24-hour demonstration against Internet censorship

Our friends at Reporters without Borders (often called “RSF” – Reporters sans Frontières) are organizing an online demonstration against Internet censorship, beginning tomorrow at 11am (Paris time) and continuing until 11am on Wednesday, November 8th.

The goal of the demonstration is to draw attention to online censorship in the thirteen nations RSF terms “Internet black holes” – by clicking on a map of these nations, users register their protest against Internet censorship and for the release of over 60 cyber-dissidents currently under arrest for writings on their blogs.

The protest takes specific aim at Yahoo!, inviting users to record messages for the company's founders. Yahoo! is a special target for RSF because the company's has cooperated with Chinese authorities in investigations of journalists, supplying information that helped lead to the arrest of Shi Tao, a journalist serving a ten year sentence for “divulging state secrets abroad.”

RSF is also inviting visitors to the site to start blogs hosted by the organization – RSF will feature opinions from these blogs on in a weekly section titled “The Blog View of the World”. Finally, RSF will be launching a version of their site in Arabic, complementing the current versions in French, Spanish and English.

We're very grateful for the hard work that RSF does to promote online freedom and openness. Please visit their site today and show your support for their efforts.

1 comment

  • I tried to surf over to Mahmood’s Den this evening, but couldn’t get through. Then I tried his alternate ‘alyousif’ but still couldn’t get through.

    I suspect they’re blocking him again. It’s a bit like solitary confinement; the effect is to isolate him.

    If someone has his phone number, maybe they should try to contact him and make sure he’s ok and hasn’t been arrested.

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