Stories about Feature from October, 2009
Azerbaijan: Video blogger trial postponed… again
In what many consider to be a politically motivated trial to stifle dissent in Azerbaijan, video blogging youth activists Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli once again appeared in court today. The two young activists, exemplary in their use of new media in the region, were unexpectedly detained in the early...
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...
Vietnam: Blogger and democracy activist Tran Khai Thanh Thuy beaten and arrested
Vietnamese authorities have arrested another blogger after sending nine internet activists to prison on two to six years terms for expressing their views on the internet. Tran Khai Thanh Thuy was arrested on the evening of October 8, 2009 after the police sent plain-clothes officers to her house to harass her, her husband, and their 13-year-old daughte
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...
Macau: Political filtering
Netizens from Macau discovered that the largest forum in Macau, cyberctm, has activated keyword filtering mechanism and filtered away the term “Chief Executive” as well as its substitution “Chief Thief”. The so called “Chief Executive” or C.E (in Chinese 特首）is the head of the Macau Special Administrative Region and the...
United States:Aftermath of G20 protest suppression
Pittsburgh hosted G20 summit last month (September 22-25), which was marred by protests and the controversial way in which authorities went about suppressing dissent through Twitter. Activist Elliot Madison who works with People's Law Collective, his home was raided by authorities, he and another man were accused of ” using...
Morocco: Press Freedoms Backsliding
2009 has not been a good year for press freedom in Morocco, and over the past few months, actions against journalists seem to be escalating. Although journalists are aware of the country's press law – which forbids criticism of the royal family, Islam, and the Western Sahara – many choose...
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.
China’s Internet: Two Media Declarations
As if to complement one another, two like-minded media declarations were posted on the internet only two days apart from each other, one on Oct. 8 by a group of 15 Chinese intellectuals, another by the Chinese government’s Xinhua News Agency during a World Media Summit in Beijing on Oct....
China: Blocking Twitter's third party applications
In the past few days, Chinese twitterers reported that the Chinese censor has blocked a number of popular Twitter's third party applications. Since Fanfou, the Chinese micro-blogging website, has been ordered to shut down earlier this year, many bloggers moved to Twitter to spread their ideas. Net activists believe that...
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...
China: Internet human rights declaration
2009 is a political sensitive year in China. Apart from the 60th anniversary of PRC, it is also the 20th anniversary of Tienanmen Massacre and the 50th anniversary of Dalai Lama's exile. Moreover, natural disasters, social unrests and ethnic conflicts come one after the other. Social and political control began...
Anonymous Blogging with WordPress and Tor guide in Italian
The Anonymous Blogging with Wordpress and Tor guide is now available in Italian thanks to this translation by Jan Reister from Nazione Indiana blog. 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
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...
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...
