The URL Level block directive by the PTA was in response to the decision taken by the Inter-Ministerial Committee whose charter is to monitor and block anti-Pakistan, blasphemous, and pornographic web sites. The specfic URL’s under question carry a bunch of pictures of Mr. Salman Taseer, the Governor of Punjab. These pictures had been making rounds on various email lists across Pakistan some months back ridiculing the lavish parties thrown by the Governor Taseer at the Governor House while his people have been starving on the streets.

It has been suspected that these pictures may have apparently been copied from a facebook picture album of one of the Taseer family and could arguably be deemed private in nature, but one does have to wonder how the Inter-Ministerial Committee chose to classify them as being ‘harmful for the integrity of the country’

Urooj Zia from The News writes

Three of the six webpages on the list issued by the PTA, however, are from dictatorshipwatch.com, a website set up after November 3, 2007, when then-President Gen (Retd) Pervez Musharraf implemented a state of emergency in the country. One webpage is from makepakistanbetter.com, a social and political discussion forum. The fifth page is from friendskorner.com, a general discussion forum, while the sixth webpage is a node from buzzvines.com. Most of the blocked webpages contained articles which claimed to provide information about Punjab Governor Salman Taseer’s “history”; others had pictures of members of Taseer’s family at lavish parties thrown recently at the Punjab Governor House.

None had blasphemous material, or anything which could even remotely be construed as “anti-Pakistan,” unless criticism of one person is considered an act of treason

Teeth Maestro on his blog writes

Though I still choose not to share those pictures myself but some common sense needs to be knocked into PTA and our Governor that its nearly impossible to totally block / censor content on the Internet as even now a simple Google search will list a dozen more websites which are also sharing the same images

The following are the six (6) URL’s that are supposed to be blocked from Pakistan

1. http://www.dictatorshipwatch.com/2008/11/08/governer-punjab-salman-taseer-%E2%80%93%-history.html
2. http://www.dictatorshipwatch.com/2008/11/06/leaders-of-a-nation-half-of-which-sleep-hungry.html
3. http://www. dictatorshipwatch.com/taseer/taseer.swf
4. http://www.makepakistanbetter.com/why_how_what_forum.asp?GroupID=5&Group_title=Pakistan%ArticalID=4297
5. http://www.friendskorner.com/forum/f137/governer-punjab-salman-taseer-his-family-77872/
6. http://www.buzzvines.com/node/3347

Simon Columbus, a researcher studying the cases of jailed bloggers around the world (article forthcoming), estimates, in an email to me, that the number of Iranian bloggers who have been arrested solely for their blogging activities comes to about 20. He has counted a total of 30 Iranian bloggers who have been jailed for political activity, which may not be directly linked to their blogs.

Individual and collective arrests

Sina Motalebi was the first Iranian blogger ever jailed. In April 2003, he was arrested by the intelligence division of law enforcement because of writings on on his weblog and elsewhere and interviews with foreign media. He spent 23 days in solitary confinement in a secret detention centre before he was released on bail. In December 2003, Sina left Iran for the Netherlands, where he sought asylum.

Between August and November 2004, judiciary agents operating on behalf of Tehran’s chief prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, detained more than 20 bloggers and internet journalists. After their release some of the detainees testified before a presidential commission, detailing their mistreatment while in detention. Hanif Mazroi, Massoud Ghoreishi, Fereshteh Ghazi, Arash Naderpour and Mahbobeh Abasgholizadeh appeared in front of the commission on December 25, 2004. On January 1, 2005, Omid Memarian and Ruzbeh Mir Ebrahimi also provided accounts of their ill-treatment.

About his interrogators in prison, Memarian says, “they were people who only had the appearance of human beings” [Fa]. The blogger adds: “When I came out of prison, I said to myself, ‘Let’s forget these people and not let them hurt my optimism,’ but the experience is still stuck in my memory. I still remember the guards’ whispers and the keys turning in my cell’s doors.”

“All this for dogs!”

Reza Valizadeh, a journalist and blogger, was the object of a complaint from the Iranian president’s office and was detained on November 2007. Several Iranian blogs and websites argue the main reason he was arrested was because he revealed that Ahmadinejad’s security staff bought four dogs from Germany for about $150,000 each. He was released after a few weeks of detention.

No insults, please

Mojtaba Saminejad was initially arrested in November 2004. He was released on bail on January 27, 2005 but arrested again on February 12, 2005 because his bail fee was doubled and he was unable to pay it.

