Stories about Feature from February, 2010
Egypt: a blogger sent to a military court for a post he published a year ago
For the first time in Egypt, a blogger is to be sent to a military court because of his writing online. Ahmad Mostafa (student) wrote on his blog Maza Asabak ya Watan (What Weent Wrong With You oh My country?!) about a student from the War School, who was expelled...
China: Website registration system
According to Sohu IT news on February 22, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has issued a notice and demanded a further enforcement of the website registration and verification system, or the so-called white listing of the Chinese Internet. The latest requirement demands the webmaster to go to...
Egypt: Appeal Court cancels The Sentence against blogger Wael Abbas
Egyptian appeal court has acquitted blogger Wael Abbas after being sentenced to six months by a lower court. The sentence came last November after an altercation on April 2009 between Abbas and his neighbor and Ahmed Maher Aglan and his police officer brother Ashraf Aglan, for accessing the internet. The...
YouTube Bans Tunisian Site Nawaat from Uploading Videos
Yesterday, Advocacy Director Sami Ben Gharbia, who is also co-founder of the Tunisian news site Nawaat, reported that Nawaat was no longer able to upload YouTube videos to their site, after YouTube staff determined that a video they were trying to upload contained “objectionable content.” Ben Gharbia posted the message...
Thailand: Another lèse majesté computer act arrest
On February 5 an unidentified man was arrested for comments he posted to a webboard. His house was searched, his computer confiscated as evidence, his family frightened, and friends panicked. These are ordinary people who express opinions that the authorities consider dangerous, and the mainstream media never allows. The Internet...
Malaysia: Doctored Photos of Politicians No-No
A blogger, who had allegedly posted doctored images of Kelantan Mentri Besar, Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat and Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim. The image is reported to have Nik Abdul Aziz having anal intercourse with Anwar.
Malaysia: Insult To Royalty Not So Easily Forgiven
Malaysian blogger, Khairul Nizam Abd Ghani, or "Aduka Taruna", was recently arrested for allegedly insulting the late Sultan of Johor, Sultan Iskandar ibni Almarhum Sultan Ismail.
China: Police shut down hacking school
As the Google hacking incident is turning into an international scandal, the China Daily News released the news that Chinese police had cracked down the country's largest hacking school in Hubei back in November 2009. The report seems to suggest that hacking is a private business and has nothing to...
Libya blocks access to Youtube and independent websites
On January 24th, 2010, Libya Telecom and Technology (LTT) has blocked access to the popular video sharing website Youtube and to several Libyans based abroad political and independent websites such as Libya Al Youm, Al Manara, Jeel Libya, Akhbar Libya,and Libya Al Mostakbal. And while Google didn't confirm the ban...
Pakistan: PTA Blocks President's “Shut-Up” Video
Sunday evening [7th February 2010] Youtube.com started facing intermittent reports of irregular inaccessibility across various ISP's in Pakistan. It initially started off with a simple white page displaying the word “This Site is Restricted” throughout the Youtube domain which were reported widely on Herdict Web, roughly displaying that the site-wide...
SourceForge Removes Blanket Block
In late January, on the same day as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's speech on Net freedom, open source community SourceForge blocked access to users from Sudan, Syria, Iran, Cuba, and North Korea, in an effort to keep in line with U.S. Treasury export restrictions on those countries. On Sunday, SourceForge announced that they had revoked the ban, unveiling their new strategy for complying with U.S. law.
Philippine blogger facing libel suit filed by former Department of Social Welfare and Development Secretary
Januray 2010- In the Philippines, the National Bureau of Investigation filed a libel complaint against blogger Ella Ganda upon the request of former Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Esperanza Cabral, over a blog post, published on October 21, 2009, that exposed stockpiles of unprocessed relief goods intended...
Global Voices and Google announce freedom of expression award jury
The Breaking Borders Award is a new prize created by Google and Global Voices and supported by Thomson Reuters to honor outstanding web projects initiated by individuals or groups that demonstrate courage, energy and resourcefulness in using the Internet to promote freedom of expression. We are proud to announce our...
China: More than 100 thousand websites shut down
According to Southern Metropolis’ report on 18 Jan 2010, more than 100 thousand websites have been shut down in China since the white list policy has come into effect in December 2009. Self employed individuals who tried to maintain their business online were affected the most. The internet cleaning was...
Interview with blogger Wael Abbas and call for support!
On November 11th, 2009, prominent Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas has been sentenced in absentia to 6 months in jail and LE 500 pounds (92 USD) as a judiciary bail, as a lawsuit was filed against him by a citizen and his police officer brother on charges of damaging an internet...