19 Mar 2012 | Digital Freedom, Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
Three Saudi web managers from news websites which cover political unrest are being held in prison without charge. Habib Ali al-Maatiq and Hussein Malik al-Salam from Al-Fajr Cultural Network and Jalal Mohamed al-Jamal from news website Al-Awamia were arrested by security forces in February. The Al-Fajr Cultural Network website, which covers covers pro-reform protests in the predominantly Shia region, was taken down following the arrests. Al-Maatiq and al-Salam are reportedly being held in a prison in Dammam. Al-Jamal is believed to have been accused of “opposing the state” and “inciting” its downfall. His whereabouts are currently unknown.
19 Mar 2012 | Asia and Pacific, Index Index, minipost
A crack in China’s firewall allowed dissident artist Ai Wei Wei to use a Twitter-like social media account for a short time on Sunday, before it shortly became inaccessible. The dissident artist was able to use micro-blogging platform Sina Weibo after discovering that his name was no longer blocked. Ai said his account was deleted shortly after midnight on Monday, and was replaced with a message that read: “Error. Invalid Weibo user”. During the short time the artist’s account was active, he attracted over 10,000 followers. New regulations which require Beijing-based microbloggers to declare their real names went into effect on Friday.
17 Mar 2012 | Europe and Central Asia, News and features
Despite official denials, it seems clear that the Lukashenko regime has blacklisted key media and opposition figures, preventing them from leaving the country. Andrei Aliaksandrau reports
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16 Mar 2012 | Uncategorized
Journalist, author and free speech advocate Nick Cohen was, for a while, a lively presence on Twitter. He gave up the highly addictive site to work on his latest book, a polemic on censorship called You Can’t Read This Book (as more than one reviewer has pointed out, you can and should read this book).
Book completed and published, Cohen set out on the promotional slog required of authors, and rejoined Twitter 10 days ago in order to plug his work. After a few tweets alerting real-world friends to his presence, Cohen found his account (@NickCohen2) suspended, without explanation.
Bemused, Cohen tried to set up a new account (@NickCohen4), using a different email address. Again, Cohen sent a few tweets before finding the account suspended within hours.
Cohen is yet to have an explanation of the suspensions.
The irony to a free speech advocate being blocked from the web is clear, not least as Cohen praises Twitter in his book. But the Observer columnist has had previous trouble with his online profile. Cohen’s Wikipedia page was subjected to repeated slanderous edits by “David Rose”, later outed on the Jack of Kent blog as Independent journalist Johann Hari, who had a very public falling out with Cohen in the pages of Dissent magazine. “David Rose” was found to have maliciously edited several other “enemies” Wikipedia pages, including that of Telegraph blogger (and former colleague of Hari at the New Statesman) Christina Odone.
Update (15:55, 16 March) @NickCohen4 is operational again