According to Saminejad’s supporters, the reason for his arrest was that he blogged about the arrests of three other bloggers. According to official charges, Saminejad was suspected of having insulted the head of state of Iran (the Supreme Leader), of “endangering national security,” and of having “insulted the prophets.” He was found guilty and sentenced to two years and ten months’ imprisonment.

On June 28, 2005, Saminejad was found ‘not guilty’ of the charge of “insulting the prophets” (punishable by the death penalty). He was released a few months ago but still is under pressure today.

Detained for over a month

More than 40 days ago, reports surfaced that Hossein Derakhshan (also known as Hoder), a famed Iranian blogger, was arrested in Tehran. The reasons for his arrest are unclear, but some speculate that his two (highly publicised) trips to Israel were the main reason.

Blogger Z8tun says other Iranians have been caught visiting Israel, but were released after a few hours of interrogation. Some speculate that Derakhshan who in recent years became a supporter of President Ahmadinejad’s government, was arrested because he insulted some religious leaders in the country. He has himself argued in Western media, despite multiple testimonies of jailed bloggers, that nobody goes to jail in Iran because of the content of their blog. There is a Free Hoder facebook page campaigning for his release.

Please read more in “Iranian Bloggers Talk About Their Prison Experience“.

Image of Mojtaba Saminejad from Wikimedia Commons

From left: Sudanese blogger Kizzie Shawat, Egyptian blogger Nora Younis, Tunisian blogger Sami Ben Gharbia (Source: The Huffington Post)

One blogger, two journalists, and one online writer were prevented from traveling to Beirut, Lebanon, to attend the 3rd Arab Free Press Forum that took place on 12 and 13 December, 2008

Saudi Arabia prevented the leading Saudi blogger, Fouad Al Farhan, from attending the event where he was scheduled to take part in a panel entitled “The Changing face of Arab blogging“.

Tunisian human rights lawyer and online writer, Mohammed Abbou, was also stopped from boarding a flight, for the fifth time since his release from prison in July 2007.

Tunisian journalist and editor of the online magazine Kalima Lotfi Hidouri, and Mazen Darwish, director of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, were also prevented from leaving their countries for Beirut.

L. Hidouri was held by police overnight, before being released on the next day.

In his opening remarks, Timothy Balding, World Association of Newspapers (WAN) CEO, has vigorously protested these incidents:

we can at least thank the authorities of Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and Syria for this eloquent and timely demonstration of their contempt for, and fear of, free expression, as we open this Forum

In 2007, Fouad Al Farhan was arrested for unspecified “violation of non-security regulations.” He was released on April 26, 2008, after spending 137 days in detention in Jeddah.

In 2005, human rights lawyer and onlineMohammed Abbou was arrested and sentenced to prison for three-and-a-half years for writing online articles criticizing the Tunisian penitentiary system, and comparing his country’s political prisoners with those held in Abu Ghraib. He was jailed for nearly 28 months, and released on 24 July, 2007.

Here are the summaries of the presentations of the panel: The Changing face of Arab blogging (source: Arab Press Network):

When Tunisian bloggers suspected that the presidential jet was being frequently used for personal business by friends and family of the president, they used airport records to track its travels and compared it to official government records. Only one of ten trips proved to be official. Using Google maps, the bloggers illustrated their findings by “following” the plane in a video that was posted on YouTube and could be viewed within Tunisia. This and many other testimonies of how bloggers distribute information in the Arab world were shared at the 3rd Arab Free Press Forum, taking place on 12 and 13 December in Beirut, Lebanon.

The second session of the Forum focused on the changing face of Arab blogging. The three presenters are all living and writing from outside their countries.

“Internet with ID”

Mohammad Al-Abdallah, Blogger, I’m Leaving and I’m Not Coming Back

Syria has imposed draconian restrictions on internet usage, requiring users to provide detailed identification and requiring internet cafes to keep records on the habits and site visits of all their users - and it blocks YouTube, Facebook, Wikipedia, Skype and other international sites.

Despite these restrictions, internet usage in Syria - introduced only in 2000 — is growing, and is expected to reach 10 percent of the population by 2009.

The number of Syrian bloggers is also growing, and they provide a vital service to the country, says Mr Al-Abdallah, who provided an evolution of the internet in Syria.

“We have become a source of information for Syrian citizens, despite all the constraints and obstacles for even just being on the internet,” says Mr Al-Abdallah, who left Syria after being arrested twice and facing a third arrest (his father and brother and both in jail). “A small number of citizens are trying to circumvent the embargo. This if of great importance in a country where the government doesn’t allow people to meet and get together.”

