Stories from March, 2009
Malaysia: Reporters Without Borders speaks up for Raja Petra
Reporters Without Borders (RSF), an organisation that defends press freedom worldwide, has rallied to the aid of Raja Petra Kamaruddin (RPK), Malaysia's renowned blogger. Secretary-general of RSF, Jean-François Julliard, wrote in February to Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin Ibni Almarhum Sultan Mahmud Al Mukhtafi Billah Shah, the king of Malaysia, asking him to intercede...
Hassan Barhon: yet another Moroccan blogger sued for defamation
Moroccan blogger and anti-corruption journalist, Hassan Barhon, who has been arrested since February 25th for exposing a corruption case involving the prosecutor-general for the king of Morocco at Tetouan’s court of appeals, Mohamed Masmouki, is due to appear before a court in Tetouan today.
China: Youtube On and Off
Update: Shizhao from Twitter just reported that youtube is now back to normal (Beijing time March 6: 10:40am). Youtube has been reported blocked in China for two days (March 4-5). According to William Long, netizens failed to access the youtube website since March 4, 8:00pm. The website came back around...
Two Egyptian bloggers arrested and held in unknown locations in less than a month
An Egypt Facebook activist was abducted by Police soliders, who attacked his home at 3:30am, shortly before the break of dawn. Rami El- Swaisi, 21, was taken to an unknown place since 2 days, when Officers and armed police soldiers broke into the home in Giza and took some of his personal property including his cell phone, laptop, and wallet.
China: Unlicensed websites expelled and blocked
Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued a notice concerning a special action on website licensing and demanded all Internet Service Providers (ISP) to close down websites that do not have Internet Content Provider (ICP) license before 16:00, Feb 24, 2009. The notice also demanded ISPs to...
