2008 April

April, 2008

Monthly archive

Featured stories from April 2008

Egypt: Facebooking the Struggle

After little less than a month following the April 6 strike, during which a number of prominent Egyptian bloggers and internet activists were arrested, preparations for the next round of a planned general strike to mark the 80th birthday of President Mubarak, on May 4, 2008, are currently spreading all...
Vietnam: Blogger Dieu Cay arrested

If you go to YouTube right now you can easily find footage from most of the stops along the ongoing Beijing Olympic Sacred Flame torch relay. On the San Francisco leg, protesters went viral, covering the event through Twitter, video and even audio live updates. Come next Tuesday, however, what...
Brazil: Bloggers united against WordPress ban

The Brazilian blogosphere has not quite yet recovered from its last fright and there is already another threat on the way: a blanket ban on blogs hosted on WordPress.com after a judicial court passed an order to close down a specific blog. Gabriela Zabo [pt] explains why: O motivo é...

30 April 2008
Egypt: Facebooking the Struggle

Written by Sami Ben Gharbia · Activism
24 April 2008
Vietnam: Blogger Dieu Cay arrested

Written by John Kennedy · Vietnam
12 April 2008
Brazil: Bloggers united against WordPress ban

Written by Paula Góes · Brazil

Stories from April, 2008

26 April 2008

Saudi Arabia: Blogger Fouad Alfarhan Released

Written by Sami Ben Gharbia · Saudi Arabia

Prominent Saudi blogger Fouad Alfarhan was freed today. He is back home in Jeddah after 137 days in custody. Alfarhan was arrested on 10 December 2007 for unspecified “violation of...

24 April 2008

Egyptian activists released

Written by Sami Ben Gharbia · Egypt

Two Egyptian activists, Esraa Abdel Fattah Ahmed, who launched the “6 April” Facebook group and blogger Mohamed Sharkawy, have been released. Both Esraa and Sharkawy were arrested on 5 April...

16 April 2008

UAE: Du prepares to block offensive websites

Written by Sami Ben Gharbia · United Arab Emirates

DU, the United Arab Emirates’ second Internet Service Provider serving Dubai free zones such as Dubai Media City, Dubai Internet City, Knowledge Village, Marina and other residential complexes, has started...

13 April 2008

Zeng Jinyan speaks out on Hu Jia's sentencing

Written by John Kennedy · Law

On the day after her husband's sentence to 3.5 years in prison for his blogging activities, house arrested blogger Zeng Jinyan wrote a letter explaining her side to their story....

7 April 2008

Japan: Major Parties Cooperate to Legislate Regulation of “Harmful” Internet Content

Written by Chris Salzberg · Japan

Japanese bloggers have been making noise the past few days [ja] in reaction to two separate bills, submitted first by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (LDP) and next...

5 April 2008

Indonesia blocks YouTube over “Fitna” the movie

Written by Sami Ben Gharbia · Indonesia

Update (Fri Apr 11, 2008): Indonesia has lifted the ban on Youtube.com. Internet service providers “would only block access to pages carrying the film by Geert Wilders” The vice chairman...