Global Voices Advocacy » COUNTRIES

Iran: Journalists Threatened by Email “You Will be Punished”

Fred Petrossian — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:43:44 +0000

Reliable sources, including one Iranian journalist, have told Global Voices that several Iranian activists and journalists have received an email threatening that they will be punished according to the “Islamic Punishment” law of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The subject of the email is “warning” [hoshdar in Persian] and the message says they have information and documents that implicates a list of people who are working actively “for the goals of foreigners” and who support seditious activity. The sender of the email is anonymous.

A screenshot of the email's subject line and sender with the body blacked out. Source: Global Voices

The email in Persian says:

هشدار: بر اساس اطلاعات و اسناد بدست آمده، لیست برخی از ایمیل ها و اسامی مختلف فعال در راستای اهداف بیگانگان و حمایت از فتنه گران شناسایی گردیده که ایمیل شما نیز در لیست مدنظر وجود دارد.
لذا در صورت اصرار بر فعالیت غیر قانونی، برابر مواد 498، 499 و 510 قانون مجازات اسلامی، تحت پیگرد قرار خواهید گرفت.

Your email is on the list. If you continue your illegal activity, you will be punished in accordance with articles 498,499,510 of the Islamic Punishment Law.

These articles [fa] refer to crimes against the country's security.

According to article 498, anybody who organises a group with more than two people who aims to disturb a country's security will be jailed from two to ten years. Article 499 says any member of this group can face three months to five years in jail. Article 510 says people who hide spies who want to hurt country with the help of an enemy, can face from six months to three years of jail.

The email is intended to provoke fear, but has no signature. One recipient demonstrated to Global Voices that the email was sent from an anonymous Live.com email account (breaking_news@live.com) a Microsoft email service.

Iranians know to be concerned of violations of their online privacy. On September 2011, A growing number of Iranian bloggers expressed their anxieties after learning that their Gmail inboxes may have been an open book for the Iranian state to read and target dissidents for two months.

In 2011, people who once sent SMS mobile phone messages to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Persian service, received a threatening message:

“Dear citizen, based on information we received you have fallen under the influence of the anti-security propaganda of media connected with foreign powers.

“If you establish contact with media based outside the country, you will be guilty of violating the following articles of Islamic law (…) and we will deal with you according to the law.”

Today it is threatening email, yesterday it was an SMS text. But the message is the same: To sow fear and reap inaction.

China: Activist's Wife and Son Harassed Online

Oiwan Lam — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 03:51:26 +0000

An anonymous Twitter user has disclosed Wen Yunchao, his wife and son's personal information online. Wen is an outspoken blogger and free speech activist on the Chinese Internet and has been a subject of attack for the past few years. His gmail account has been hacked several times and personality assassination photos spread through the internet.

This time, his wife and son has become target of the organized attack. Today Wen Yunchao posted a screen capture on his Twitter account. The screen capture showed that an anonymous Twitter user has used the peer to peer @ function to distribute personal information, including identity cards numbers of Wen's family:

The messages, in translation said:

@chenachao I am Wen Yunchao, commissioned by the U.S. FBA to establish an online combat team, each of the member would received US5000 per month. If you don't believe in me, you can held my wife and son in hostage. I will strictly under your monitor. My sell phone is: XXXXXXX identity card number is: XXXXXXXXXXX

@wgwhappy passport number: XXXXXXXXX Hong Kong and Macau Visa: XXXXXXXXX. Wife: XXX. Wife's identity card number: XXXXXXXXXX Son: XXX Son's identity card number: XXXXXXXXXXXX.

All the numbers are valid and only the mainland Chinese police department could get access to such details information. Meanwhile Wen Yunchao is based in Hong Kong with a working visa.

China: Chinese Communist Party Plans To Lead Microblogging Platform

Oiwan Lam — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:54:27 +0000

In China, all conventional media outlets are under the direct leadership of Chinese Communist Party (CCP). A CCP secretary is planted in every media organization to oversee the content and give direction to the editors and reporters what to highlight and what to censor. Same arrangement would be introduced to the governing of micro-blogging platforms such as Sina and Tencents Weibo, according to the report from United Daily News [zh] on June 6, 2012.

