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Microsoft, Yahoo! and Google confirmed on 28 October 2008 having signed up for the Global Network Initiative (GNI), an organisation aimed at preserving free speech on the Internet.

GNI members are bound to challenge governments against requests for disclosure of private data if they consider the requests are in breach of international human rights laws.

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Two recent episodes (that are not "isolated cases") show, again, how distortions in Italian laws and in their application can lead to all sorts of abuses - as discussed before. The problem is that these abuses are not only continuing, but getting worse.

One is explained in a recent article and is obviously (no matter how it's disguised) a case of censorship.

The other case we are discussing here, if taken as a single episode, could be seen as a comedy of errors. A website for the exchange of music was "seized" - that is to say, access was blocked. It was soon moved to another address, and later the "seizure" was revoked.

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On 8 and 9 September 2008, the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Belgrade hosted the international conference on regulation of freedom of expression on the Internet, organized by the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCMLP) of the University of Oxford. EDRi-member Metamorphosis Foundation participated with a presentation of the Macedonian experiences in this area.

The dean of the Faculty of political sciences Milan Podunavac reported that as part of the efforts to overcome the negative legacy from the Serbian past-as a postwar, post-dictatorial and post-communist society-the faculty intends to introduce a subject for media law and new media

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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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In an investigation started by the Bergamo Prosecutors, an Order of the Justice for preliminary investigation of the Court of Bergamo was issued on 1 August 2008, asking for the "seizure" of the PirateBay website, hosted outside Italy, for displaying a collection of links to allegedly illegal duplicated material. The order was implemented by 10 August 2008 by forcing Italian Internet providers to block the access to that site, both to its domain, as well as to its associated IP number.

The PirateBay owners quickly reacted and changed their IP address and set up a new website called labaia.org (La Baia means The Bay in Italian).

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On 7 July 2008, a Russian blogger was sentenced to one year suspended jail after having been found guilty of "inciting hatred and enmity" for a comment left on a LiveJournal weblog.

According to Kommersant newspaper, the young blogger Savva Terentiev was saying on the blog that "Those who become cops are scum," and calling for officers to be put on a bonfire. For his alleged offence, inciting hatred and denigrating the human dignity of a social group, the prosecutors were asking for a significant fine and two years behind bars, which seemed excessive. During the trial, Terentyev referred to his statements on the blog that corrupt cops should burned in Auschwitz-like ovens as "hyperbole

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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