Stories about Feature from September, 2010
Hanoi arrested blogger Pham Minh Hoang for peacefully expressing his political view
Pham Minh Hoang, a blogger and lecturer at the Ho Chi Minh City Polytechnic Institute was arrested on August 13, 2010 for his blogging on democracy and social justice in Vietnam. Initially, the Vietnamese government detained him quietly but later acknowledged his arrest together with his three other colleagues: Pastor Duong Kim Khai, Ms Tran Thi Thuy and Mr Nguyen Thanh Tam. This was only after these arbitrary arrests were brought to the international attention by their colleagues from Viet Tan, a Vietnamese pro-democracy group.
China: Online novelist arrested for spreading obscenity
An online novelist, Yuan Ping (pseudo name), was arrested by the Dongguan city police for spreading obscene material on September 26. According to the report from Southern Metropolis, the novelist...
Thailand activist arrested after #IAL2010 needs your support!
Chiranuch Premchaiporn, Prachatai director was arrested at Bangkok International Suvarnabhumi Airport. A Journalist and anti-censorship believer (@Jiew on twitter) was returning from the Conference “Internet at Liberty 2010: The Promise and Peril of Free Expression” held in Budapest.
Mozambique: Government interference in SMS service
Much noise was made around the world about how the popular unrest against the rises in the cost of living in Maputo on September 1-2 was propagated by SMS messages by mobile...
Iran: Jailed blogger, Hossein Derakhshan (“Hoder”) may face death penalty
A reliable source has told Global Voices that Tehran's prosecutor is seeking the death penalty for jailed Iranian blogger Hossein Derakhshan (also known as “Hoder”). The presiding judge, named Salavati,...
Venezuela: Government vs. Social Networks, the battle continues.
Last week, the President of the Media Commission of the National Assembly, Manuel Villalba, declared that tomorrow, September 21, he’ll file a petition before the National Prosecutor against several websites (link: ES). The cause: during a spate of deceases of people belonging to the high spheres of the government, several people expressed their enjoyment for the deaths, in diverse social networks and forums. Regarding this matter, legislator Gustavo Capella declared that this investigation should also encompass twitter and facebook.
China: ID data verification system
Bloggers and twitterers are discussing the implementation of real name registration in Baidu's micro blogging platform, Baidu Shuoba. Some speculated that Baidu, the largest search engine company in China, is...
Syria: Tal al-Molouhi, a 19-year-old female blogger in jail for almost a year
Tal al-Molouhi, a Syrian blogger, was arrested by Syrian state security agents for posting poems on her blog about Palestine. Till now she is detained with no charges and no trial, whereabouts unknown, that her mother has appealed the Syrian president for her release. The Arabic blogosphere is calling for support.
Telefónica Spain and Net Neutrality
Spanish Bloggers are once again discussing net neutrality, but this time the focus is not on the Google-Verizon´s agreement and their policy offer in the U.S, but on something much...
Morocco: Blogger Receives Death Threats
Kacem who's a Moroccan blogger and activist openly writing about his atheism, says he received death threats on his Facebook inbox. Whilst the blogger insists he's not against Islam, he is calling for the right to freedom of conscience in his country.
Egypt: a new threat to Internet freedom
In a new try to impose more restrictions on Internet in Egypt allegedly keeping a new legal protection for intellectual property, the Egyptian minister of culture issued an administrative decision...
Bahrain: Ali Abdulemam, blogger and Global Voices contributor arrested
Ali Abdulemam, a leading Bahraini blogger and Global Voices Advocacy author, was arrested earlier today by the Bahraini authorities for allegedly spreading “false news” on BahrainOnline.org portal, one of the most popular pro-democracy outlets in Bahrain, amidst the worst sectarian crackdown by the government in years. The BahrainOnline portal is censored in Bahrain. He sent an email earlier today mentioning that he got a call from the Bahraini national security just before his arrest, then arrested him and alleged that he was trying to flee.
Oman: VPN Ban Soon
In the latest episode of internet censorship in Oman, the Telecom Regulation Authority of Oman has announced its plans to completely ban the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPN) and...