The report said, after the Lunar Chinese New Year, the CCP propaganda department issued a notice to major Weibo portals including Sina, Tencents, NetEase, Sohu and etc. that soon after the real name registration implemented, the CCP would set up a division within these portals to oversee the content management. The party division will make sure orders from the propaganda department and state information office be effectively implemented. A special budget would be allocated for the control over micro-blogging platform.

A source told the United Daily News that the Weibo mobilization on train accident in Wenzhou, the anti PX chemical factory protest in Dalian and Wukan uprising has alerted the CCP. The CCP division in Weibo portal is to make instant decision on content filtering. With the implementation of real name registration, the police division will track information source and take crackdown action. In case of emergency, the CCP division will force the platforms to go offline, the report said.

Morocco: Busted for Posting Caricatures of the King on Facebook

Hisham Almiraat — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:19:22 +0000

On February 7, 2012, Walid Bahomane appeared before a court in the Moroccan capital Rabat. The 18-year-old is accused of “defaming Morocco's sacred values” by posting pictures and videos on Facebook mocking king Mohammed VI of Morocco.

This isn't the first time a Moroccan internet user faces such charges. In 2008 Fouad Mourtada, a young engineer, was sentenced to three years in prison for impersonating the king’s brother on Facebook. An international outcry and a campaign of support forced the authorities to release Mr Mourtada a month after his arrest.

Walid Bahomane's arrest is the first since a constitutional reform last summer (theoretically) revoked the “sacred” character of the monarch. The king is still, however, the focus of a great deal of devotion in the country.

A copy of the police report filed against Mr Bahomane emerged on the internet, revealing a first: according to the document, items seized by the police are “two Facebook pages (sic) containing phrases and images insulting the sacred values, and an IBM computer.”

Copy of the police report filed against Mr. Walid Bahomane as posted on Facebook.

Despite calls for his release the judge decided to send Walid to a juvenile detention facility near the capital pending his trial. A group of netizens have reacted to the arrest of Mr Bahomane by creating a support group on Facebook called “Mohammed VI, my freedom is more sacred than you!“, where members are invited to publish and share cartoons of the king.

Cartoon representing king Mohammed VI posted on Facebook

The group's preamble reads [ar]:

هذه مجموعة تضامنية مع الشاب وليد بحمان، 18 سنة، معتقل بسجن الأحداث بسلا بتهمة إهانة قداسة محمد السادس على الفيسبوك. فلنثبت لمحمد السادس أن حريتنا أقدس منه

This is a solidarity group with the young Walid Bahoman, aged 18, detained in the juvenile detention facility of Salé for insulting His Majesty Mohammed VI on Facebook. Let us prove to Mohammed VI that our freedom is more sacred than him.

Zineb El Ghazoui, a co-creator of the group, writes on her blog [fr]:

[cette arrestation bat] en brèche la propagande de l'Etat marocain autour du changement et des prétendues avancées démocratiques.

This arrest flies in the face of the propaganda put out by the Moroccan state around the idea of change and the alleged democratic advances.

On Twitter, some are timidly following suit. Musique Arabe tweets [fr]:

@MusiqueArabe Opération soutien à Walid Bahomane - publions tous sur nos profils la caricature de notre choix.

@MusiqueArabe Operation support Walid Bahomane - publish a (king's) cartoon of you choice on your profile.

Despite the recent constitutional reforms in Morocco the regime does not seem prepared to tolerate any violation of its red lines. In July 2011, a few days after the adoption of the new constitution, a French newspaper, Le Courrier International, was censored [fr] in Morocco because it contained an irreverent caricature of the king.

The independent press has often suffered the wrath of the regime when it dared tackle the sensitive subject of the monarchy. So much so that the Internet seems today the last frontier where most Moroccans can still exercise their right to free expression.

