The Chinese government is putting pressure on the Nobel committee not to award the peace prize to Liu Xiaobo. The activist is currently serving an 11-year sentence for subversion. According to the director of the Nobel Institute, Geir Lundestad,...
CATEGORY: minipost
Iran: Authorities revoke director’s filming permit
Iranian authorities have revoked the filming permit of an internationally acclaimed director over his support for dissident filmmakers. Asghar Ferhadi, who won the award for best director at the Berlin festival in 2009, called for change at a...
Malaysia: Cartoonist arrested for “sedition”
A cartoonist is under investigation on suspicion of sedition. Zulkifli Awar Ulhaque, more commonly known as Zunar, was arrested on 26 September just hours before the launch of his new book --- a collection of satirical political cartoons. Zunar was...
France: Google fined 5,000 euros in libel ruling
A convicted sex offender has sued Google after he found that an instant search of his name on Google.fr was accompanied with the words "rapist", "Satanist", "convicted" and "prison". A court in Paris has ordered the internet giant to pay 5,000...
Israel: History textbook banned
The Education Ministry has banned a history textbook that includes both the Israeli and Palestinian narrative of the Middle East conflict. The principal of a high school in Sderot was summoned to the ministry after his school was found to be using...
Cambodia: Opposition leader sentenced to ten years in prison
The leader of the opposition has been sentenced to ten years in prison for comments he made about a border dispute with Vietnam. Sam Rainsy, who is currently living in exile in Paris, was convicted in absentia on 23 September, on charges of...
Thailand: Webmaster arrested for “insulting the monarchy”
The manager of a popular Thai news website was detained earlier today on charges of insulting the monarchy and violating the Computer Crime Act. Chiranuch Premchaiporn was returning from an Internet freedom conference in Hungary when she was...
France: Mayor of Paris appeals for “blogfather”
Bertrand Delanoé, the mayor of Paris, yesterday called for the Iranian authorities to spare the life of Hossein Derakhshan. In a press release, the mayor described Derakhshan as “ friend of France and Paris” and appealed for help to “save this...
UK: Six men arrested over suspected Koran-burning
Police have arrested six men on suspicion of inciting racial hatred after they posted a video on the Internet in which they appear to burn two copies of the Koran on 11 September. The men have been released on bail, but will face court hearings in...
Egypt: Defamation case against activists withdrawn
A judge who was suing two activists and a blogger with defamation, blackmail and "abuse of the Internet service" has withdrawn the lawsuit. Gamal Eid of the Arabic Network of Human Rights Information (ANHRI), Ahmed Seif El Islam Hamad of the Hisham...