Iran's protest blogger numbers grow
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The number of Iranian bloggers passes 10,000 as internet users seek to protest against media censorship.
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Saudi Arabian officials have reportedly detained a blogger whose writing has criticized religious extremism in the country, according to the two press freedom groups and a regional human-rights organization.Blogger and IT professional Fouad Ahmed al-Farhan, 32, was taken into custody on December 10, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported on Wednesday. His Arabic-language site now has a &quot;Free Fouad&quot; banner in English across the top.In a letter sent to friends shortly before his arrest, al-Farhan wrote that he had been told that the interior ministry was investigating him and would pick him up within two weeks. At the time he described the worst case as being jailed for three days, but he was still being held without charge as of Friday, according to Joel Campagna, Middle East program coordinator for the CPJ in New York.Al-Farhan&#39;s blog promotes political reform and bears the tagline, &quot;Searching for freedom, dignity, justice, equality, Shura and all the remaining Islamic values which are missing,&quot; along with a dedication to his daughters, according to a report on the website of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information. Some of his more critical commentary has dealt with the question of religious extremism, Campagna said. Al-Farhan also recently posted a blog item criticizing ten well-known personalities who have close ties to the Saudi royal family, he said.The Saudi government&#160;heavily censors Internet content, both political criticism and pornography, Campagna said. Contentious news or political commentary sites are frequently blocked.There have been previous incidents of online writers suffering retaliation. In 2006, Saudi journalist Rabah al-Quwai&#8217;, who had criticized religious extremism, was held for 13 days. In order to obtain his release he had to confess to having denigrated Islamic beliefs, and promise to would defend Islamic values in his future work, the CPJ reported.Reporters Without Borders Thursday released a statement calling for al-Farhan&#39;s release; its current list of &quot;13 Internet Enemies&quot; includes Saudi Arabia.Research into Internet content filtering by the OpenNet Initiative shows substantial blocking activity by the government of Saudi Arabia. The group says that filtering content for political reasons is the common denominator across the Middle East.The CPJ last year detailed Saudi media censorship in its report, Princes, Clerics and Censors.&#160;
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Interesting data  this morning (thanks Dan ) on weblogs:  "Blog readership shoots up 58% in 2004 6 million Americans get news and information fed to them through RSS aggregators But 62% of online Americans do not know what a blog is"  Read the PDF  for more stats (man I hate PDF).  "27% of internet users say they read blogs, a 58% jump from the 17% who told us they were blog readers in February. This means that by the end of 2004 32 million Americans were blog readers. Much of the attention to blogs focused on those that covered the recent political campaign and the media. And at least some of the overall growth in blog readership is attributable to political blogs. Some 9% of internet users ...
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The core Iraqi resistance numbers between 8,000 and 12,000 people, with many more sympathizers, according to officials.
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In Tehran Monday, tens of thousands celebrated the 29th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
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Attacks by Iranian-backed groups in Iraq have increased in recent months, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday, casting doubt on the view Iran might have reduced its support for violence in the war.
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Egyptian bloggers have come into the  spotlight, on the one hand as an important forum for political  debate, on the other as the target of government attempts to  limit their freedom of expression.
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The number of journalists jailed worldwide for their work rose for the second year with Internet bloggers and online reporters now one third of those incarcerated, a U.S.-based media watchdog said on Thursday.
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The hard-core Iraqi resistance numbers between 8,000 and 12,000 people, and has many more sympathizers, according officials.
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Iranian human rights lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani says his workload is increasing, a sign the Islamic Republic may be getting tougher on dissent in the face of Western pressure over its disputed atomic ambitions.
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Iranian support for militias who are destabilizing Iraq has risen since the United States and Iran held breakthrough talks in Baghdad in May, the U.S. envoy to Iraq said on Tuesday after a fresh round of discussions.
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Protesters gather as Iran's president prepares to speak at Columbia University.
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LONDON, Dec 13 (IranMania) - Iran has acknowledged for the first time it has convicted some Iranian nationals of supporting al-Qaeda, saying the number is fewer than ten.
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Last year proved big for blogs and bloggers, according to data released from The Pew Internet & American Life Project. Blog readership jumped 58 percent between February and November, and comprised 32 million U.S. citizens in 2004. More than 8 million U.S. citizens have created a Web-based diary, and one in 10, or around 14 million U.S. Internet users, has contributed thoughts or comments to a blog.
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A Utah professor finds himself the target of an unexpected flood of hate mail after posting a report defending the disputed Bush National Guard memos. The incident is one of many examples of the power of bloggers acting in unison. By Staci D. Kramer.
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Iran has blocked access to the popular video-sharing Web site YouTube.com, and a press rights group warned on Tuesday that Internet censorship in the Islamic state is on the rise.
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has started blogging, with the launch of his own Internet diary.