Latest posts by sami ben gharbia
The Blog for a Cause! guide is now available in Spanish
Blog for a Cause!, the Global Voices Guide of Blog Advocacy, is now available in Spanish thanks to this translation by María Florencia Puente from Global voices en Español. The guide outlines easy-to-follow tips on how to use blogs as part of campaigns against injustice and features successful examples of...
Iranian web editor arrested for criticizing Khomeini’s grandson
Hossein Nobakhtian, the managing editor of the banned conservative Iranian website Nosazi (Renovation) has been detained for criticizing Khomeini’s grandson.
Ikhwanweb founder and Editor-in-Chief arrested
Khaled Hamza, Ikhwanweb (Muslim Brotherhood's official English website) founder and Editor-in-Chief was arrested in Cairo yesterday by Egyptian police. Khaled was coordinating the Brotherhood's blogging campaign and has been inspirational for many young Muslim Brothers activists.
Uzbekistan blocks Newsuz.com website
It has been reported that the Uzbek-language website Newsuz.com has been blocked in Uzbekistan. “After a series of critical publications on human rights issues, gas supply issues, and price growth, and also analytical publications on the recent elections, we began receiving letters with threats and demands to follow information posted...
Morocco: Facebook's fake prince could face five years in prison
Fouad Mourtada, a 26-year old IT engineer has been held under arrest in Casablanca since February 5th for "villainous practices linked to the alleged theft of the identity" of King Mohammed VI's younger brother, Prince Moulay Rachid, on the popular social networking website Facebook. Fouad appeared in court on Friday February 15th. The trial has been postponed until February 22.
Fouad's Week: Fouad will not be forgotten!
The Free Fouad campaign has organized and carried out “Fouad’s Week”, during which bloggers were invited to republish one of Fouad’s posts on their blogs and to embrace “We Are All Fouads” as a slogan. This week-long event marked two months since the dean of the Saudi bloggers, Fouad Alfarhan, was arrested on December 10, 2007 and held in Jeddah’s Dahban prison without any charges brought against him.
Blog for a Cause!: The Global Voices Guide of Blog Advocacy
Blog for a Cause!: The Global Voices Guide of Blog Advocacy explains how activists can use blogs as part of campaigns against injustice around the world. Blogging can help activists in several ways. It is a quick and inexpensive way to create a presence on the Internet, to disseminate information about a cause, and to organize actions to lobby decision-makers.
Yemen blocks independent news websites
Numerous Yemeni websites have been blocked recently by government-controlled ISPs. Among them is the popular YemenPortal, Yemen’s first multi-source news crawler and search engine, which extracts headlines from news sites that are being blocked by the authorities. YemenPortal is inviting Yemeni internet users to access the website through a mirror they build at yemen.arabiaportal.net.
Turkey again blocks access to YouTube
Again, a Turkish court has blocked access to the popular video-sharing site YouTube over a video clip allegedly insulting the country's founding father, Kemal Atatürk.
FreeAccess Plus!: Web 2.0 Censorship workaround
Based on Hamed Saber‘s “Access Flickr” Firefox extension, which enables users to circumvent the filter currently in effect in Iran and in few other countries that block Flickr, the popular photo-sharing website, another Iranian developer, MohammadR, has released “FreeAccess Plus!“, a nifty extension that turns Firefox into a proxy that...
Syria: campaign to release Syrian blogger Tarek Baiasi
Bloggers in Syria are running an online campaign to raise awareness about the case of the 23 years old Syrian blogger, Tarek Baiasi, who has been arrested since July 7th, 2007 for critical comments he posted on a deemed “sensitive” website.
Thailand: publishing house website shut down
The website of Fah Diew Kan (Same Sky), a quarterly social and political magazine, has been shut down by its host Net Service Ltd for Lèse majesté violations. The move came after pressure from Thailand’s Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
Egypt: lawsuit demanding the websites banning is rejected
Judge Abdel Fattah Mourad, who requested the ban of 51 blogs and websites deemed insulting the state’s dignity and threatening Egypt’s interests, has lost his case. On December 29, 2007, the Administrative Judicial Court rejected the lawsuit and ruled in favor of freedom of speech on the Internet.
Saudi blogger Alfarhan detained for violating rules not related to state security
Responding to repeated requests for comment with a brief cellphone text message, a spokesperson for the Saudi Interior Ministry, confirmed yesterday that blogger Fouad Alfarhan was being held for “interrogation for violating non-security regulations.”
Saudi Arabia: Free Fouad Update
The leading Saudi blogger, Fouad Alfarhan, who has been arrested in Jeddah on December 10, 2007 for exercising his freedom of speech on his popular blog alfarhan.org has sent a letter few days before his arrest to his friends. According to his wife with whom we talked, Fouad's arrest was directly linked to his blogging activities. He may remain in custody for a one-month investigation period.
The Anonymous Blogging guide is now available in French
The Anonymous Blogging with WordPress and Tor guide is now available in French thanks to this translation by the Tunisian blogger Malek Khadhraoui, and we are busy making translations into other languages. The guide outlines several methods of protecting one’s identity in order to avoid retaliation and can considerably...
Blogger Kareem Amer awarded by RSF & Fondation de France
The jailed Egyptian bloggerKareem Nabeel Sulaiman was awarded this year's Human Rights Prize in the category “Cyber-dissident” by Reporters without Borders (RSF) and “Fondation de France“.
Tunisian blogger sentenced to one year prison
A Tunisian court has sentenced today blogger and journalist Slim Boukhdhir to one-year prison terms for “aggression against a public employee”.
Tunisian blogger/journalist arrested
The outspoken Tunisian journalist and blogger Slim Boukhdir has been arrested on November 26 and charged with “aggression against a public employee” and “affront to public decency”. The court denied his release and the hearing is scheduled to resume tomorrow, December 4. Slim Boukhir could face up to 18 months...
Access Denied Map: Mapping Web 2.0 Censorship
In order to shed light on the battle being waged between state censorship and anti-censorship groups, I’ve created the Access Denied Map, an interactive Google Maps mashup that provides information about the censorship efforts targeting various online social networking communities and web-based applications. Each marker on the map highlights the situation in a specific country that is barring access to major websites. Clicking on the marker opens an information window containing text, images or video describing the nature of censorship and the efforts to combat it.
Tunisia: is Youtube blocked?
Several Tunisian bloggers are reporting today not being able to access the popular video-sharing site Youtube. If it turns out to be true, Youtube will be the second video sharing site blocked by Tunisia. Since September 3rd, 2007, Tunisia is still blocking access to Dailymotion.
sami ben gharbia's space
I'm the co-founder of several Tunisian online projects:
Nawaat (The Core)
