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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 04 Nov 2010
The tight-knit world of Middle East bloggers and electronic activists is rallying forcefully around the case of Ali Abdulemam, a prominent Bahraini blogger and online activist, who was arrested in September as part of a wide-ranging crackdown on human rights activists and representatives of the country’s disenfranchised Shia Muslim majority.
The Shia activists are charged with being part of a “sophisticated terrorist network” aiming to overthrow the government, but the exact charges against Abdulemam are murkier and harder to unravel. He is charged with “spreading false news” through his popular portal, Bahrainonline.org.
A married father of three and an IT consultant by day, Adbulemam has become a fixture over the past decade in forums and conferences dedicated to Arab digital activism and online freedom. He is regarded as one of the region’s web pioneers, and is described by one of his defenders as “driven by his passion for effecting change” in Bahrain and the wider Arab world.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 03 Nov 2010
The battle between YouTube and Turkish officials continued this week as Turkey reportedly unblocked and then re-blocked the Google-owned video site in the country over unflattering videos of the country's political leaders.
Turkey re-instated a ban on YouTube this week, days after a 2.5-year ban was lifted last Saturday, according to a state-run news agency. On Tuesday night, a Turkish court banned YouTube again, this time over an old video purportedly showing former opposition leader Deniz Baykal in a hotel room with someone other than his wife. Baykal was forced to resign over the video in May, according to The Guardian.
Scott Rubin, Google's head of public policy and communications strategy for EMEA, said the company was investigating the reported ban.
"As always, we are open to discussing with Turkish authorities any concerns they may have about our services. If there are videos that they-or anyone else-believe may violate our Community Guidelines, it's easy to flag the video," Rubin said.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 02 Nov 2010
Turkey's telecommunications authority will again block access to YouTube unless the video-sharing site removes a sex video of a former opposition party leader, Anatolia news agency reported Tuesday.
The threat of a new ban comes just three days after Turkey had ended a more than two-year ban on YouTube.
The Anatolia news agency said a court, considering a complaint by lawyers representing former opposition party leader Deniz Baykal, ruled that YouTube must be blocked and notified the telecommunications authority of its decision on Tuesday.
Telecommunications officials will now either ask YouTube to remove the video or block access to the site, the agency said.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 02 Nov 2010
The curt knock on the door of his hotel room woke Alan Huang with a start. He looked at the clock: 5:30 am. Huang had been in Shenzhen, China, for only a few days; who could be looking for him at this hour? He groggily undid the lock—and found a half-dozen police officers in the corridor. The cops were there, they said, because the 37-year-old software engineer was a follower of the Falun Gong spiritual movement. It was December 1999, and the Beijing government had outlawed the sect just months earlier.
In fact, that’s why Huang had left his home in Sunnyvale, California, to come to Shenzhen. A Chinese computer programmer who had long ago emigrated to the US, Huang was back in China to protest the government’s jailing of thousands of his fellow practitioners. He hadn’t expected to join them.
Huang ended up packed into a cold cell with 20 other men, sleeping on the floor in shifts and forced to clean pigpens every day. Huang’s wife, back in California with their 3-year-old daughter, was terrified. After a very long two weeks and the help of a few American politicians, Huang and two other US-based Falun Gong practitioners who had accompanied him were released. “I got lucky because I was a US resident,” he says. “Others were not so lucky.”
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 02 Nov 2010
The movement “For a Free Internet” has issued an appeal, expressing its concern with the current situation in Tajikistan, primarily due to a number of recently blocked internet sites.
Indeed, the government has been involved in blocking a number of independent online resources. Experts link the move to the ongoing military operation in the Rasht Valley.
The movement claims that, on orders from the Ministry of Transportation, access to websites such as www.fergana.ru, www.centralasia.ru, and www.Tjknews.com has been blocked.
“However, as the same sources tell us, there has been no official explanation for the online resources being blocked.
