, by the Polizia Postale of Calabria under accusations of defamation, but the journalist claims that this action came after having posted uncomfortable information on political figures.

The whole story started in 2006 after the elections, when the blogger posted extracts from a document containing CVs of candidates for the Italian Parliament. The document included information of certain names on the nomination list that had previous relations to cases of power abuse and manipulation of tenders or even with mafia activities. On 9 December 2006, Monteleone posted an article on Galati, member of UDP party then, undersecretary in the