Stories about Advocacy from October, 2011
Mexico Hosts Global Conference on Privacy and Free Speech
The Public Voice coalition will be hosting a global conference in Mexico City on October 31, 2011 and you are invited to take part in the conversation and interact with the panelists.
Egyptian Blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah Detained for 15 Days Pending Military Investigation
Egypt’s veteran blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah (@alaa) was detained today (Sunday, Oct. 30) for 15 days pending investigation after refusing to be interrogated by a military investigator, insisting on his...
Brazil: 1º Encontro Mundial de Blogueiros (First World Bloggers’ Conference)
This week a blogger conference–dubbed the 1º Encontro Mundial de Blogueiros (or First World Bloggers’ Conference)–is taking place in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil. Sponsored by Brazilian companies Petrobras and Sanepar,...
Detained Bloggers and Journalists in Syria: The List Gets Longer
Since the street protest movement began in March 2011 in Syria, threats and physical attacks against journalists have increased. The list of detained bloggers and journalists gets longer and includes foreign journalists arrested and deported. Among the latest, prominent blogger and programmer Hussein Ghrer, who disappeared on October 24.
Libya: Foreign Hackers and Surveillance
In the wake of the fall of Tripoli, reporters, researchers, and former employees of the Libyan Telecom and Technology company have been uncovering and sharing details about how the Libyan government surveilled and monitored internet and phone networks.
Egyptian Blogger's Summons Adds Fuel to Campaign Against Military Trials
Alaa Abd El Fattah, a well-known Egyptian blogger and activist who was imprisoned in 2006 under the Mubarak regime, learned on Monday that he has been summoned by a military prosecutor. He joins a growing list of Egyptian activists targeted by the military.
Syria: Prominent Blogger Disappears in Damascus
Syrian blogger Hussein Ghrer left his home in Damascus on Monday, October 24, and has not come back. He is a thirty-year-old married father of two. The most recent post on Ghrer's blog focuses on the arrest earlier this year of now-released Syrian blogger Anas Maarawi in the context of freedom in Syria.
Global Voices at the Silicon Valley Human Rights Summit
This week, San Francisco will play host to the Silicon Valley Human Rights Summit or RightsCon, a conference at which several members and friends of the Global Voices community will...
Tunisia: A chance to get things right?
At the Third Arab Bloggers Meeting in Tunis earlier this month, Moez Chakchouk, Chairman and CEO of the Tunisian Internet Agency, gave an amazing presentation in which he revealed that under Ben Ali, his agency had secretly tested censorship and surveillance software for Western companies. He wants to turn his agency into a transparent and neutral Internet exchange point. But whether he will succeed depends in part on the outcome of the October 23rd Constituent Assembly elections, and Tunisia's unfolding political process over the coming year.
Netizen Report: Occupy the Net Edition
This week we begin with Occupy Wall Street and the global "Occupy" protest movement: how the movement has galvanized hacktivists and citizen journalists, and how it has brought the issue of search and seizure of data on cellphone to the forefront in the United States and around the democratic world. We then move on to a roundup of the latest developments on surveillance and censorship, latest actions by companies both positive and negative, issues with Internet governance, and more. Don't forget to check out the list of upcoming events at the end of the post!
What it is and why it matters: Developing Internet Policy at the IGF 2011 in Nairobi
There are many reasons why the Internet Governance Forum that took place last week in Nairobi was completely impossible: A lack of interest from established players who have become weary of the forum and the format, a long stream of stakeholders who couldn't afford to fly to Africa and ongoing United Nations orchestrated debates on the future of the IGF. Even so, thousands of people traveled to the United Nations office in Nairobi to discuss the future of internet policy.
