Stories about Middle East & North Africa from October, 2009
Tunisia: Prominent Activist Arrested For Environmental Video Report Published Online
On October 20th, 2009, Zouhaïer Makhlouf, a Tunisia Human rights activist and correspondent of Assabil Online website has been arrested for publishing a video report online about the environmental pollution in Nabeul (Dar Chaabane El Fehri), a coastal town in northeastern Tunisia. According to reports released by several local human...
Two Egyptian Bloggers to Stay in Jail
Two separate orders were issued last week to prolong the detention of two Egyptian bloggers. The first is yet another arrest order for Mus'ad Abu Fagr, who has been arrested since December 2008. Abu Fagr had a number of court decisions allowing his release, but unfortunately each one of them...
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps launch 40 IRGC’s blogs
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced that more than forty blogs have been created to struggle against IRGC’s enemies on cyber space. This action has taken place in the township of Arak,in the southwest of the Markazi province.
Video: How Police & Customs Officers deal with Bloggers at Cairo Airport?
Today, 21 October 2009, Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas was stopped by security officers at Cairo airport while his coming back to Cairo. From his last two experiences, Abbas didn’t travel with his laptop or CDs, flash memories and camera memory cards, since they were confiscated earlier this year. So nothing...
Anonymous Blogging with WordPress and Tor guide in Persian
The Anonymous Blogging with Wordpress and Tor guide is now available in Persian thanks to this translation by an Iranian blogger and friend who wants to remain anonymous. The guide outlines several methods of protecting one’s identity in order to avoid retaliation and can considerably reduce the risks that a blogger’s identity will be linked to his or her online writings through technical means.
Egypt: Security beats Blogger badly
Today, Friday 16th October, the Egyptian blogger Demagh Mak and his brother had been stopped for “ID check” in Tanta (Egyptian Province) by a police officer named Mohamed El-Dahrawy. For no reason, the police agent beat blogger Mak on his back, while asking for IDs. Andd when Mak asked him...
Iran's Internet: Whirlpool and fear
While the world is trying to free the web, Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is going to make it much more barred. Recently, a site which is called Gerdab (Whirlpool) has been launched in order to monitor the Iranian Internet according to the IRGC’s dogmatic ideologies and strategies. Gerdab...
Turkey: Violating online free speech
Turkey, a modern democracy which takes pride in staying secular despite intense pressure from Islamic fundamentalists, unfortunately is actively engaged in curtailing online free speech. Since September 18,2009 MySpace, a popular social networking site and Last FM-where you can listen to free music, has been blocked in the country for...
Iran: new and innovative ways to get heard loudly
Let's see how people in Iran are using media to make their voices heard when all media outlets have been subjected to government pressure and censorship. After the suppositious election in Iran, most of the internet had been filtered and there were no any other media, such as radio or...
Pakistan: Army Human Rights Video being censored
A certain video showing images of Pakistan Army's military brutality during its offensive in Swat has surfaced across the web. BBC: The video shows of an officer in Pakistani army battle uniform interrogating several suspects, some of whom are quite elderly and are presumably relatives of men being sought. When...
