New on Global Voices Advocacy

[Sami Ben Gharbia]

Arrest of Christian Convert blogger in Saudi Arabia

posted by Sami Ben Gharbia on Jan 15, 2009

According to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHR), Saudi authorities have arrested the 28-year-old blogger Hamoud Bin Saleh and blocked his blog Masihi Saudi (A Saudi Christian). The ANHR adds further that blogger Hamoud Bin Saleh was arrested “due to his opinions and announcement at his blog that he converted from Islam to [...]

China’s Anti-Smut Campaign and Political Censorship

posted by Oiwan Lam on Jan 15, 2009

There is a patriotic saying in Chinese: you can kill one, thousands of us will be reborn (to fight against you). The new round of internet crack down has begun in China at the beginning of 2009 and bullog.cn, one of the most influential blog hosting platform in China for more than a hundred outspoken bloggers and citizen reporters, was forced to shut down on 9 of Jan. Now, they are rebuilding their blogs in various platforms, scattered but aggregated through various Feed readers and new websites.

Lessons on libel: South African blogger sued for defamation

posted by Heather Ford on Jan 14, 2009

After South African Donn Edwards wrote in his blog about the dubious marketing tactics of a holiday rental company called Quality Vacation Club, he was sued for defamation. This was interpreted as an attack on all bloggers in South Africa so a campaign to support him was launched, a Facebook group and dozens of bloggers wrote about it. Here are a few lessons on libel for bloggers.

Pakistan Censors Pictures of Governor - Harmful for the Integrity of Pakistan

posted by Awab Alvi on Jan 03, 2009

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the internet monitoring body in Pakistan has issued directives to all its ISP providers to block a list of six webpages on the grounds that they were “harmful for the integrity of the country.”