May, 2009

Stories from May, 2009

Iran: FaceBook is accessible again

  26 May 2009

Iranian news sites and blogs report that FaceBook is not anymore filtered in Iran. Senoghteh says [fa] that national and international protest forced Iranian government to make FaceBook available again.

MENA: Introducing, “The Circumventer”

  24 May 2009

Alexandra Sandels, from MENASSAT, writes her interview with Walid Al-Saqaf, a Sweden-based Yemeni Internet expert, regarding the launch of his new program Al-Kasir (means the circumventer in Arabic) – during a summit on blogging in Cairo which was entitled “Blogging for the Future“. Al-Kasir, which is currently available in its...

Iran: Face Book and Twitter got Filtered

  23 May 2009

Several Iranian sites and blogs such as demokracy reported that Face Book and Twitter got filtered in Iran.Ghomar,says President Ahmadinejad wants to beat his rivals in the presidential election and they are much more present than him in the world of internet including Face Book.

Iran based Fararu site was filtered

  22 May 2009

Iran based Fararu news site announced [fa] today that Iranian authorities have filtered the site. Fararu's managers got no information about the reason (s) of filtering.

Malaysia: Proposal to register bloggers

  22 May 2009

Recent news reports state that Information, Communications and Culture Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim, announced that bloggers using locally hosted websites may be required to register with the authorities. According to Rais, registration was one of the measures the government was considering to prevent the spread of “negative” or “malicious content”...

China: Yunan web moderators’ disobedient act

  20 May 2009

In order to control online content and channel public opinion, local information ministry and propaganda department give daily instructions to webmasters and moderators of forums and portal websites to promote certain news and to delete certain posts. Recently, a number of forum moderators and webmasters from Yunnan province jointly refused...

Tunisia: Ammar 404 is Back and Censoring Blogs Again

  16 May 2009

After a short hiatus, the dreaded Ammar 404 has once again attacked the Tunisian blogosphere. Ammar is the nickname given by Tunisian bloggers to the censorship machine plaguing their access to the Internet and his victim this time is Zig Zag blog by 3amrouch. Tunisian bloggers show solidarity with their colleague by reprinting the material which blocked his blog in the first place.

Help Global Voices Advocacy win $3000 by writing one post

  13 May 2009

Help Global Voices Advocacy win $3000! The prize money would help us continue to raise awareness of attacks on online freedom of speech, and share tools and tactics with activists and bloggers facing censorship on different parts of the globe. All you have to do is write a post in your own blog, including the following text…

China: Electric torture in web addiction clinics

  12 May 2009

A reporter, Guo Jianloong (郭建龍) from 21st Century Business Herald, did an investigative report on Internet Addiction Clinic in China. His report could not be published in full because of internal censorship and he decided to publish it in his blog. A censored report In his report, he exposed the...

Bahrain: Threatening Online activism and blocking more sites

  11 May 2009

Minister of media and culture Mai Alkhalifa in her first interview with BNA (Bahrain News Agency) which is managed by her, again she threatening the online activism and said the blocking is the first step and we might take more steps to apply the roles “ خطوة الحجب جاءت كإجراء،...

Digital Activism & the 4Cs Social Media Framework

  11 May 2009

The 4Cs form a hierarchy of what is possible with social media. As we move from Content to Collaboration to Community to Collective Intelligence, it becomes increasingly difficult to both observe these layers and activate them. Although I designed the 4Cs framework to explain how I see social media, I have also found it to be a useful tools to evaluate specific social media initiatives.

Yemeni authorities prevents 6 newspapers from distribution

  4 May 2009

Yemeni government ordered the confiscation of six national newspapers, whose copies were pulled from the news stands and markets across the country yesterday alleging their role in promoting secessionism and anti-unity rhetoric. The move, according to observers, is unprecedented in recent Yemeni history and marks a serious downturn in the country's level of press freedom, which had already suffered several blows in the recent past.

Malaysia: Schizophrenic Attitude Towards New Media

  1 May 2009

News reports state that only thirteen media companies have been invited to the Perak Assembly sitting to be held on May 7, 2009. The sitting of the Malaysian state assembly of Perak is highly anticipated because of the current political climate in the state, which began when the ruling coalition, the...