“I had no venue to express my opinion”

Kizzie Shawat, Blogger, I Have No Tribe, I’m Sudanese, Sudan

Kizzie Shawat is a pseudonym for a young college student who began blogging because “I had no venue to express my opinion.”

Ms Shawat, who writes about female genital mutilation and other controversial topics, sees her role as providing a view of her country from a different perspective from official sources.

Though censorship is strict in Sudan, the authorities have not been successful in blocking all opposition websites, says Ms Shawat, creating an opportunity for bloggers like herself.

But she has another audience as well - the vast Sudanese diaspora - among whom she tries to encourage unity in a divided country. “Our national identity is important and I try to emphasize this in my blog,” she says.

“It is an important forum for social activism,” she says. “You have to allow people to express themselves and we’re not used to doing that.”

Beating the censors

Sami Ben Gharbia, Blogger, Fikra, and Global Voices Advocacy Director, Tunisia

Tunisia has what may be the world’s most sophisticated internet blocking apparatus - it not only block websites, it pirates them and adds false and misleading information. But that doesn’t stop Tunisian bloggers for finding and using innovative ways around the system, and providing compelling multimedia reports to provide a counterpoint to official propaganda.

When official media “reported” that the Italian region of Tuscany had named a major highway after Tunisian Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, bloggers photographed the new street, showing it was an insignificant rural road leading to nowhere.

Suspecting that the presidential jet was being frequently used for personal business by friends and family of the president, bloggers used airport records to track its travels and compared it to official government records. Only one of ten trips proved to be official. Using Google maps, the bloggers illustrated their findings by “following” the plane in a video that was posted on YouTube and could be viewed within Tunisia.

Bloggers have also found interesting ways of beating the censors, such as buying Google Ads keywords so their information pops up whenever someone searches for certain words.

Mr Gharbia’s presentation focused on the methods Tunisian authorities use to block independent information - including “deep inspection” of e-mails - and how freedom of expression advocates try to get around them.

A conference at the Press Syndicate called for the release of detained blogger Mohamad Adel. The event, held on Thursday evening, was announced on Facebook.

Blogger’s Account Suspended

Besides a Facebook group seeking his freedom, a blog was launched by Adel’s friends, which provides readers with updates about the imprisonment of the young blogger. A new entry on the blog notes that the hosting company of Adel’s blog, suspended his account, without giving reasons. Now Meit’s blog is unavailable and a user will find the following message:

This Account Has Been Suspended.Please contact the billing/support department as soon as possible

Meanwhile, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) said today that it has filed a petition with the Council of State against the Minister of Interior demanding that he explains the reasons behind the arrest of Adel on November 20, 2008, and disclose his current whereabouts.

ANHRI has demanded in its petition in this case a million Egyptian pounds in damages in favor of the blogger’s family as a result of the violation of the provisions of the law and the constitution, and the consequences this has had on his family.

Bloggers arrests before an Egyptian caravan to Gaza

The Egyptian blogosphere had been witnessing a wave of arrests, in parallel with arrangements for a humanitarian aid caravan to Gaza, which a number of bloggers were planning to participate in.

Unfortunately, plans for the caravan were aborted yesterday (December 6, 2008), and bloggers were arrested after and before they decided to take part in this initiative.

And while yesterday’s caravan to Gaza was about to move, another young blogger was arrested. Ahmad Abdel-Fattah, who writes on the famous collective blog “Yallay”, was taken to a police station, where he was detained for one day. He was later on released, without charges.

Abdel-Fattah manged to send a message to the Jaiku mobile network utility, with the word: “arrested”

Starting with the arrest of Mohamed Adel, the author of Meit blog, who disappeared from November 21, 2008, blogger Zeinobia writes:

By the way I knew some news about blogger Mohamed Adel. According to his father Adel is currently on a food strike. Up till this moment we do not know why Mohamed was detained. Some rumors are saying that it is national security matter concerning Hamas and Gaza !!!?? I do not know what Abd El-Fatah’s charge will be this time !!

