Walid Al-Saqaf
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Walid Al-Saqaf is a print/online journalist turned cyber activist. He is the founder and administrator of Yemen Portal (yemenportal.net), a news and multi-content aggregator focused on content on his country (Yemen). His website got banned from access in Yemen by the authorities presumably for content the government considered harmful to ‘the national interest'. In response, he started an anti-censorship campaign (through blocked.arabiaportal.net) that resonated internationally. He currently stands as one of a few Arab cyber activists working on censorship circumventing technologies, the latest being the “Access YemenPortal” Firefox plug-in that was inspired by Iranian Hamed Saber's “Access Flickr!” extension. Walid holds a Master in Global Journalism and is currently pursuing his PhD at Örebro University in Sweden. He can be reached on admin [at] yemenportal [dot] net.
Latest posts by Walid Al-Saqaf
4 May 2009
Yemeni authorities prevents 6 newspapers from distribution
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.
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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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23 November 2008
Yemeni blogger appeals to prevent possible assassination
In a rather emotional entry posted on his blog, Nashwan Abdu Ali Ghanim, a Yemeni blogger with blogs on maktoobblogs.com and kitab.com called upon international advocacy groups and the Arab Bloggers Union to come for his rescue upon escaping 'three failed assassination attempts'. Ghanim believes that his latest blog entry noting the involvement of senior Yemeni officials in the plotting of the attack carried out against the U.S. embassy in Sana'a on September 17, 2008 triggered a new wave of harassments and life-threatening acts.
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23 September 2008
Yemen: Loui Has Been Set Free!
Yemen Hurr website announced yesterday in a press release that its founder and editor-in-chief Loui Al-Moayed has been released from prison yesterday after about more than 70 days in detention....
