Stories about Middle East & North Africa from January, 2010
Egypt: blogger Wael Abbas sentenced to jail. Another still in prison despite judicial release order
The prominent Egypt blogger Wael Abbas has been sentenced 6 months in jail and LE 500 pounds (92 USD) as a judiciary bail, as a lawsuit was filed against him by a citizen and his police officer brother on charges of damaging an internet cable! Wael was ruled in absentia...
UAE e-magazine ordered shut.
Hetta, United Arab Emirates online magazine has been ordered shut after they lost an appeal case launched against it by the Abu Dhabi Media Company. The e-magazine which was the first of its kind when it was launched in 1996 also had its chief editor, Ahmad Mohammed Bin Gharib fined...
Egypt: Bloggers detained for showing Solidarity!
-Update (16 Jan, 1pm Cairo Timings): arrested activists in Naga Hammadi got a release order from a while, but its still unknown where/how will they be released from Qena or deported to Cairo. -Update (16 Jan, 2:50pm Cairo Timings): the arrested girls are all released and with the lawyers right...
Jordan to censor the internet
Jordan's Appeal Court has extended the reach of its print and publications law to cover electronic media, meaning that it will censor sites and blogs, writing in ArabCrunch, Gaith Saqer that, empowers authorities to prosecute or impose fines on any electronic medium of Publishing from SMS to the Internet user...
Iran's Intelligence Ministry listed 60 organizations as ‘soft war’ agents
Recently, a list of 60 organizations was published by Iranian ministry of intelligence with the accusation that they are active in the soft war against Islamic regime in Iran. Any collaboration with these organizations and media outlets with ties to these organizations will be regarded as a crime and banned....
New laws for cyber activists
Reports from Iran show that, conditions for cyber activists became much more difficult and dangerous. Recently, Iran’s prosecutor published a list about internet crimes. One of the prominent laws in this list claimed that distribution of links to circumvention tools or softwares is prohibited. It is also against the law...
Tunisia and Bahrain Block Individual Twitter Pages
First, governments blocked Blogspot. Then they blocked Facebook, and then Twitter. And just when technophiles all over the globe started groaning, a couple of governments got a bit wiser to social media and, rather than block the entire platform for the transgressions of one user, began blocking individual accounts instead....
Algeria Joins Filtering Fray
Algeria is the latest Arab country to join the ranks of Internet filterers, leaving only Iraq, Egypt, Libya, and Lebanon without widespread filtering. The first report of a blocked site came about a week ago, when users on Twitter reported www.rachad.org, the site of political movement Mouvement Rachad to be blocked. The sites have since been reported to Herdict.
Egypt: E-mail Monitor officially recognized
While the local and international media are getting more concerned about the Egyptian government's policy in restricting convoys to Gaza Strip, there isn't much information concerning the active monitoring of convoy members by the Egyptian government. Recently Foreign Affairs official revealed that e-mail communication among convoy members are monitored. In...
The Metaverse in the Arab World
Virtual worlds are becoming more complex and more intertwined with the actual world. Hence, their influence on real matters is increasing. I am speaking about the programs and games in which users, represented by avatars of their choice, can create 3D environments and virtually forge any imaginable object in them....
The Internet in post-Saddam Iraq
The status of the Internet in Iraq, regarding both governmental policies and usage, underwent a fundamental change following Saddam Husayn’s deposal in 2003. Still, as is true with so many other features of Iraqi life, Iraq does not constitute a single, homogenous unit with regard to the Internet. Along with...
Egypt: In Cairo International Airport …Be Careful if You Are A Blogger!
Meanwhile leading NGOs and studies centers all over the world becoming more interested in listening to the Arab bloggers and their digital activism, the Egyptian bloggers have bad luck in their country's airport! As a number of bloggers had problem in Cairo International airport, because of their views written online,...