Something Moroccan netizens seem to be fully aware of. Inspired by the Arab spring, they seem determined to close ranks and show solidarity with Mr Bahomane.

As a result, exercising censorship will be even more difficult for the regime.

China: Censoring Opinions on China's veto on UN resolution on Syria

Oiwan Lam — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 04:12:38 +0000

Even though the People's Daily propagated [zh] that “China’s veto was in accordance with the Syrian people’s basic interests”, Chinese concern citizens have not been misled by the official media and believed that China should be responsibility for bloodshed after Syrian resolution veto. However, the popular opinion against China's vote has been quickly deleted online.

South Seas Conversation has captured some discussions in Netease's news thread before and after censorship. Here come the pre-censored opinions:

Aye, some people are afraid that the ‘crafty masses’ (diaomin) will have an example to look at… [2500 recommends]

The ‘China’ in the sentence ‘Rice indicated that Russia and China will be responsible for the bloodshed ahead’ has no relation with the Chinese people, it’s nothing more a crowd of of mainland mongrels (zazhong)! Regarding the ‘Russia’, that may be just one section of Russia’s high-level political hoodlums, like Putin – the little czar. [2412]

Everyone can see why this country [China] is not popular in the world, why you have the world beseiging you. [2211]

The new Axis of Evil [1824]

With the active intervention of web-censor, the opinions have been harmonized within several hours into the followings:

We are also angry about this but there’s nothing we can do. The Syrian people can only rely on themselves to get rid of this tyrant. Respect to all countries and people who support the Syrian people’s movement for justice. [5362 recommends]

Iraq, Afghanistan, it’s been 10 years already, should America take responsibility? Does Libya now need 10 years and then it can intervene in America? Why can’t America tell north from south? [4129]

Responsibility for incidents should start with those countries (people) who provoke trouble. On what basis are China and Russia responsible? This is entirely a case of the West looking for an excuse for their next evil deed. [2850]

Can this kind of inhuman government be popular (shou huanying)? [2354]

13 approvals, 2 vetos. [2343]

Public enemy of humanity. [2145]

Iran: Innovations in Cyber Dictatorship

Fred Petrossian — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:23:47 +0000

In the latest examples creative repression over the internet, the Islamic regime has used Skype as a long-distance interrogation tool, and wrested control over a Facebook group for photos of hot guys and girls from its administrators.

Skype interrogation

In order to increase the pressure on one foreign-based Iranian journalist for the BBC, a relative in Iran was arbitrarily detained for nearly two weeks, and the journalist was interrogated over the internet on Skype video.

According to Human Rights Watch, the Iranian government has been intimidating and detaining relatives and friends of foreign-based Persian-language journalists to obtain information or silence them.

Iranian blogger Tahriyeh Khamoush writes [fa]:

… reading this story we can see what a monster the Islamic Republic has become. 40 minutes of interrogation via Skype while the journalist’s sister was jailed. The journalist was at her home in London while she was interrogated by revolutionary guards intelligence agents. The journalist only heard the voices in Iran while the interrogators could both see her and listen to her voice.

The journalist’s sister was released after the interrogation. She said she was forced to make false confessions broadcast on TV.

There are three jailed bloggers and journalists, Parastou Dokouhaki, Mazieh Rasouli and Sahmoldin Borghani who are under pressure to confess collaboration with BBC.

Attacking a Facebook group

Message by cyber police on what was formerly the 'Daaf & Paaf' Facebook page promoting a photo contest.

About a week ago a Facebook page called Daaf & Paaf (meaning “hot girl & hot boy”) came under the control of Iran's cyber police who announced [fa] on the group's Facebook “wall” that “the administrators of this group have confessed to promoting banality”.

The group promoted an online photo contest for hot Iranian men and women, and had around 27,000 fans [the content is not available anymore].

Cyber police reportedly arrested four men and women for administrating the Facebook page.

