Stories about Middle East & North Africa from August, 2010
A legal case against Nokia Siemens Networks
Saharkhiz believes that intelligence offices tracked his location through his limited cell phone usage and arrested him. So he and his son, Mehdi have filed a lawsuit in a U.S. Federal Court against Nokia Siemens Network that sold communications intercept technology to Iran which, according to him, was subsequently used by the government to monitor opposition activists.
Egypt: Security Department to Monitor Facebook and Support the Government
On 1st July, 2010, the Egyptian Ministry of Interior (MOI) has reportedly established a special department to monitor Facebook activities and content in Egypt according to the administrative decision 765. Based on the Kuwaiti newspaper Aljarida, this new MOI department works according to three shifts/8 hours each. Each shift is...
Iran: Jailed blogger Goudarzi receives NPC award
The National Press Club has announced the international recipient of the 2010 John Aubuchon Freedom of the Press Award is Iranian blogger Kouhyar Goudarzi, who is being held in Tehran's Evin Prison–notorious for its torture of detainees.
Iran: Blogger May Face Charge of ‘Waging War Against God’
There is a growing concern that Shiva Nazar Ahari, a jailed human rights activist, blogger, and editor of the Committee of Human Rights Reporters website in Iran, may be charged with moharbeh (waging war against God/enmity against God) in an upcoming trial. In Iran, this can carry a death sentence....
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. And although the information on this brief lifting of the censorship in the country is still contradictory – as some...
Online dictatorship in the Islamic Republic of Iran
Since the post-presidential election of 2009, the Islamic republic of Iran has intensified its crackdown on media including bloggers and even micro-blogging environments like Facebook and twitter. Although the crackdown on media has been a common practice in the Islamic republic, this time, the gravity of the situation is far...
Iran: One of Mayor's sites was filtered
According to reformist Kalmeh, and several bloggers, Iranian authorities filtered “Khbargozarieh Shar” (means city's news agency). This site belongs to Tehran's Mayor and no information about the reasons for this filtering was released.
Iran: Hamed Saber is out of jail
Aftab News reported on 9th of August that Iranian photo-blogger, Hamed Saber, was released on bail.
Iran: Unifying Filtering
Iranian authorities announced [fa] that filtering policy will be unified in country. According to the Islamic Republic's authorities an Iranian company, whose name was not announced, has won the contract to be in charge of filtering in country.
Skype has launched its Middle East headquarters
On June 28, 2010 Skype announced on its blog the opening of the company's first headquarters in the Middle East and Africa which will be located in Manama, Bahrain's capital. Rouzbeh Pasha, Business Development Manager for the Middle East region, will lead the company's operations in the region. The announcement...
Iran: A blogger among hunger strikers
Kouhyar Goodarzi, human rights activist and blogger, is one of 17 Iranian political prisoners who started their hunger strike at the end of July to protest against the poor prison conditions, the behaviour of prison officials, and the ban on visits.
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.
Blocking of Wikipedia reported in Iran
According to news published in English and Persian on July 25, the Wikipedia free encyclopedia website was blocked in Iran and could not be accessed. Users tryng to acess the website are having this blockpage stating “By refering to the law concerning computer related misdeeds (crimes) access to this site...
