Internet blotter
CPJ protested the arrest of Bahrain blogger Ali Abdel Imam back in September — The Wall Street Journal has a story on his continuing detainment. Activism around the imprisonment of Canadian-Iranian blogger Hossein Derakhshan continues: PEN Canada is focusing on his case and Canada and France’s foreign ministers have urged his release. Local Thai ISPs are…
Radio reporter shot dead in Brazil; suspect arrested
New York, October 20, 2010–Brazilian police on Tuesday arrested a man suspected of killing radio reporter Francisco Gomes de Medeiros in the city of Caicó, state of Rio Grande do Norte, local press reports said. Gomes was shot to death Monday in front of his house. The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the arrest and…
How many beat the world’s Net censors?
Here’s a great study by the Harvard’s Berkman Center, estimating the actual usage of anti-censorship tools by Internet users in countries with pervasive website blocking.Berkman estimates that 3% or less of the total Net population in these countries bypass censorship via web and http proxies, virtual private networks, or circumvention software like Tor and Psiphon.The…
Internet Blotter
Omid Memarian gives insight into the Iranian hardliner in-fighting that led to “blogfather” Hossein Derakhshan’s arrest and sentencing.Pakistan blocks Facebook, but doesn’t block militant jihadi sites.What happened when the authorities shut down the Internet in China’s Xinjiang province.”Deleted” Facebook photos can stay available for years (from the excellent Ars Technica, now banned in Iran).Quote of…
Petition highlights Nokia sales to Iran
Access, a global Internet freedom advocacy group, has launched a “No To Nokia” petition as part of a campaign supporting Iranian journalist Issa Saharkiz’s lawsuit against Nokia Siemens. The Saharkiz lawsuit claims that Nokia Siemen’s sales of mobile tracking technology to Iran was instrumental in allowing the Iranian government to locate the journalist when he…
Using new Internet filters, Afghanistan blocks news site
Until recently, Afghanistan’s Internet has been notably free of government censorship. That stems largely from the limited impact and visibility of the Net domestically: The Taliban banned the Internet during its rule, and despite a recent boom in use, the nation has only a million users out of a population of about 29 million. But…
Derakhshan case: When keeping quiet does not work
The severity of the nearly 20-year jail sentence handed down to veteran Iranian blogger Hossein Derakhshan, left, has shocked many exiled Iranian journalists and bloggers with whom I’ve spoken. It’s also reinforced their belief that the best way to help jailed colleagues is not through quiet diplomacy but by making a lot of noise.
Internet blotter
The International Telecommunications Union starts its plenipotentiary meeting this week. Some worry that some nations will use their position at the ITU to attempt to grab more control over how the Internet works. RSF covers the Burmese DDOS attacks. I’ve heard some really fascinating detective work on the real origins of these attacks – hope…