Stories from August, 2008
China: Zeng Jinyan resurfaces with news of visit to Hu Jia
Since stating [zh] on August 3rd that she was going to be made to leave Beijing and soon after falling silent on Twitter, home-arrested blogger Zeng Jinyan has returned! She...
Malaysian blogs fly flag upside down
Since August 3rd, some Malaysian blogs have featured the national flag (or “Jalur Gemilang“) posted upside-down as a sign of a nation in distress. The call was said to be...
Malaysia: Deface If You Dare
Malaysian bloggers were up in arms again when blogger Bakaq aka ‘Penarik Beca’ was detained for sedition recently. Bakaq, whose real name is Abdul Rashi Abu Bakar, was detained (and since released) for defacing the Royal Malaysian Police crest by allegedly substituting the tiger in the emblem with a dog.
Tunisia seems to have blocked access to Facebook
Tunisia seems to have blocked access to Facebook today. Some Tunisian bloggers in the country report being unable to access the popular social networking website and took several screenshots of...
Turkey: Bloggers Banning Themselves
If you are a long-time follower of the Turkish blogosphere you will have undoubtedly heard about the Turkish ban on Wordpress....and the periodic bans on YouTube, and on the social-networking widget site Slide, oh..and now on Dailymotion as well. I think that is all? Isn't it? It is hard to keep track now-a-days and frustrating. Turkish bloggers feel the same way too, and are protesting the constant banning of sites by voluntarily banning their own.
Malaysia: What exactly is sedition?
It has been a tumultuous time for blogging and online expression in Malaysia. With the ongoing court cases with blogger and online news portal editor, Raja Petra Kamaruddin, as well as the detention of Malay language blogger, Abdul Bakar aka ‘Penarik Beca’, it is with little surprise that it has been reported that Malaysian foreign Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim, called for the creation of a council or other form of mechanism to monitor bloggers.
Internet and South Ossetia Crisis
During the South Ossetia crisis, many people looked at the most popular Georgian pages to gather information about the situation. Big surprise, sites like the popular forum.ge or liberty.ge were not working and official sites were blocked or hacked.
China: Citizen reporter Zuola under ‘town arrest’
Chinese citizen reporter Zhou "Zuola" Shuguang has yet another encounter with various law enforcement bodies near his hometown today, tweeted it live, and learned that he is under several forms of heavy surveillance.
Iran: A conservative site was filtered
Alef, an Iranian conservative site, was filtered a few days ago. Several sites and blogs report that Alef has published Iranian Minister of Interior's “fake” Ph.D certificate from Oxford where...
China: More foreigners protest, aided by 2.0 tools
One (possibly) last protest post before we get back on topic around here; first is the pseudo-guerrilla Exodus 8:1 mission of Christian activist Eddie ‘iamgadfly’ Romero for human rights in...
Turkey: Dailymotion blocked
Access to the french video-sharing website Dailymotion.com has been blocked in Turkey since August 2nd 2008. According to Erkan Saka, an Istanbul-based blogger, “the decision to ban the site came...
Sudan: YouTube Blocked
YouTube has been partially blocked for internet users in Sudan for reasons that are still unknown. Some Sudanese in the country report being able to access YouTube without any problems, while others report being sent to a page with the following message: "Sorry, this page has been blocked by National Telecommunication Corporation."
