Latest posts by Sami Ben Gharbia from March, 2008
Slide blocked in Turkey
A Turkish court banned access to Slide, the maker of social networking widgets, for “harboring pictures and articles that are considered to be insulting to Ataturk.” In a note to Slide users in Turkey, Slide announced that it has contacted the Turkish government in hopes of resolving the issue: If...
Yemen blocks Maktoob blogging platform
Maktoobblog.com, one of the most popular Arab blogging platform, has been recently blocked in Yemen cutting off Yemeni Internet users from the more than 46960 blogs the service hosts. According to MaktoobBlog, there are currently 1226 Yemeni blogs hosted by the service. All of them disappeared from the Yemeni Internet....
Tunisia: relentless campaign against imprisoned blogger and journalist Slim Boukhdhir
In the last few weeks, Slim Boukhdhir, the 39-year old imprisoned blogger and journalist, is reported to have been subjected to an unusual level of harassment by prison authorities in the Sfax prison where he is serving the one-year sentence imposed by a Tunisian court on December 4th, 2007. Boukdhir...
Bloguer pour une cause !
We are pleased to announce the translation into French of Blog for a Cause!, the Global Voices Guide of Blog Advocacy thanks to Claire Ulrich from Global Voices en Français. Blog for a Cause! has already been translated into Spanish; the translation into Arabic, Chinese and Bengali is on...
Morocco: Fouad Mourtada free
Fouad Mourtada, the 26-year old IT engineer who has been arrested on February 5th, 2008 and sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of $1350 for creating a fake Facebook profile of King Mohammed VI’s younger brother, Prince Moulay Rachid, has been released about an hour ago. According...
Fouad Alfarhan: Three months in Jail
Three months after his arrest, on 10 December 2007, Saudi blogger Fouad Alfarhan remains jailed for unspecified “violation of non-security regulations.” At this occasion, his nine-year-old daughter Raghad sends him a message in this video published on Alfarhan's blog, which continues to be updated by his friends: A recent report...
EU: Towards a European Global Online Freedom Act
The European Parliament has passed a proposal (571 in favor, 38 against) to treat Internet censorship by national governments as a trade barrier. The proposal was submitted by European Parliament member (MEP) Jules Maaten of the Dutch conservative VVD party. The adopted Maaten amendment calls on the European Commission, “to...
The Blog for a Cause! guide is now available in Spanish
Download PDF Blog for a Cause!, the Global Voices Guide of Blog Advocacy, is now available in Spanish thanks to this translation by María Florencia Puente from Global voices en Español.