· February, 2009

Stories about Advocacy from February, 2009

Announcing Herdict Web: Report Inaccessibility Now!

25 February 2009

Global Voices Advocacy is proud to announce the launch of Herdict Web.  Herdict Web is a natural extension of The OpenNet Initiative; but whereas ONI views Internet filtering through an academic lens, Herdict Web crowdsources reports from users to discover, in real time, what users around the world are experiencing...

German-Egyptian blogger is released after 5 Days of Mental Abuse

  12 February 2009

I was repeatedly questioned about everything and I was terrified. Although I was not abused physically, I was blind-folded all the time. Officers kept saying to me, and I was threatened with long term imprisonment. They asked me if I supported Hamas, was working for Israel, and, being Christian, if I was an evangelist. I was never informed of any charges against me.

Egyptian: Second blogger arrested in less than a week

  10 February 2009

In less than a week, two Egyptian bloggers were arrested. The recent arrest occurred yesterday, February 9th, 2009, when central security forces broke into Diaa Eddin Gad, the owner of Sawt Ghadib blog (An Angry Voice). So far, the police did not reveal the reason behind his arrest or where he was being detained.

Egypt: Bloggers for Terrorism

  8 February 2009

Egyptian bloggers are posting their own photographs, posing with fake guns and pistols, on their blogs and Facebook groups as part of a new gimmick to draw attention to the plight of detained blogger Mohamed Adel. Find out more about Operation General Mait in this article by Lasto Adri.

Yemeni online journalist sends urgent appeal after death threats and hacking of his website

  6 February 2009

Mohamed Al-Jabali, the editor of Akhbaralasr news website is the latest casualty in a wave of intimidations targeting bloggers and online journalists in Yemen. In a statement made yesterday, Al-Jabali appealed for protection after receiving death threats in the capital Sanaa from the regime’s security apparatus. This comes just after his website was also hacked. The hackers, whom Al-Jabali said are elements of the regime, published a sarcastic entry on the front page with a picture of a monkey and an insult on the owner of the website Al-Jabali.

Japan: Bloggers respond to new filtering measures

  5 February 2009

Over the past week, Japan's major mobile phone operators have commenced filtering web access on mobile phones contracted to minors (users under 18 years of age), following on legislation introduced in late 2007 and on developments over the last year toward the regulation of “harmful” content. On January 30th, NTT...

Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) releases new legal circumvention tools

  4 February 2009

Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) is pleased to announce two new, easy, legal tools for circumventing Internet censorship. Thailand's Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, the Official Censor of the Military Coup, has blocked at least 17,775 websites which, along with blocking by the Royal Thai Police, resulted in more than 50,000 websites blocked in Thailand. Public webboard discussions, circumvention tools, voices from Thailand's Muslim South and critical commentary of Thailand's monarchy were particularly targetted for censorship.

India: Blogger silenced

  1 February 2009

Chyetanya Kunte is an Indian blogger living in the Netherlands. On 27th of November, 2008 during the terror attacks in Mumbai he wrote a blog post (now available through Google cache) criticizing Indian private television channel New Delhi Television (NDTV) and particularly their group editor Barkha Dutt's coverage of the...

Cambodia: Internet censorship targets artists

  1 February 2009

The Cambodian Ministry of Women's Affairs has threatened to block a Web site that contains artistic illustrations of bare-breasted Apsara dancers and a Khmer Rouge soldier. This censorship targets Cambodian artists who are more recognized not in offline exhibitions but through their presence on the world wide web.