Stories from December, 2011
Iran: Blogger May Face Death Penalty
Several bloggers and news sites reported [fa] that Mohammad Reza Pour Shajari, a jailed blogger , may face charge of ‘Waging War Against God’ (moharebeh). A death sentence can be...
China: Micro-blog real name registration extended to Guangzhou and Shenzhen
The regulation of real name registration for micro-blogging platform has extended from Beijing to Guangzhou and Shenzhen. According to local report [zh], the real name registration requirement is started today...
Iran: Jailed blogger stopped his hunger strike
Several sites reported [fa] that Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, Iranian jailed blogger stopped his hunger strike after about one week.Hossein is serving a 15 year prison sentence in the security ward...
China: Real Name Registration for Micro-blogging
The Beijing city government introduced a new set of regulations on December 16, 2011 to control the flow of information in micro-blogging platforms. The Beijing Municipal Regulations Concerning the Development...
Bahrain: Blogger Zainab Al-Khawaja Brutally Arrested
Bahraini blogger Zainab Al-Khawaja, whose tweets @angryarabiya are keeping the world up-to-date with atrocities committed by the Bahraini regime against protesters, was brutally arrested on Friday. The mother of a two-year-old, whose father and husband are in jail, has been detained for seven days pending investigation. Netizens were on the ground and documented her arrest.
PalConnect: Palestine's First-Ever Social Media Conference
Palestine had its first-ever social media conference on December 4-6, 2011. It brought together Palestinian social media activists from across Palestine with the goal of supporting the development of local digital activism.
Iran: Jailed blogger on hunger strike
Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, jailed blogger, is on hunger strike [fa] over his jail's conditions. Hossein is serving a 15 year prison sentence in the security ward of Evin Prison.
SOPA undermines the U.S. in its negotiations for a free, open Internet
Yesterday, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) approved a Recommendation on Principles for Internet Policy Making [pdf]. It contains a set of 14 principles intended as a blueprint...
Netizen Report: Fight for the Future Edition
As we celebrate the birth of Khaled Alaa Abdel Fattah, born last Tuesday to two Egyptian cyber-activists: mother Manal Bahey al-Din Hassan and father Alaa Abd El-Fattah who is currently in prison, we ask ourselves: "What are we doing to make sure that our children will even be able to use the Internet to fight for their rights speak truth to power?"
Syria: Free Razan Ghazzawi
Syrian authorities have arrested blogger Razan Ghazzawi on the Syrian-Jordanian border today. Ghazzawi, who was arrested on the Syrian-Jordanian border, was on her way to Amman to attend a workshop on press freedom in the Arab world. Her arrest has drawn criticism and anger from bloggers and activists around the world, who called for her immediate release.
For Chinese Netizens, SOPA is Another Great Firewall
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which expected to brought to a vote in U.S. House of Representatives before the end of the year, has spawned sarcastic commentary around the Chinese-language Internet. The Chinese government has long been criticized by Americans for obstructing the free flow of information through a filtering system popularly known as the Great Firewall. Now it is Chinese neitzens' turn to sneer at proposals for a Made-in-America Great Firewall.
