February, 2009
Stories from February, 2009
12 February 2009
Bahrain and Qatar: Disappearing the Internet
It would seem that another crackdown on Internet freedoms is occurring in the Middle East. Once thought to be the last bastion of free speech, the Internet has recently been subjected to a spate of blockings; and while censorship is no new thing to the region, the willingness of countries such as Bahrain and Qatar to adopt strict Internet policies akin to those in neighboring Saudi Arabia has created a sense of alarm amongst the online community.
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10 February 2009
Egyptian: Second blogger arrested in less than a week
In less than a week, two Egyptian bloggers were arrested. The recent arrest occurred yesterday, February 9th, 2009, when central security forces broke into Diaa Eddin Gad, the owner of Sawt Ghadib blog (An Angry Voice). So far, the police did not reveal the reason behind his arrest or where he was being detained.
9 February 2009
8 February 2009
Egypt: Bloggers for Terrorism
Egyptian bloggers are posting their own photographs, posing with fake guns and pistols, on their blogs and Facebook groups as part of a new gimmick to draw attention to the plight of detained blogger Mohamed Adel. Find out more about Operation General Mait in this article by Lasto Adri.
6 February 2009
Yemeni online journalist sends urgent appeal after death threats and hacking of his website
Mohamed Al-Jabali, the editor of Akhbaralasr news website is the latest casualty in a wave of intimidations targeting bloggers and online journalists in Yemen. In a statement made yesterday, Al-Jabali appealed for protection after receiving death threats in the capital Sanaa from the regime’s security apparatus. This comes just after his website was also hacked. The hackers, whom Al-Jabali said are elements of the regime, published a sarcastic entry on the front page with a picture of a monkey and an insult on the owner of the website Al-Jabali.
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5 February 2009
Japan: Bloggers respond to new filtering measures
Over the past week, Japan's major mobile phone operators have commenced filtering web access on mobile phones contracted to minors (users under 18 years of age), following on legislation introduced...
