December, 2009

Stories from December, 2009

China: Online protest against CNNIC

  22 December 2009

A group of webmasters puts up a protest website called FuckCNNIC to protest against the recent policy that bans individuals from registering CN domain. Last week, the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), the CN domain name supervision body, announced that starting from 21:00 on December 14, 2009, it would...

China: Battle against containment

  17 December 2009

A diagram has been circulated through twitter indicating how netizens in China fight against information blocking and manipulation by state institution in the past few days. Below is a translated version of the diagram. The red flags are government and party institutions involved in information regulation, opinion making and censorship....

Moroccan Blogger, Internet Cafe Owner, Sentenced

  15 December 2009

On Monday, December 14, Moroccan blogger Bashir Hazzam (also spelled Hazem, Hazzem) and Internet cafe owner Abdullah Boukhou were sentenced, to four months and one year, respectively, in a Goulmim court. Hazzam was sentenced for “spreading false information harmful to the kingdom's image on human rights,” while Boukhou's sentence was...

2009 a bad year for bloggers and freelance journalists

  15 December 2009

Freelance journalists and bloggers did not have a good year in 2009. According to Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) ” At least 60 freelance journalists are behind bars worldwide, nearly double the number from just three years ago. CPJ research shows the number of jailed freelancers has grown along with...

Interview with Jacob Appelbaum from Tor

  14 December 2009

Jacob Appelbaum is a computer security consultant and developer and advocate for the Tor Project, a tool and privacy network which protects internet users’ privacy and security. At the Arab Bloggers Workshop he gave a presentation about circumvention, online security, and anonymity. He is @ioerror on Twitter.

Tunisia: Student Mohamed Soudani Jailed for Media Interview

  14 December 2009

Tunisian student Mohamed Soudani, 24, disappeared on October 22, 2009, in Tunisia after giving interviews to Radio Monte Carlo International and Radio France International. Soudani was missing for 18 days until Tunisia’s police contacted his family inform them that he is detained in the Murnaguiya prison about 15km away from...

Moroccan Blogger Bashir Hazem Arrested

  11 December 2009

Moroccan blogger Bashir Hazem was arrested on December 8, 2009 following a protest in Tarjijt, during which students clashed with security forces, after posting a press release about the clash on his blog. He has been interrogated about his blogging, specifically his most recent post, which contained the signatures of a committee of arrested students. He faces trial on December 14, 2009.

Jacob Appelbaum Presents Tor at Arab Bloggers Workshop 2009

  9 December 2009

The second annual Arab Bloggers Workshop is currently taking place in Beirut, Lebanon (see other blog posts here); the Workshop consists of various presentations and smaller workshops on topics ranging from "Arab techies" to online campaigns to anonymity and circumvention technologies. Today, Jacob Appelbaum (@ioerror on Twitter)

Interview with Eman AbdElRahman

  9 December 2009

Eman AbdElRahman or “Lasto Adri” covers Egypt for Global Voices Online and is very active in the project Kolena Laila (in English here). The project devotes an annual day to raise awareness about the problems “facing oppressed women in the Arab region.” She also posts on her personal blogs Lasto...

China: English news translation platform shut down

  7 December 2009

A popular translation website Yeeyan.com was shut down by Chinese authority last week. The website had been online for two and a half year. It translated news content from English press by a community of volunteers and started collaborating with The Guardian since May 2009. There are some speculation that...

2nd Arab Bloggers Meeting

  5 December 2009

The Heinrich Boell Foundation and Global Voices are organizing the Second Arab Bloggers Meeting in Beirut from the 8th till the 12th of December 2009. This meeting is a follow-up to the First Arab Bloggers Meeting which took place in August last year in Beirut and was the first gathering...

Russia: Blogger Arrested For Pneumonic Plague Rumors

  4 December 2009

Ivan Peregorodiev, a 22-year-old medical student and blogger, has been arrested on December 3 for spreading rumors about pneumonic plague in the city of Saratov. Authorities accused him of disseminating false information related to an act of terrorism. On December 2, the Russian bloggers actively discussed allegations that a large...

United States: Justice Department's illegal “fishing expedition”

  2 December 2009

Philadelphia-based Indymedia.us was sent a subpoena by the Justice Department, demanding details of visitors on a certain day. Declan McCullagh at CBS News says that the Department also asked that the website not to disclose the existence of the subpoena. “The subpoena from U.S. Attorney Tim Morrison in Indianapolis demanded...