Faryadeazadi collected and republished [fa] several comments that users left on the Daaf & Paaf Facebook page after it came under control by Iranian security forces:

You beat the poor guys and got their passwords, and now you think you performed a masterpiece by controlling this page… Look at our cyber police, instead of running after criminals and thieves, it gets involved with this kind of story… Mark Zuckerbeg was involved too, go arrest him as well.

A long history

The Iranian regime not only represses bloggers and filters websites and blogs, but has many times used the internet creatively as a tool to increase pressure or spread fear.

In 2009, the regime employed crowd sourcing to target suspects when the protest movement erupted. Using widely disseminated online photos from post-election demonstrations, a website of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps called Gerdab (which means ‘vortex'), encouraged people to submit information that could lead to the arrest of protesters.

We can add to this menu of creativity, the recent “Law of Computer Crimes” that make almost all ordinary users computer criminals.

Indeed, the internet is not only a gift for freedom lovers but also for repressive machines.

Oman: Blogger Muawiya Alrawahi Detained

Ayesha Saldanha — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:11:39 +0000

Muawiya Alrawahi. Photo by Jillian C York

It has been reported on Twitter that outspoken Omani blogger Muawiya Alrawahi (interviewed by Global Voices here), known for his controversial ideas, has been detained because of a blog post and some tweets in which he criticised Sultan Qaboos bin Said, the ruler of Oman.

Twitter user Ammar Almamari (@omanammar) wrote on the morning of February 6:

@omanammar:المدون العماني معاوية الرواحي يمضي يومه الثاني في حجز القسم الخاص بشرطة عمان السلطانية على خلفية ما نشره مؤخرا #Oman #GCC #gulf #Omanspring

The Omani blogger Muawiya Alrawahi is spending his second day in the custody of the Special Division of the Royal Oman Police, against the backdrop of what he published recently

This is a reference to a long blog post from February 3 called “Covenant of Salvation” (which has since been deleted, but a cached copy is here [Ar]). In it Muawiya talked openly about a number of things, including suffering sexual abuse as a young teenager, his earlier involvement with Oman's Internal Security Service (ISS), his admiration for and connections to ex-ISS Brigadier-General Khamis Al Ghraibi (now imprisoned under charges of spying for the UAE), his lack of religious belief, his disillusionment with Oman, and his loss of faith in the ruler Sultan Qaboos.

Muawiya ended the post by saying:

لقد تحررت من كل شيء
أنا حرٌ الآن

I am liberated from everything
I am free now

Muawiya's tweets [Ar] were equally critical of Sultan Qaboos and the political situation in Oman, and in addition he called for the downfall of all Gulf rulers.

Blogger Ferass Alryami has written a post in solidarity with Muawiya:

لا أملك من السلطات سوى كلمات قد يقرؤها البعض و قد يتجاهلها الأخر ..لكنني هنا أود أرسل برسالة قصيرة جدا إلى صديقي معاوية من زنزانتي الكبرى إلى زنزانته الصغرى أو العكس :

” تدوينتك الآخيرة كانت عبارة عن كلمات خجولة، ربما هي لم تصل إلى من أردت تبليغهم إياها ، لكنها كلمات لا بد لها أن تخترق جدار الصمت فتفصح عن بعض ما عانيته يا معاوية ..
نعم نحن لا نتفق فكريا و سياسيا و صدمت كما صدم الآخرون لكنني واثق من براءة ما كتبته .”

I have no other powers than the words that some may read and some may ignore… But here I want to send a very short message to my friend Muawiya from my large cell to his small cell (or vice versa):

“The words in your last post were somewhat shy; maybe they didn't reach the people you wanted to send them to. But they are words that must break through the wall of silence to disclose some of what you have suffered, Muawiya.

It's true that we don't agree intellectually and politically, and I am shocked just as others are shocked, but I have confidence in the innocence of what you have written”

Others have argued [Ar] that Muawiya crossed too many lines, especially when talking about Islam.

Recently two Omani journalists were jailed for “insulting” the country's Minister of Justice by publishing allegations of corruption within the Ministry of Justice. Oman's recently amended penal code outlines punishment for those who undermine the “prestige of the state”, and an article in the press and publications law prohibits “disseminating all that would compromise state security, internal or external”.