Image source: Sarah Carr blog

British journalist and blogger Sarah Carr told her Jaiku network about his arrest. And she also went to the police station where he was being held. She writes a detailed post on what happened on her blog:

A brusque, aggressive man came out, announced himself as head of criminal investigations, told us that Ahmed would indeed be sent to state security and that we should now all bugger off thank you very much. One of the lawyers requested to see Ahmed, “just for a couple of minutes”. The man said no. She repeated her request. “Do you want to argue with me?” he said. Viva the Criminal Procedures Code

When Ahmad was freed, he announced that in a very short post his blog “Yallay!”. It is worth mentioning that an ANHR lawyer attended to the case, a large number of bloggers knew about the story, and many of them showed solidarity and wrote about it.

All this is happening while the family of arrested blogger Mohamed Khairi finally knew of his whereabouts. He is being held at the Wadi El-Natroon prison, under an arrest warrant. Khairi was also arrested in relation to his solidarity with Gaza.

A blogger who writes anonymously in the El-Heshary Blog published a message from Khairi’s mother to “all honest and concerned people” about her son’s detention. According to the blog, the mother said:

He is 22 years old..He is very kindhearted.. He has some dreams, he is dreaming of a free world. My son is a student of computer science in Cairo university.. it was the Gaza disaster..he went on with those who decided to go there, with some food, clothes and medication .. some days after his return, he was arrested to for two weeks, and later he as rearrested again..

And it was just a few days ago that a number of journalists, bloggers, NGO volunteers and activists were called for a Bloggers observatory to be established with the goal of protecting Egyptian bloggers and reporting on the violations they may face. That was at the closing of a workshop organized by Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, titled Bloggers and human rights!

Sánchez received a summons notice, which she photographed and published on her blog, for her to appear at a local police station. Her appointment with government officials took place last Wednesday, and immediately following the event, she posted about the details:

El encuentro es breve y el tono enérgico. Somos tres en la oficina y el que lleva la voz cantante se ha presentado como el agente Roque. A mi lado, otro más joven, me observa y dice que se llama Camilo. Ambos me anuncian que pertenecen al Ministerio del Interior. No están interesados en escuchar, hay un guión escrito sobre la mesa y nada que yo haga los distraerá. Son profesionales de la intimidación.

El tema me lo esperaba: estamos cerca de la fecha para el encuentro de blogger que, sin secretismo ni publicidad, hemos estado organizando desde medio año y ellos me anuncian que tenemos que suspenderlo. Media hora después, cuando ya estábamos lejos de los uniformes y de las fotos de líderes en las paredes, reconstruimos aproximadamente sus palabras:

“Queremos advertirle que usted ha transgredido todos los límites de tolerancia con su acercamiento y contacto con elementos de la contrarrevolución.Eso la descalifica totalmente para dialogar con las autoridades cubanas.

La actividad prevista para los próximos días no puede ser realizada.

Nosotros, por nuestra parte, tomaremos todas las medidas y haremos las denuncias pertinentes y las acciones necesarias. Esta actividad, en los momentos que vive la Nación, de recuperación de dos huracanes, no será permitida.”

(translation of Sánchez’ post by Babalú blog)

Sánchez was not the only blogger to be summoned by government officials. Claudia Cadelo of Octavo Cerco [es] also received an unexpected visit by the police. She writes about the surprise in her post titled “Me too!,” where she also posts a photo of the summons:

Con Reinaldo Escobar en el teléfono, aún sin conexión, y enterándome por él de todo lo ocurrido, no tuve tiempo a expresar mi frustración ante la anulación de nuestro primer encuentro de bloggers, pues en ese mismo momento un policía tocó a mi puerta para entregarme mi respectiva citación:

Presentarse mañana en la estación de policía de Zapata y C a las 2 pm.

Cadelo posted a photo of herself holding the summons, smiling, flashing a peace sign and a sign in the background ironically saying “I Love Minint” (Ministry of the Interior). The image drew the attention of Enrisco del Risco, who sees the photo as a sign that “times are changing” and writes [es]:

La sonrisa y el orgullo con que enarbola un papel que cada vez da menos miedo. El desafío y la complicidad. Y ese cartel al fondo que lo dice todo diciendo lo contrario con una gracia reservada para cosas menos serias. Los tiempos cambian porque ella sabe que no está sola, que ahora mismo mirando esa foto –con un punto de angustia, es cierto- estamos todos nosotros.

In spite of the warnings from government officials, Sánchez says that the meet-up will go on as planned. In a recent AFP news article [es], Sánchez writes that these types of intimidation tactics by the government only draws more attention to her blog and an increase in traffic. She also thinks that the summons was excessive since the meet-up was not political in nature, and that the bloggers was an informational gathering to learn about techniques and share experiences.

