A license to blog?
No matter how bad the economy gets, at least we have the freedom to complain about it. Some Italian lawmakers want to force bloggers to register with the government.
This is part of Italy’s ongoing effort to crack down on the Internet. Last month, the country’s Senate passed a bill that would “block web content that incites or justifies criminal behavior.” This came about because Italian newspapers reported that Facebook was hosting fan sites for two imprisoned Mafia bosses. A spokeswoman for Facebook said the measure was “akin to shutting down the country’s entire railroad network because of some objectionable graffiti in one train station.”
The blogger licensing proposal has been around for a while, but it keeps cropping up. Italian dissident/comedian Beppo Grillo and some of his cohorts are leading the protest against it. They’re asking people around the world to send in photos with the words Free Blogger:
“Two million people are going to be unemployed within just one year in Italy. Yet our very own little Marie Antoniettes, firstly Levi (left wing) then Cassinelli (right wing) then D’Alia (center) now Carlucci (right wing) have nothing better to do than work day and night, PAID FOR BY US, in an attempt to gag the Web.”
Some people call Grillo the “Italian Obama” because of his strong belief in the power of the Internet. Here’s what Grillo said in a TV interview last week:
“Obama is copying me. He is copying all of us. I’m not joking. Obama has risen to stardom thanks to the Web… He is a man of the people and he is financed by the people. His very first speech was posted on Youtube and his support base is the people. It is a down-up, or upside down democracy.”
Grillo seems like an interesting character, maybe more like Italy’s Jon Stewart than its Barack Obama. Speaking of Stewart, CNBC’s Jim Cramer has agreed to go on the Daily Show tomorrow night to have it out with his new rival.
Should be pretty entertaining, and thankfully, I don’t need a license to blog about it.
- Mar 11, 2009 6:55 AM — Scott Jagow
- 1 comments
About Scott Jagow and Scratch Pad
Latest Posts
- Chart of the Day
- Airplanes going nowhere
- Morning Reading
- Deep thoughts, by Chuck Lorre
- I want you back
- The bottled water scam
- Morning Reading
- Pin the tail on the lobbyist
- Tied up in knots
- Damned if you do
- Morning Reading
- From totally chic to totally geek
- Crackberry overtime
- Swimming with sharks
- Wine, women and the economy
sponsor
Scott's favorite spots
- 24/7 Wall Street
- BailoutSleuth
- The Big Picture
- Businessweek/Michael Mandel
- Cafehayek
- Calculated Risk
- Carpe Diem
- Clusterstock
- Crossing Wall Street
- DealBook
- Dealbreaker
- Econlog
- Economist
- Economist's View
- Felix Salmon
- Footnoted
- FT Alphaville
- Greg Mankiw
- Growthology
- Infectious Greed
- Knowledge Problem
- LittleSis
- Marginal Revolution
- Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis
- The Money Blogs
- Naked Capitalism
- Paul Krugman
- Planet Money
- Real Clear Markets
- Seeking Alpha
- Silicon Alley Insider
- Sramana Mitra
- True/Slant
- Unemploymentality
- WSJ/Marketbeat
Sponsor
Comments (1)
March 11, 2009 10:37 AM PT
I read a ton of blogs, and I learn as much or more from them than I do with ‘mainstream’ news. But I read both. I’m glad people in the US don’t need government permission to blog- doing so would silence some very interesting voices.
I’ve been following Stewart’s skewering of CNBC- it’s comedy gold. He says more with the expressions on his face than pages of punditry.
I miss hearing you on the radio- but I am glad you’ve got the freedom to blog! The whole show- and the website- are great.