Iran: Blogger was sentenced to 14 years in prison

Fred Petrossian — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:26:54 +0000

Several bloggers reported that Mehdi Khazali, a blogger and publisher was sentenced to 14 years in prison. The blogger was sentenced to 90 lashes too. He can appeal this sentence.

Kuwait: Ahmad Mansoor, a UAE blogger denied entry

Mona Kareem — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:57:38 +0000

Blogger and activist Ahmad Mansoor after his release last November

Ahmad Mansoor, UAE's most famous blogger who was detained last year for several months with four other activists for signing an online petition calling for reforms in his country, was denied entry to Kuwait few days ago. The UAE5 including Mansoor were released with a pardon on the 28th of November. Recently, Human Right Watch press conference in Dubai which was planned to release the organization's report on the decline of freedom of expression in the Gulf wealthy state was raided by state security police called off.

Through his twitter account, Mansoor was the one who reported the details of this raid on HRW's press conference. More than a week after, Mansoor went to Kuwait and was denied entry, which makes him the second human rights defender to be denied entry in Kuwait in a very short time period after Kassab Al-Otaibi (@Dr_Kassab ) a Saudi opposition activist based in the UK. Mansoor reported what happened to him in the airport through twitter, as Kuwait was having its vote for parliamentary elections; one of the reasons why there wasn't much attention paid for the incident the UAE blogger had to go through.

Mansoor tweeted:

I'm Kuwait airport now. Prevented from entering. Too bad that this happens in Kuwait; the only democracy in #gcc !!

— Ahmed Mansoor (@Ahmed_Mansoor) February 2, 2012

#gcc: after an interrogation for about an hour, I was told that I can not enter by the State Security officers.#kuwait #uae

— Ahmed Mansoor (@Ahmed_Mansoor) February 2, 2012

#gcc #kuwait #uae further told that if I can not find a ticket back, I would be detained until then.

— Ahmed Mansoor (@Ahmed_Mansoor) February 2, 2012

#gcc #kuwait #uae: off course, preventing me from entering kuwait was based on instruction from UAE authorities.

— Ahmed Mansoor (@Ahmed_Mansoor) February 2, 2012

Not sure though why authorities in UAE first let me leave Sharjah airport to start with and put Kuwait in this situation. #gcc #kuwait #uae

— Ahmed Mansoor (@Ahmed_Mansoor) February 2, 2012

China: Several Tibetan Language Blog Sites Shut Down

Dechen Pemba — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:31:01 +0000

Against the backdrop of a stream of self-immolations in Tibet in protest against Chinese rule, unrest in eastern Tibet with protestors shot by police and a severely increased military presence, several of the most popular independently-run Tibetan language blog sites hosted in China have gone offline as of today.

The blog section of the website AmdoTibet has been closed (the rest of the site is functioning) and the following notice can be seen:

The notice in Chinese reads: “Due to some of the blog users not publishing in accordance with the goal of this site, the blog has temporarily been shut down, we hope that blog users will have understanding!”

Another very popular blog site Sangdhor.com is also offline, without any explanation. In October 2011, Sangdhor boldly published a poem titled “Mourning” that was about the self-immolations in Tibet. The poem was quickly taken offline. An English translation of the poem was published on High Peaks Pure Earth.

Below are two screenshots of Sangdhor.com, the top screenshot shows Sangdhor in its functioning state and the bottom screenshot was taken earlier today:

Finally the blog site Rangdrol.net is also offline and contains an interesting notice in Tibetan. In October 2011, Rangdrol published a poem titled “The Truth of Flames on the Thorny Path” which carried many references to fire and flames; the poem was taken offline (read the English translation on High Peaks Pure Earth).

Below is a screenshot of Rangdrol taken earlier, the English text “Site off-line” suggests that the administrators have removed the site, and the Tibetan text underneath reads: ”For the sake of life, we are mourning and crying”.

This post is part of our special coverage Languages and the Internet.