Recently I had a quick post about my friend No Neck Noel who was deported from Beijing for capturing a Tibetan protest on video.
Well, No Neck gave me even worse news today. Brian Conely and James Powderly have been arrested.
I know James Powderly from the Graffiti Research Lab – which I reported on for Wired News in 2006. We emailed a few times back and forth after that. I admit it has been some time since we’ve chatted – but I can certainly attest – he doesn’t deserve to be arrested.
Brian Conely I met at the Networked Journalism Summit last year (coming again soon). I am a full supporter of his work – bringing citizen journalism tools and practices to countries around the world that need it.
You can find out more here: Beijing6.org. I normally don’t blog much about world affairs – but I find the relationship that China has with the freedom of speech so incredibly despotic. I have trouble wrapping my head around the culture that can let this continue. Here I am trying to fundraise money so we can literally call out the powers that be in the advertising they create in San Francisco – and in China a visitor can be arrested for invoking what I would consider a human right – to communicate.
I wish nothing but the best for James, Brian and the other folk that have been detained. I hope they are released soon.