Egypt's bloggers test state media control
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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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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, June 7 -- Under mounting domestic and international pressure, the Pakistani government on Thursday suspended stringent media restrictions that critics said were designed to muzzle the free press.
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Bloggers are now prey to government censorship as much as traditional journalists, a report says.
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Middle Eastern bloggers tackling everything from human rights to Islam are making it harder for governments to keep their monopoly on the media. By the Associated Press.
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Actually, most of the reporting coming out of Ukraine is coming in blog form. While the AP has a three-man bureau in Kyiv and the New York Times has a couple of stringers in the country, the vast majority of ...
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At a time when China's government has granted the foreign media greater freedom, it is tightening controls on Chinese who write about politically sensitive or embarrassing topics, human rights activists and journalists say.
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It may be a far cry from the millions of blogs active in the West, but Morocco's blogosphere has taken off as the liveliest free-speech zone in largely conservative Muslim North Africa.
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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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NAIROBI, Kenya _ In Nigeria, bloggers documented chaotic scenes at polling places in April's presidential elections, which international observers said were marred by widespread fraud.
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Insult Islam at your peril An Egyptian blogger found guilty of insulting both Islam and the country's president has been jailed for four years, Reuters reports.â¦
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Even from his cell in an Egyptian prison, Alaa Abdel-Fattah is blogging &amp;#151; scribbling messages on slips of paper that make their way to the Internet and spread around the world.
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New rules by a Chinese government-backed Internet group maintain controls over the country's bloggers, requiring them to register
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Internet user profiling could help repressive regimes identify dissidents, group warns.
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ALEXANDRIA, Egypt, Feb. 22 -- An Egyptian blogger was convicted Thursday and sentenced to four years in prison for insulting Islam and Egypt's president, sending a chill through fellow Internet writers who fear a government crackdown.
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ALEXANDRIA, Egypt -- An Egyptian blogger was convicted of insulting Islam and President Hosni Mubarak and sentenced to four years in prison on Thursday in Egypt's first prosecution of a blogger.
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An Egyptian blogger was convicted of insulting Islam and President Hosni Mubarak and sentenced to four years in prison on Thursday in Egypt's first prosecution of a blogger.
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Comment is free: Nick Cohen: At last, there are signs the shameful censoring of Saudi critics in this country is to be challenged.