My personal blog is at [fikra] فكرة (which means idea in Arabic).
I'm the co-founder of nawaat.org (which means the core in Arabic), a Tunisian collective blog about news and politics.
Latest posts by Sami Ben Gharbia
Anonymous Blogging with WordPress and Tor guide in Spanish
The Anonymous Blogging with WordPress and Tor guide is now available in Spanish thanks to this translation by our dear contributor Marianne Diaz. The guide outlines several methods of protecting one’s identity in order to avoid retaliation and can considerably reduce the risks that a blogger’s identity will be linked to his or her online writings through technical means.
Alert: Ali Abdulemam goes missing in Bahrain
We just received the following news from the Bahrain Human Rights Society alerting us about the missing of our dear friend and colleague Ali Abdulemam. Ali Abdulemam, a leading Bahraini...
Palestinian blogger arrested for criticism of Islam on Facebook
Palestinian blogger, Waleed Khalid Hasayin (pen name: Waleed Al-Husseini), a 26-year-old barber from the West Bank city of Qalqilya, has been arrested by the Palestinian authorities for creating a facebook...
Our Guide “Mirroring a Censored WordPress Blog” now available in French
Global Voices Advocacy is pleased to release the French translation of our Mirroring a Censored WordPress Blog guide. The guide has been written by Sami Ben Gharbia (Global Voices Advocacy Director), with Rebekah Heacock (a research assistant for the OpenNet Initiative) and Jeremy Clarke (Global Voices web developer and Wordpress designer), and translated by our friend, blogger Anna Guèye.
Our Guide “Mirroring a Censored WordPress Blog” is now available in Arabic
This guide is for bloggers with self-hosted* WordPress blogs who believe their sites may be blocked by government filters. Its goal is to help bloggers use a mirror site to make censored content available to readers despite these filters. It contains step-by-step instructions for setting up a mirror for an original (”source”) WordPress blog.
A First Glimpse at the Internet Filtering in Tunisia
We learned that the censorship imposed illegally on hundreds of Tunisian blogs and websites, both Tunisians and foreigners, was “shut off” temporarily for few hours on Monday, August 16, 2010....
Blackberry face growing pressure in the Gulf and India over encryption code
The United Arab Emirates’ Telecommunications Regulation Authority (TRA) and The Saudi Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) announced, respectively on August 1st 2010 and on August 5th, 2010, that they will block some functions of the Blackberry due to non-compliance with the regulatory requirements in both countries.
A Jordanian student sentenced to two years in prison over IM
According to the Next Web - Middle East, citing the Ammannet website, a Jordanian computer engineering student, by the name of Imad Al-Ash, has been arrested since February, 2010, and sentenced on July 13th, 2010, by state security court to two years in prison over charges of lèse majesté for sending an IM (Instant Message) to his friend
Anti-censorship movement in Tunisia: creativity, courage and hope!
Following the recent massive wave of online censorship carried out by the Tunisian censor, targeting major social websites, such as the popular video-sharing websites, flickr, blogs aggregators, blogs, facebook pages...
GV summit 2010 Videos: A Discussion of Content Moderation
During this panel discussion, Victoria Grand, Senior Manager for Communications at YouTube, speaks on content moderation processes providing a “behind-the-scenes” look at YouTube's content removal and deactivation policies. A “behind-the-scenes”...
Tunisia: Flickr, Video-sharing Websites, Blog Aggregators and Critical Blogs Are Not Welcome
Tunisia is carrying out one of the most massive wave of online censorship targeting major social websites, video-sharing websites, blogs aggregators, blogs, facebook pages and profiles. The most recent victim...
Guide: Mirroring a Censored WordPress Blog
Global Voices Advocacy is pleased to release another Advocacy 2.0 guide: Mirroring a Censored WordPress Blog. The guide, which has been written by Sami Ben Gharbia (Global Voices Advocacy Director), with Rebekah Heacock (a research assistant for the OpenNet Initiative) and Jeremy Clarke (Global Voices web developer and Wordpress designer), is for bloggers with self-hosted* WordPress blogs who believe their sites may be blocked by government filters. Its goal is to help bloggers use a mirror site to make censored content available to readers despite these filters. It contains step-by-step instructions for setting up a mirror for an original (”source”) WordPress blog.
Guide: SEO Tips for Advocacy Bloggers
Global Voices Advocacy is pleased to release its third Advocacy 2.0 Guides: SEO Tips for Advocacy Bloggers: How to Apply Search Engine Optimization to Grow Your Readership and Influence More People. The guide has been written by my friend and colleague, The Sudanese Thinker, a Global Voices author, an internet marketing and online business consultant, with an initial focus on SEO, and on managed 7-figure online properties.
Chronology of Major events surrounding censorship, hacking, DDOS and online Free Speech
Given the increasing importance of events surrounding Internet repression, especially after the Iran protest and the Google Vs China debacle, I was trying to collect this data over a period of time then display it on a timeline with useful links and videos (where available).
Tunisia: WAT.TV, the 3rd video-sharing website to be blocked!
Few days ago, the Tunisian regime has blocked access to WAT.TV, a social networking and media-sharing website, which is believed to be the 3rd video broadcaster on the Internet in...
Blog for a Cause! is now available in Macedonian.
Blog for a Cause!, the Global Voices Guide of Blog Advocacy, is now available in Macedonian thanks to this translation by Elena Ignatova from Global Voices in Macedonian. Blog for...
Youtube: Saudi young man impersonating a police officer arrested and charged with morality crimes
Update 1: On March 22nd, 2010, Pinkpaper.com reported that Ahmad al-Faqih was sent to jail for a year, fined $1,330, and will be lashed 1,000 times for appearing in a...
Libya blocks access to Youtube and independent websites
On January 24th, 2010, Libya Telecom and Technology (LTT) has blocked access to the popular video sharing website Youtube and to several Libyans based abroad political and independent websites such...
Philippine blogger facing libel suit filed by former Department of Social Welfare and Development Secretary
Januray 2010- In the Philippines, the National Bureau of Investigation filed a libel complaint against blogger Ella Ganda upon the request of former Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)...
2nd Arab Bloggers Meeting
The Heinrich Boell Foundation and Global Voices are organizing the Second Arab Bloggers Meeting in Beirut from the 8th till the 12th of December 2009. This meeting is a follow-up...
