December, 2007

Stories from December, 2007

Saudi Arabia: Free Fouad Update

  26 December 2007

Update 1: Responding to repeated requests for comment with a brief cellphone text message, a spokesperson for the Saudi Interior Ministry, confirmed yesterday that blogger Fouad Alfarhan was being held for “interrogation for violating non-security regulations.” Update 2: According the the NY Times, the spokesperson for the Saudi Interior Ministry...

Iran: Police raid Internet cafes

  19 December 2007

Radio Free Europe reported that police force in Iran's capital, Tehran, have raided Internet cafes closing down 25 and warning 170 cafe owners for “using immoral computer games and storing obscene photos,” and for the presence of women without “proper hijab”. According to the report, 23 people have been detained...

Japan: Final Report on Internet Regulation

  16 December 2007

The idea that a country boasting one of the world's most active net cultures, with possibly the world's largest blogosphere and almost certainly its largest online forum, would attempt to regulate online content within its borders may appear to some not only far-fetched, but infeasible. Plans unveiled (with little fanfare)...

The Anonymous Blogging guide is now available in French

11 December 2007

Download PDF The Anonymous Blogging with WordPress and Tor guide is now available in French thanks to this translation by the Tunisian blogger Malek Khadhraoui, and we are busy making translations into other languages. The guide outlines several methods of protecting one’s identity in order to avoid retaliation and can...

Blogger Kareem Amer awarded by RSF & Fondation de France

  8 December 2007

The jailed Egyptian blogger Kareem Nabeel Sulaiman was awarded this year's Human Rights Prize in the category “Cyber-dissident” by Reporters without Borders (RSF) and “Fondation de France“: The young Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer is the laureate in the Cyber-dissident category. The 23-year-old was sentenced to four years in jail for...

China: A blow to citizen bloggers

  8 December 2007

Below is Zola's recount of what he's been through over the past few days and his abrupt conclusion. In a second blog post since his forced return earlier this week he talks of redirecting the space to focus more on blogger education, but also mentions some unfinished business related to...

China: Citizen reporter arrested, escorted home

  5 December 2007

Zhou “Zola” Shuguang, the IT blogger/Hunan vegetable vendor turned brave young citizen reporter with his blog coverage of the Chongqing Nailhouse earlier this year, was detained by police on Monday and sent home under constant police escort.

Tunisian blogger/journalist arrested

  3 December 2007

Update: A Tunisian court has sentenced today blogger and journalist Slim Boukhdhir to one-year prison terms for “aggression against a public employee”. The outspoken Tunisian journalist and blogger Slim Boukhdir has been arrested on November 26 and charged with “aggression against a public employee” and “affront to public decency”. According...