This is a video of a talk given by Mariam Memarsadeghi about the Internet and the Struggle for Voice in Repressive Regime Contexts. Miriam is a consultant to human rights and democracy organizations internationally and an outspoken advocate for women’s rights and civil liberties in Islamic contexts.

So far, 14.186 members have joined the group, instead of the 5 thousand that Niksa Klecak wanted to gather. Croatian political analysts described the detention as a “politically motivated case” and a “notorious abuse of police for political purposes,” since Niksa Klecak is the president of one of the Social Democrats’ youth branches.

According to the Telegraph, opposition against Mr Sanader had been growing online:

The number of anti-government Facebook sites has grown rapidly over the weekend. One, which calls for a protest against Mr Sanader later this month, has gathered 80,000 members and Mr Klecak’s group has grown to 6,200 members since Friday.

A photo of Mr Sanader posted on Facebook Group “I bet I will find 5,000 people who do not like the Prime minister”

The following is a translation of a post published on the Corriere della Sera and kindly provided by our colleague Paolo d’Urbano from Global Voices in Italiano:

Man Arrested for Creating a Facebook Group
A Croatian blogger launched a community called “I bet I can find 5,000 people that hate the Prime Minister”

MILAN - The police arrested him early this week, first because of nazi symbols found in his home (though no evidence was provided), and then for possessing paedo-pornographic material: Nikša Klecak, Croatian citizen, unleashed the anger of institutions for an initiative on Facebook, where he created a group called: «I bet I can find 5,000 people that hate the Prime minister». The Premier at issue is Ivo Sanader, recently at the centre of many disputes about his economic policies and the recrudescence of tensions with Serbia. Naturally, a new group calling for the blogger’s release was launched on Facebook, where its members overtly hint at wanna-be Gestapo agents and the enforcement of a liberticide atmosphere. Klecak was eventually able to collect more than 7,000 subscriptions, but people is weary of police’s persecution against citizens.

FACEBOOK PROTESTS – Actually, voicing the dissent through social networking sites, using web 2.0 media to gather enemies besides allies, is nowadays a tried and tested tool for activism in countries under censorship, like Egypt. In Western countries, there are hundreds of groups like «I bet I can find 1.000.000 people that hate George Bush?». In that case, given that the significance of the US President is higher, the figures are quite different, but the aim of sharing even hatred perfectly matches with Nikša Klecak’s strategy. Also Italy has similar groups lashing out against Gelmini, Berlusconi, or Veltroni. The blogger has now been released, but it is important to underline his political affiliation, since he is a representative of the SDP (Social Democratic Party), the opposition party to the Croatian government.

The event, at the Press Syndicate, is being organized by the syndicate’s Freedoms Committee, and is expected to attract a number of bloggers, political activists and public figures.

In the meantime, and according to some of Adel’s friend, the young blogger went on a hunger strike since his arrest more than 10 days ago.

A source in the Muslim Brotherhood told the blogger, Abdel-Monem Mahmoud , that Adel is being detained because of a photo of him with a leader in Hamas movement. The photo was taken in Gaza last January when Adel was participating in a humanitarian caravan to the Gaza Strip. Monem added that his MB source said:

The arrest of Mohamed Adel came in the background of detaining his friend Abdel Aziz Megahed, who is a MB member student activist. Megahed was arrested at the beginning of November, and the State Security investigation confiscated his laptop, on which they found a photo of the two MB members and one of Hamas leaders.

The same MB source told Moniem, that he was informed that the two arrested youngsters were tortured in the State Security headquarters in Nasr City, Cairo.

Meanwhile, blogger Mohamed Khairi, is being held in a military camp. It is known that those who are held in these camps are considered to have been forcibly kidnapped for they are held without a formal order from the prosecutor and not allowed visits, because their detention is illegal and in an illegal detention center.

Khairi was first arrested on October 22nd, 2008, and released on November 4th, 2008. Before his release, state security forces ordered him to close his blog and stop writing, but he didn’t comply with the order. This time state security arrested him on November 16th, 12 days after his initial release. Once again the prosecutor ordered his release, but state security forces took him to a military camp, where he is being held.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights, expressed its concerns regarding that, warning that the detained blogger could be subjected to torture:

That security forces are once again utilizing military camps for holding political opponents and activists. These military camps do not come under the jurisdiction of either the prosecutor general, nor of any other civil department, and were widely used to hold Islamic extremists in the nineties, where torture was practiced free from judicial scrutiny.