Stories from 11 March 2012
Angola: Violence Against Protest for Fair Elections
With the slogan: “Against Fraud in the Next Elections", the city of Luanda was again the stage for a protest on the morning of March 10. And again, according to some reports, the State made its strong arm felt, repressing violently a right of all citizens.
Pakistan: The Rise of a Union of Religious Radicals
A religious union by the name of Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC) has emerged as the representative of Pakistan's extreme right-wing parties. DPC is an umbrella term for 40 religious parities of different denominations and civil society groups as well as netizens question their motives.
Bahrain: Massive Rally Against the Regime
A massive march in Bahrain on Friday 9 March, came to renew public demands against the tyranny of the Bahraini regime which has been implicated in the killings, arrests, corruption, oppression and discrimination of citizens, according to a fact-finding mission.
Kuwait: Art Exhibition Shut Down for “Controversial” Content
Kuwaiti artist Shurooq Amin is in shock after her exhibition of paintings was shut down without an explanation. Reports say that men walked into the show, three hours after its opening, and took the paintings down, saying they had received a complaint over the content of the paintings. Netizens react to the censorship of art in this post by Mona Kareem.
UAE: Use of VPN to Fight Censorship
On Twitter, UAE commentator Sultan Al Qassemi writes: ‘The UAE is in the top ten VPN users of @golden_frog, company president says to me “You guys like the Internet but you don't like censorship”‘
Egypt: Mixed Reactions to Porn Ban Proposal
Only one month after the first session of the newly elected parliament in Egypt, much debate and controversy arose. The Egyptian blogosphere and twitterverse have been watching the new parliament and tweeting under the hashtag #EgyParliament expressing demands, concerns and sarcasm. A recent episode at the parliament stirred much discussion, but this time it was about pornography!
Lebanon: Proposed Law to Regulate the Internet
“I’ve previously called bullshit on the claims that the government wants to protect us. Oops, I just wrote “bullshit” and broke clause #1 of the proposed law,” blogs Mustapha in his post lambasting the Lebanese Ministry of Information's plan to discuss a draft law which aims at “regulating websites and protecting their owners”.
Lebanon: Is Social Media Useful?
“I always ask myself whether the Lebanese online community is actually making things better by raising awareness or is just trying to reach out to more people?” writes Najib questioning the usefulness of social media in inciting action rather than just being concerned with tweeting and blogging. His post was in reaction...
