Stories from May, 2008
Introduction about censorship in Uzbekistan
Now Uzbek bloggers have problems with renewal of their blogs. Sometimes in order to post information they send it by e-mail to their friends outside Uzbekistan and they publish it. This situation reduces democratic processes in the country. Not all bloggers have reliable friends outside the country and to make a request to post your new article every time is not comfortable.
China: Political blogger arrested, computer confiscated
Guo Quan, co-founder of China's Netizen Party and litigant in a recent lawsuit against Yahoo!, had his computer confiscated over the weekend and is now halfway through a ten-day detention period. According to the Guardian newspaper, Guo's arrest, carried out as he was walking his son to school, comes “because...
China: Ethnically diverse forum shut down
[Sept. 6 update: Northwest Chinese netizens allowed to exist again! Thanks to Fool's Mountain we see that Uighur Online is back and living up to its name.] On May 15, Uighur Online, the main online forum serving to bridge the huge communication gap between China's Muslim population, other minority ethnic...
Iran:12 women sites got filtered in last 24 hours
Change4equality says [Fa] that 12 Iranian sites supporting women's rights such as Change4equality or Photochange got filtered by Iranian authorities today,19th of May.
Letter from Egyptian blogger in hunger strike after detention and torture
Below is a translation by Amnesiac of a letter handed out at a Journalists’ Syndicate protest about the individuals still being detained in connection with the April 6th strike, among them blogger Kareem El Beheiry
Egypt: Torture for Bloggers and Activists
Egyptian bloggers, cyberactivists and activists on the ground continue to pay the price for speaking up against the rising cost of living and calling for higher wages and a better life. What started as a call for a strike on April 6, quickly spiralled out of control, with a face off between rioters, protesters and the police. Here's an account of what has happened and is still happening to some of the activists who have used the worldwide web to spread news of what is happening at home.
Israel: Knesset Freezes Talkback Law for Web-Comment Censorship
The Knesset has decided to freeze legislation regulating readers’ ability to respond to articles via the so-called “Talkback Law”, in an effort to allow web sites to practice self-regulation. The Talkback Law, submitted by MK Israel Hasson (Yisrael Beiteinu), passed its preliminary reading. It would make web sites responsible for...
Syria: Three-Year Sentence for Blogger Tariq Baiasi
On Sunday 11-5-2008 the State Security Court in Damascus stated its verdict on the Syrian blogger Tariq Baiasi who was held in detention since 7-7-2007. Tariq was detained for leaving a comment on websites disfavored by the Syrian government.
Egypt: leading opposition website blocked
According to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, the website of the leading Egyptian Movement for Change – Kefaya, has been blocked in Egypt since May 4 by the government-owned Internet service provider TE Data, Egypt's largest ISP: Many of Kefaya website visitors were surprised of their disability to...
Syria Blocks the Arabic Wikipedia
According to anasonline blog, access to Wikipedia Arabic, the Arabic language version of the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia, is now blocked by all ISPs in Syria.
Malaysia: Vigil for jailed Raja Petra this evening
Take note of what's been happening in Malaysia these past few days since popular blogger and political commentator Raja Petra Kamarudin, 58, was imprisoned on Tuesday after a trial which saw him charged with sedition for having written a blog post. If the Malaysian government was truly worried about bloggers...
Saudi Arabia: Freedom for Fouad Al Farhan
Saudi blogger Fouad Al Farhan is now a free man, after spending 137 days in detention in Jeddah. While bloggers have all along speculated why he has been held by the authorities for this long, Arab bloggers are unanimously excited over his release. And they also share their hopes for the release of other jailed bloggers.
Brazil: WordPress attorney blogs about the blocking
Marcel Leonardi [pt], the Brazilian attorney who is representing WordPress in the case of a possible ban on the platform in the country, blogs: “In the motion filled by the Automattic Inc. [on Monday], among other pieces of information, it has been highlighted the tremendous damage that the blanket ban...
