Archive for April, 2010
Friday, April 30th, 2010
The United Arab Emirates authorities is to
monito internet users in public places such as malls and cyber cafes according to a report from the newspaper Emarat al-Youm on Wednesday. People without newly-mandated national ID cards will not be allowed to use the internet in public places. The authorities
justified the rule saying it was introduced to combat cyber-crime and child pornography.
Friday, April 30th, 2010
Belgium’s lower house of parliament has
voted for a law banning the burqa in public yesterday. However, Christian Liberals and Democrats in the Senate could still challenge it, delaying its enforcement.
Thursday, April 29th, 2010
Arkadi Lander, editor-in-chief of the Sochi-based newspaper ‘Mesnaya’, was brutally attacked at his apartment on 26 April by two unidentified men. “No doubt, the order has to do with my editorial and journalistic activities in the ‘Mestnaya’ newspaper, where we objectively covered the elections to the Sochi City Assembly,” Lander stated soon after the attack. He was hospitalised with a fractured skull and concussion.
Thursday, April 29th, 2010
Selim Sadak, mayor of the city of Siirt in south-eastern Turkey, was sentenced to 1 year’s imprisonment on 26 April after being found guilty of “spreading PKK propaganda”. Sadak’s conviction is came after he used the term “Kurdiastan” in a statement given to a journalist.
Thursday, April 29th, 2010
Supported by Index on Censorship, campaigners from across the UK and abroad are to converge on London’s Trafalgar Square on 3 May in support of Zarganar, Burma’s most famous comedian turned prisoner of conscience.
(more…)
Wednesday, April 28th, 2010
An independent journalist and blogger has been sentenced to 20 months in prison
on charges that had not yet been made known. Dania Virgen García
was sentenced just one day after her arrest by police on 22 April. Virgen García’s blog
El blog de Dania, launched in January, reports on the violence and repression
independent reporters face on the island. She is also a well known supporter of the “Damas de blanco” movement (
Ladies in White).
Wednesday, April 28th, 2010
The conviction of Liverpool atheist Harry Taylor for placing “offensive” cartoons in an airport prayer room has caused controversy among secularists. Butterflies and Wheels’ Ophelia Benson and Paul Sims of New Humanist magazine go head to head
(more…)
20 Comments
Category Featured, News and Analysis, UK | Tags: Tags: atheist, harrassment, Harry Taylor, Liverpool, New Humanist, Ophelia Benson, Paul Sims, police, religion,
Wednesday, April 28th, 2010
The Saudi Arabian government broke the Arabic record for the
fastest time to block a new website, clocking in at just 15 hours. On 25 April, they blocked a US- based site created by Egyptian activists
The Egyptian Association for Change, eacusa.org, only 15 hours after it launched. Tunisia was the previous record holder, blocking www.yezzi.org in 18 hours after it went live in 2005.
