Burma: Free Zarganar!
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…)
Cuba: Blogger sentenced to 20 months in prison
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).
Atheists and asbos: What price offence?
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…)
Saudi Arabia breaks website censoring record
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.