Sami Ben Gharbia · April, 2008

Latest posts by Sami Ben Gharbia from April, 2008

Egypt: Facebooking the Struggle

  30 April 2008

After little less than a month following the April 6 strike, during which a number of prominent Egyptian bloggers and internet activists were arrested, preparations for the next round of a planned general strike to mark the 80th birthday of President Mubarak, on May 4, 2008, are currently spreading all over the blogosphere and the Internet. Blogger and activist Nora Younis shares some of her ideas with us about the role of Internet in Egypt as a platform for political activism.

Egyptian activists released

  24 April 2008

Two Egyptian activists, Esraa Abdel Fattah Ahmed, who launched the “6 April” Facebook group and blogger Mohamed Sharkawy, have been released. Both Esraa and Sharkawy were arrested on 5 April while distributing leaflets announcing the 6 April strike.

UAE: Du prepares to block offensive websites

  16 April 2008

DU, the United Arab Emirates’ second Internet Service Provider serving Dubai free zones such as Dubai Media City, Dubai Internet City, Knowledge Village, Marina and other residential complexes, has started blocking access to websites that are considered “morally harmful” and offensive to local “moral, social and cultural values”. According to...

Indonesia blocks YouTube over “Fitna” the movie

  5 April 2008

Update (Fri Apr 11, 2008): Indonesia has lifted the ban on Youtube.com. Internet service providers “would only block access to pages carrying the film by Geert Wilders” The vice chairman of the Indonesian Internet Providers Association said. The Indonesian government has ordered the country’s internet service providers to block YouTube...

Saudi Arabia: Fouad Alfarhan's blog and Freefouad blocked

  3 April 2008

The blog of the detained Saudi blogger Fouad Alfarhan has been blocked today in Saudi Arabia, along with Freefouad website dedicated to Alfarhan's case and the pro-reformist blog Freedoms. Users trying to access these blogs from Saudi Arabia were met with a notice saying “Blocked URL. Dear User, Sorry, the...