Posts Tagged ‘free expression’
May 21st, 2012
Pakistani authorities have
restored access to micro-blogging platform Twitter, after temporarily blocking it because of messages deemed “offensive to Islam”. The ban, which came into force on Sunday (20 May) shortly after Interior Minister Rehman Malik said there were no plans to block Twitter, seemed to be the result of a competition on Facebook to submit images of the Prophet Muhammad. The ban was lifted about eight hours after it was imposed, and the chairman of The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) Twitter was blocked after it
refused to remove inflammatory and blasphemous content.
May 18th, 2012
A
Kuwaiti blogger has been sentence to
ten years in prison and fined 1000 Kuwaiti dinars for ”insulting the Prince and his powers” in poems uploaded on YouTube. Lawrence al-Rashidi was initially accused of ”spreading false news and rumors about the situation in the country” and ”calling on tribes to confront the ruling regime, and bring down its transgressions” in June 2011. The blogger is also being tried as a result of posts on Twitter, deemed to be “an insult to the princely identity” by authorities.
May 18th, 2012
A journalist critical of the proposed union between
Bahrain and Saudi Arabia has been
arrested in Manama. Freelance journalist Ahmed Radhi was arrested on Wednesday (16 May), after he appeared on an interview on BBC Arabic Radio, and suggested that the union would justify the presence of Saudi troops in Bahrain. Security forces raided Radhi’s house at 4am in the morning, after the journalist reposted his comments on social media networks. His whereabouts are currently unknown.
May 17th, 2012
Three journalists have been
beaten by police officers in northwest
Pakistan. Sher Ali Khan from TV station News One, Siraj Ali of Geo News, and Shabir Ahmed from Pakhtunkhuwa News daily were targeted by police officers while trying to cover a demonstration in the Charsadda district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhuwa province. As police attempted to disperse protesters with batons, the journalists began filming the clash. Police then turned on them, beating them and snatching their cameras in an attempt to destroy their footage. All three of the reporters sustained injuries from the attack, with Khan being admitted to hospital.
May 17th, 2012
An
Azerbaijani activist who was sentenced to two years in prison following demonstrations in Baku last year,
has been released before completing his jail term. Elnur Majidli, an opposition activist, was charged with disturbing public order after his involvement in protests that took place on 3 April last year. Majidli made a formal request to be released, and in a hearing on 15 May was granted release. In an interview with an opposition newspaper, Majidli said his release was “unexpected”.
May 17th, 2012
Lady Gaga has been
refused a permit to play her sold-out concert in
Indonesia following demonstrations from religious protesters. The permit for the Born This Way Ball, scheduled to take place on 3 June, was refused after Islamic hardliners, lawmakers and religious clerics spoke out against the pop star’s racy clothes and dance moves. Indonesian critics have said that the nature of the show could undermine the country’s moral fibre. Lady Gaga’s promoters in Indonesia will fight for the performance
to go ahead, despite threats that protesters will use physical force to prevent her getting off the plane.
May 17th, 2012
The editor of a Iraqi Kurdish magazine
has been arrested for reprinting an allegedly blasphemous article. Hamin Ary, editor of Kurdish and Arabic monthly publication Chirpa (Al-Hamsah in Arabic) was arrested on 7 May after publishing an article by controversial writer Goran Halmat. Ary was arrested for “offences that violate religious sensibilities”, an offence which carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison. The article, entitled “Me and God” was originally posted on Facebook in 2010, and was deemed “offensive to Islam”.
May 17th, 2012
A former interior minister-turned-journalist was targeted in a
bomb attack in
Colombia earlier this week. Fernando Londoño Hoyos, who is now a radio station programme director and a columnist for various newspapers, was injured after a bomb was thrown onto his car bonnet in Bogotá. Londoño survived the attack, but his driver and bodyguard were killed and 39 others were injured. It is unclear who was behind the bombing.