“Unfortunately, such actions by the state are becoming the norm in Central Asia. One of the distinguishing features of civilized countries is that their laws are not trampled at the government’s convenience,” reads the statement by FFI.
According to the activists, this is not the first tine that the government has tried to block websites to prevent access to information they deem undesirable.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 02 Nov 2010
HONG KONG — Amazon's Kindle 3G e-reader is being snapped up on China's grey market as it has an extra special advantage for customers -- it automatically leaps the so-called "Great Firewall" of state web censorship.
Sites such as Facebook and Twitter, which are blocked by the Beijing authorities, can be accessed without interference by the Kindle's Internet browsing function, the South China Morning Post reported Monday.
Amazon says it is not able to ship the Kindle to mainland China or offer content in the country, which has the world's largest Internet community at more than 420 million web users, the Post reported.
But a seller in Beijing told the paper he slipped them into China a few at a time after having them delivered to an address outside the mainland. He has sold 300 in the past month.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 01 Nov 2010
A federal judge blocked yesterday a new state Internet obscenity law meant to shield children from sexually explicit material, ruling that the statute was written so broadly that it would criminalize legitimate websites and general electronic communication.
The decision was celebrated by civil rights advocates, but it frustrated prosecutors who have encountered difficulty in convicting Internet predators under outdated laws that fail to cover new technologies.
“Due to this preliminary injunction, we are unable to enforce this much needed law,’’ said Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz, whose office prosecuted the online predator case that led to yesterday’s ruling.
In that case, a Beverly man was convicted of sending sexually explicit instant messages to a deputy sheriff posing as a 13-year-old girl. But the convictions were overturned in February by the Supreme Judicial Court, which said Massachusetts law did not cover Internet communication and urged the Legislature to update the statute.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 01 Nov 2010
Turkey has lifted its ban on YouTube, two years after it blocked access to the website because of videos deemed insulting to the country's founder.
Transport Minister Binali Yildirim, who is in charge of internet issues, said the government had been in contact with Google, which owns YouTube.
Mr Yildirim said there was no longer any reason to ban the website, because the offending videos had been removed.
Insulting Mustafa Kemal Ataturk or "Turkishness" is illegal in Turkey.
The video clip prompting the ban was reportedly posted by Greek users of the website and dubbed Ataturk and Turks homosexuals.
The move was nevertheless widely criticised by many Turks, including by President Abdullah Gul, who asked officials to find a solution.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 20 Oct 2010
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) published its ninth annual World Press Freedom Index today, with a mixed bag of what secretary-general Jean François Julliard calls “welcome surprises” and “sombre realities”.
Six countries, all in Europe, share the top spot this year — Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland — described as the “engines of press freedom”. But over half of the European Union’s member states lie outside the top 20, with some significantly lower entries, such as Romania in 52nd place and Greece and Bulgaria tied at 70th. The report expresses grave concerns that the EU will lose its status as world leader on human rights issues if so many of its members continue to fall down the rankings.
The edges of Europe fared particularly badly this year; Ukraine (131st) and Turkey (138th) have fallen to “historically low” rankings, and despite a rise of 13 places, Russia remains in the worst 25 per cent of countries at 140th. It ranks lower than Zimbabwe, which continues to make steady — albeit fragile — progress, rising to 123rd.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 20 Oct 2010
BOSTON -- A coalition of Internet content providers and free-speech advocates told a federal judge Tuesday that a new Massachusetts law aimed at protecting children from online sexual predators effectively bans anything that may be considered "harmful to minors," including material adults have the right to view.
Supporters say the new law closes a loophole that led the state's highest court to overturn the conviction of a man accused of sending sexually explicit instant messages to someone he believed was a 13-year-old girl. The Supreme Judicial Court found that the old state law that imposes criminal penalties for disseminating material harmful to minors did not cover electronic communications.
The new law was passed quickly by the state Legislature after the high court's ruling in February. It added instant messages, text messages, e-mail and other electronic communications. Penalties include to up to five years in prison or a fine of as much as $10,000 for a first offense.
