The arrest was widely condemned by Mauritania’s civil society including a statement from the journalist’s union president demanding his immediate release and a call for a sit-in to show solidarity with Ould Dahah.

While the reasons for the arrest remain unclear: Taqadoumy (The Progressive) has been the most outspoken Mauritanian website denouncing the ruling junta and Mauritania’s previous elected government.

The 2 year old leftist website broke many taboos by publishing stories on corruption, misconduct drawing the ire of the country’s political class.

The authorities arrested reporter Abbass Ould Abraham last March and filtered the site temporarily. Ould Abraham’s short ordeal was triggered by a very critical column he published deconstructing Mauritania’s military ruler General Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz. “Shutting down our website made us only stronger” was Hanevy’s comment on that episode at the time.

The site Taqadomy reported last May that the number 2 man in the regime, senator Mohcen Ould Elhaj, hurled obscenities at one of its correspondents at a Nouakchott hotel in front of a crowd of reporters present to cover a high level event. He also threatened to exact revenge from the news site and its editor during his outburst.

Married and father of one boy, Ould Dahah is most known for his popular column “Fiery Letters” which he started before launching Taqadoumy.com is widely read because of the combination of his vigorous criticism of the country’s successive governments and his unique writing style.

The Mauritanian authorities have not commented yet on the arrest while no indictment or charges have been brought against the 32-year old.

Abbass Ould Braham, a Mauritanian online journalist was arrested this past Monday, 16 March 2009, for an article he published on Taqadoumy website. News of his arrest was reported by Taqadoumy.com and echoed by number of Mauritanian websites.

Abbass’s article “Deep into Mauritania: A Cross-Section of the new Mauritanian Regime” (in arabic) deals with the August 6 coup d'état, the Junta and the Mauritanian political system:

Freelance journalist and University of Nouakchott Professor Abbass Ould Braham was seized by police this evening. He was at a cafe in Nouakchott with friends, when two police officers entered the cafe and forced him to leave with them.
The police did not produce an official warrant for his arrest. When his friend asked why they were taking Abbass away, the police answered that in was in relation to the articles he writes regularly for Taqadoumy.com, an online newspaper that publishes articles criticizing the current political figures who took power via a coup d'etat. Abbass remains in custody and there is not yet any further information regarding his release.

Dozens of Mauritanian journalists tried to stage a sit-in late Monday in front of the UN office in Nouakchott in solidarity with the journalist Abbass Ould Braham when the Mauritanian riot police raided the site, firing tear gas at them and allegedly beating them with truncheons.

Protestors on a street after riot police fired tear gas during sit-in in solidarity with arrested online journalist Abbass Ould Braham (source: Taqadoumy.com)

A Facebook group has also been created in support of Abbass.

This is not the first case of online journalist to be arrested, a journalist from Taqadoumy.com, Cheikh Ould Ahmed, has also been sued in the past for defamation by Senator from Kankossa. Cheikh Ould Ahmed has ben released later under judicial control.

Chinguitel and Mauritel, the two main ISP's in Mauritania have been ordered by the General Persecutor, Seyid Ould Ghaïlani, to block access to what is considered to be the country's second biggest news website,Taqadoumy.

Today, Mauritel, Mauritania's state-owned telecommunications company, followed the block order by banning the website.

If confirmed, this is the first case (since 2005 Mauritanian coup d'état) of barring Mauritanian Internet users from accessing a Mauritanian website.

In november 2008, at least two influential Mauritanian websites were hacked. Both websites are critical of the military junta led by General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz:

The Sahara Media news agency, considered the first news site in Mauritania, was also disabled for one to two days, while anbaa was not only hacked, but its office in Nouakchott was vandalised and computers were stolen, said Maloum, who is the coordinator of the For Mauritania website, a lobby group.

The attack against the Anbaa website seems to be connected to the website’s intent to publish content related to scandals involving politicians and senior public figures in the country.

