· September, 2011

Stories about Legal Threats from September, 2011

Mexico: Online Activists Targeted

  30 September 2011

After being reported missing on the 23 September 2011 - after leaving the office Elizabeth Macias Castro, Chief Editor for the daily newspaper “Primera Hora”, was found dead in a public plaza on 24 September 2011 near Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipa. A message was attached to Elizabeth’s body accusing her of collaborating with the army and marine intelligence services by posting information online that related to organized crime activities.

Kuwait: Three Netizens Detained

  28 September 2011

Kuwait does not have a history of detaining citizens for expressing their views online; the first arrest case in relevance to the internet happened to Bashar Al-Sayegh (@balsayegh) a Kuwaiti journalist who was detained by the State Security Police four years ago because of a post written in a forum...

MagyarLeaks: This Is A Test of the Hungarian Media Law

  19 September 2011

Not long after the launch of the first Hungarian whistleblower website police started an investigation against its editor-in-chief. Reason: “keeping the confidentiality of informants is perjury, or even aiding or abetting in the blackmailing.” Atlatszo.hu is a watchdog NGO and online magazine for investigative journalism started in July 2011 by Tamás Bodoky and other pro-transparency and anti-corruption journalists, and lawyers, IT-specialists, academics, independent experts. (The meaning of the word ‘átlátszó’ is ‘transparent’ in Hungarian.)

Egypt: On Maikel Nabil, first blogger to be jailed since January 25

  7 September 2011

Maikel Nabil , the first Egyptian blogger to be jailed since the January 25 revolution started, has been on a hunger strike since Monday, August 22. On August 30, Maikel stopped taking any liquids, including water. He was taken to a hospital two days later after falling into a coma....

Two mexican citizens face jail over “terrorism” via social networks

  6 September 2011

Marucho Bravo Pagola (@maruchibravo) and Gilberto Martínez Vera (@gillus_22) are two Mexican citizens arrested under charges of “terrorism and sabotage” in the State of Veracruz in México, after being held responsible of spreading rumours of a narco related attack trough Twitter and Facebook. Daniel Hernández in Los Angeles Times writes:...

Police lèse majesté “experts” in Prachatai trial

  2 September 2011

A capacity crowd of supporters filled the lèse majesté trial of Chiranuch Premchaiporn, webmaster of Thailand’s independent online news portal Prachatai, which continued into its seventh day at Bangkok’s Criminal Court. Yesterday’s animated senior judge, The Honourable Kampol Rungrat, was joined by a second. An affable police major-general, Suraphon Tuanphong,...