April, 2009

Stories from April, 2009

Madagascar: Transitional government is trampling on freedom of speech

  24 April 2009

A series of unfortunate decisions taken by the Andry TGV Rajoelina High Authority for the Transition (HAT) government is seriously threatening freedom of speech in Madagascar. First, there was the arrest of three demonstrators, most famously, “Razily“, the young man seen bearing a flag in this amateur video, before being...

Egypt: A New Detention Order for a Blogger Arrested Since 2007

  22 April 2009

In an unexplained action, Egyptian Ministry of Interior issued a new detention order for blogger and activist, Mos'ad Abu Fagr. The detained blogger was transferred again to Borg El Arab prison in Alexandria instead of north Sinai prison. This transfer imposes hardship on Abu Fagr's family to visit him, as they are based is the Sinai. Abu Fagr was arrested on 26 December 2007, but the court and D.A issued e

China: Free Wu Baoquan

  21 April 2009

Soon after Wang Shuai's defamation case spread widely via media report and got strong public support, the Henan province police apologized to Wang and he was given a symbolic compensation of RMB783.93. However, another outraging case has been exposed in inner Mongolia. A netizen, Wu Baoquan (吴保全), who had exposed...

While White-listing Syria, Linkedin Keeps Sudan's Internet Users Blocked!

  21 April 2009

After Linkedin the business social Network, blocked Internet users in Syria and then unblocked them and apologized (as ArabCrunch has reported.) It was confirmed that Internet users in Sudan (an African Arab country) still cannot access Linkedin, who were blocked by Linkedin since several months ago.

Iran: A Christian Blogger arrested

  19 April 2009

According to several sources an Iranian Christian blogger was arrested in the city of Isfahan in Iran about one month ago. He is a convert from Islam and he used to write about Bible in his blog.

LinkedIn Restores Services to Syrian Users

  19 April 2009

Last week, Global Voices Advocacy broke the news that Syrian users had been cut off from LinkedIn's services. The business-oriented social networking site had stated in e-mails to several of its users that, "Under the User Agreement, LinkedIn Users warrant that they are not prohibited from receiving U.S. origin products, including services or software. As such, and as a matter of corporate policy, we do not allow member accounts or access to our site from Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, or Syria."

Egypt: An Appeal For The Imprisonment Of A Blogger

  19 April 2009

An appeal for the sentence on the Egyptian blogger Ahmad Saad Abou Doma was presented yesterday. Lawyers from Hisham Mubarak center for Legal Aid requested the cancellation of a sentence of one year in prison and asked for a new trial to Doma, as he was trialed in a military...

Syria: Linkedin Kicks Off Syrian Users!

  18 April 2009

AnasOnline blog reports (Arabic link) that Linkedin (AC Group here) completely blocked all Syrian users. According to the blog post: 3 weeks ago when Linkedin blocked all Syrian IPs users , but they were able to access the site by using IP changing programs (such as Tor), but in the last days, Linkedin blocked all Syrian users even if they changed their IPs

Thailand: Nine new charges against Prachatai webmaster

  17 April 2009

Chiranuch Premchaiporn, webmaster of independent Thai online news portal Prachatai, was arrested on March 6 under Thailand’s Computer Crimes Act. Her charges resulted from allowing comments posted by readers of Prachatai’s online discussion fora alleged to be lèse majesté.

China: Netizen jailed for 8 days for mocking local government

  16 April 2009

A 24 year-old netizen Wang Shuai was jailed for 8 days for posting pictures that mocked at illegal land requisition in Henan Ningbao county in 6 March. Latest update on 17 of April from jinhua.cn via sz7 in the comment: Henan province police chief apologized to Wang and he was...

DigiActive Guide to Twitter for Activism

  14 April 2009

DigiActive, an organization dedicated to helping the world's grassroots activists use digital technology, has just released The DigiActive Guide to Twitter for Activism. Following the recent protests in Moldova, the value of Twitter as a tool for digital activism is more prominent than ever. Yet in addition to bringing greater awareness to that tool, the hype surrounding Moldova revealed misunderstanding of the value of of Twitter for activism and, even though the realists responded strongly, there was not a stand-alone resource which clearly defined how Twitter could be used by activists. DigiActive hopes this guide will fill that void.

Tunisia: Blogger's Home Raided, Laptop and CDs Robbed

  11 April 2009

The house of the Tunisian journalist and blogger Zied el-Heni has been raided last night (April 10, 2009). In a blog post published today, Zied wrote that his laptop and CDs which contain all his work have been robbed: "I am sorry to inform you that my house has been raided and robbed on April 10, 2009. They stole my laptop and CDs which contain the efforts of my work day and night...

France: ‘3 Strikes’ Internet piracy law defeated in parliament

  11 April 2009

France's parliament rejected Hadopi (la Haute Autorité pour la diffusion des œuvres et la protection des droits sur internet) bill on Thursday (09.04.2009) with the ruling UMP party failure (21-15) to approve the law. The law proposed two warnings and then, after a third violation, disconnection from the Internet for...

Prologue

  11 April 2009

My name is Tal and I'm proud to join GVA authors’ team. I intend to write about online free speech in Israel as well as Internet Filtering in the MENA and other current issues.

Moldova: “Grape Revolution” / “Twitter Revolution”

  11 April 2009

Peaceful protests that took place in Moldova's capital Chisinau on Monday, following the victory of the ruling Communist Party in the April 5 election, turned violent on Tuesday, as protesters stormed and set fire to the parliament building. While it's too early to speak of the outcome of the post-election uprising, one thing is sure: the impact of social media on facilitation and coverage of the protests in Moldova - which is known as "the poorest country in Europe" - has been outstanding.

Egypt: A Blogger Attacked in His House

  9 April 2009

At noon today, while Egyptian bloggers were in their jobs, or browsing the Internet, a Twitter message reached those following prominent blogger Wael Abbas, which read: My mother and I have been assaulted my a Police officer and his brother, they broke into our house and beat me up. My...