Political opposition websites in North African countries, particularly in Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania, are becoming a primary target of hackers. This new phenomenon of defacing opposition and dissident websites emerged first in Tunisia, where at least 14 15 websites and blogs were targeted between 2007 and 2008, and seems to be spreading across the region as a result of the attempt to muzzle free speech both online and offline.

Even though it is not clear yet who is behind these hacking attacks, North African opposition leaders and owners of the targeted websites all agree that their regimes are behind this new way of cracking down on oppositional activities online.

Naziha Rejiba, from the Tunisian online kalima magazine and Deputy President of the Observatory for the Freedom of Press, Publishing and Creation in Tunisia (OLPEC), was summoned recently to appear before a public prosecutor, after she openly accused the Tunisian authorities to be behind the destruction of Kalima website, in October 2008.

In a statement protesting the hacking of Libyan oppositional websites, the Libyan league for Human Rights (LLHR) and Libya Human and Political Development Forum [in Arabic] also accused the Libyan authorities of orchestrating these Cyber attacks.

In Mauritania, and while Sahara Media, considered to be the first news site in the country, accused “national and foreign parties” of hacking its website, Sheikh Ould Ahmad Amin, editor in chief of Anbaa, another hacked website, told Menassat that “the current military regime that ousted the first elected government in Mauritania, is directly or indirectly linked to what happened.“

Libya

According to a statement by the Libyan league for Human Rights (LLHR) issued on January 19 2009, six Libyan oppositional websites were hacked into and shut down in January 2009. The hackers defaced the websites and displayed content from the Algathafi, a personal websites that contains the thoughts and visions of the Libyan president Muammar al-Gaddafi. Five from the six targeted websites remain off-line:

1. Akhbar Libya
2. Justice For Libya
3. The New Libya
4. Libya Human and Political Development Forum
5. Transparency Libya
6. Akhbar al-Inkadh

Mauritania

According to Hack In The Box website, at least two influential Mauritanian websites were hacked in november 2008. Both websites are critical of the military junta led by General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz:

The Sahara Media news agency, considered the first news site in Mauritania, was also disabled for one to two days, while anbaa was not only hacked, but its office in Nouakchott was vandalised and computers were stolen, said Maloum, who is the coordinator of the For Mauritania website, a lobby group.

The attack against the Anbaa website seems to be connected to the website's intent to publish content related to scandals involving politicians and senior public figures in the country.

Tunisia

As highlighted in a previous report on Global Voices Advocacy, almost every single Tunisian opposition website and self-hosted blog has been the victim of one or more hacking incidents. Given the frequency of the attacks and the nature of the targeted websites and blogs, there is a strong feeling among Tunisian opposition figures and Human Rights defenders that the government is carrying out these cyber-attacks. “I would not rule out the possibility that this act was committed by the secret services, with the aid of hackers or pirates based in Tunisia or abroad,” Kalima editor-in-chief Sihem Bensedrine said.

This is a non comprehensive list of targeted blogs and websites between July 6th, 2007 and November 05th, 2008:

2007
1. The online protest Ben Ali Yezzi Fock! (November 7th, 2007) - the website was hacked and completely deleted.
2. Tunisia Watch, (July 26th, 2007)
3. Tunisnews (December 6th, 2007)
4. PDP Info (October 17th, 2007)
5. CPR, the website of the banned opposition party the Congress for the Republic (September 10th 2007)
6. Slim Boukhdhir Blog (July 6th, 2007) his blog got hacked and completely deleted.
7. Reveil Tunisien (December 21th, 2007) the website got hacked and completely deleted.

2008

8. Nawaat (June 16th, 2008)
9. Tunis Online (January 19th, 2008)
10. Moncef Marzouki personal website (June 9th 2008)
11. Astrubal's Blog (June 16th, 2008)
12. Sami Ben Gharbia's Blog (June 16th, 2008)
13. Kalima (October 8th, 2008)
14. Liqaa (October 2nd, 2008)
15. Tunisnews (November 05th, 2008)
16. PDP Info (November 05th, 2008)
17. Tunis Carthage (October 25th, 2008)