Stories about Middle East & North Africa from April, 2010
Tunisia: Flickr, Video-sharing Websites, Blog Aggregators and Critical Blogs Are Not Welcome
Tunisia is carrying out one of the most massive wave of online censorship targeting major social websites, video-sharing websites, blogs aggregators, blogs, facebook pages and profiles. The most recent victim of this wave is flickr, the popular and one of the best online photo-sharing website, blocked today, April 28th, 2010....
Egypt: Using Online Media & Digital Devices to Release Detainees
Earlier this month, the April 6 Youth Movement staged a protest in front of the Egyptian Peoples Assembly calling for more political freedoms and an end to Egypt's restrictive “emergency law”, which might be renewed this year, and might be enforced as well by a new “Counter-Terrorism law” which is expected to be extremely repressive. The Egyptian security forces responded to the protesting citizens with a brutal violence, making a score of arrests and convictions.
Morocco: Formerly Jailed Blogger Bashir Hazzam Tells His Story
Blogging can lead to jail in Morocco. Bashir Hazzam learned it the hard way when in last December the authorities arrested him for reporting on the violent events that shook his usually peaceful village. In the following interview the blogger tells his story.
Bahrain Bans BlackBerry Chat Groups
Bahrain recently banned the use of BlackBerry chat groups citing concerns over the “chaos and confusion” that would result from sharing and distributing local news through these groups, according to Abdullah Yateem, the Culture and Information Ministry assistant undersecretary for press and publication. With this move Bahrain set a precedent...
Tunisia: WAT.TV, the 3rd video-sharing website to be blocked!
Few days ago, the Tunisian regime has blocked access to WAT.TV, a social networking and media-sharing website, which is believed to be the 3rd video broadcaster on the Internet in France. This is also the third video-sharing website to be blocked in The country. First they blocked Dailymotion on September...
Lebanon: First Threatened Voice
Lebanon has been known and envied in the MENA region for its free cyberspace. Well not any more since March has marked Lebanon's first cyber censhorship incident. Layal Al Khatib has more details in this post.
Censorship Without Borders: A Moroccan Blogger's Experience
Naoufel Chaara is a talented Moroccan blogger. His website [Ar] has been recently nominated for the Deutsche Welle's 2010 BOBs international award in the Best Arabic Blog category. Naoufel's usually caustic views on people and power in his country and the Arab world, often pack a strong punch with his...
