· April, 2009

Stories about Advocacy from April, 2009

Egypt: Local Report Documents Violations against 43 Internet Users

  29 April 2009

The prominent Egyptian NGO Hisham Mubarak Center for Law (HMCL) issued a report, titled “Egypt on the Crossroad …2008“, documenting the status of freedom of expression in the country during the year 2008, including the detention and harassment of bloggers. The report (download the report in Arabic) has an exclusive...

Egypt: A New Detention Order for a Blogger Arrested Since 2007

  22 April 2009

In an unexplained action, Egyptian Ministry of Interior issued a new detention order for blogger and activist, Mos'ad Abu Fagr. The detained blogger was transferred again to Borg El Arab prison in Alexandria instead of north Sinai prison. This transfer imposes hardship on Abu Fagr's family to visit him, as they are based is the Sinai. Abu Fagr was arrested on 26 December 2007, but the court and D.A issued e

Egypt: An Appeal For The Imprisonment Of A Blogger

  19 April 2009

An appeal for the sentence on the Egyptian blogger Ahmad Saad Abou Doma was presented yesterday. Lawyers from Hisham Mubarak center for Legal Aid requested the cancellation of a sentence of one year in prison and asked for a new trial to Doma, as he was trialed in a military...

Syria: Linkedin Kicks Off Syrian Users!

  18 April 2009

AnasOnline blog reports (Arabic link) that Linkedin (AC Group here) completely blocked all Syrian users. According to the blog post: 3 weeks ago when Linkedin blocked all Syrian IPs users , but they were able to access the site by using IP changing programs (such as Tor), but in the last days, Linkedin blocked all Syrian users even if they changed their IPs

Thailand: Nine new charges against Prachatai webmaster

  17 April 2009

Chiranuch Premchaiporn, webmaster of independent Thai online news portal Prachatai, was arrested on March 6 under Thailand’s Computer Crimes Act. Her charges resulted from allowing comments posted by readers of Prachatai’s online discussion fora alleged to be lèse majesté.

DigiActive Guide to Twitter for Activism

  14 April 2009

DigiActive, an organization dedicated to helping the world's grassroots activists use digital technology, has just released The DigiActive Guide to Twitter for Activism. Following the recent protests in Moldova, the value of Twitter as a tool for digital activism is more prominent than ever. Yet in addition to bringing greater awareness to that tool, the hype surrounding Moldova revealed misunderstanding of the value of of Twitter for activism and, even though the realists responded strongly, there was not a stand-alone resource which clearly defined how Twitter could be used by activists. DigiActive hopes this guide will fill that void.

Tunisia: Blogger's Home Raided, Laptop and CDs Robbed

  11 April 2009

The house of the Tunisian journalist and blogger Zied el-Heni has been raided last night (April 10, 2009). In a blog post published today, Zied wrote that his laptop and CDs which contain all his work have been robbed: "I am sorry to inform you that my house has been raided and robbed on April 10, 2009. They stole my laptop and CDs which contain the efforts of my work day and night...

Prologue

11 April 2009

My name is Tal and I'm proud to join GVA authors’ team. I intend to write about online free speech in Israel as well as Internet Filtering in the MENA and other current issues.

Moldova: “Grape Revolution” / “Twitter Revolution”

  11 April 2009

Peaceful protests that took place in Moldova's capital Chisinau on Monday, following the victory of the ruling Communist Party in the April 5 election, turned violent on Tuesday, as protesters stormed and set fire to the parliament building. While it's too early to speak of the outcome of the post-election uprising, one thing is sure: the impact of social media on facilitation and coverage of the protests in Moldova - which is known as "the poorest country in Europe" - has been outstanding.

Egypt: A Blogger Attacked in His House

  9 April 2009

At noon today, while Egyptian bloggers were in their jobs, or browsing the Internet, a Twitter message reached those following prominent blogger Wael Abbas, which read: My mother and I have been assaulted my a Police officer and his brother, they broke into our house and beat me up. My...

Interview with Robert Guerra about the Freedom on the Net Index

3 April 2009

A new report on Internet freedom was launched by Freedom House, an organization which monitors freedom around the world. The "Freedom on the Net" study surveyed 15 countries on the basis of two key components: access to Web and mobile technology and the free flow of information through it. The report covered events that took place in the years 2007 and 2008, identifying new emerging threats to Internet freedom.

Madagascar: Security forces are harassing bloggers and twitterers

  2 April 2009

Opponents to the Haute Autorite de la Transition (High Authority for the Transition) have been holding daily demonstrations in the Malagasy capital since March 21, 2009. Last saturday's protest was harshly repressed by the security forces, and resulted in at least 34 injured people, including children. During the protest, a...