28 Apr 10 | Index Index, minipost
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).
31 Mar 10 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
The American games company Envoy has dropped its libel suit against the English blogger Bruce Everiss. Envoy was suing Everiss for libel in an Australian court over a series of blogposts on Everiss’ website, bruceongames.com, in which he had claimed that Envoy had previously been owned by a Chinese company, UMGE, linked to a Chinese “gold-farming” business. Everis alleged UMGE employed low-paid workers to earn virtual money in online games, and then sold it, against the game’s rules, to other players. Envoy dropped the case, halfway through its second day, telling reporters that the decision was driven by criticism from its customers.
08 Mar 10 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost, Uncategorized
Student and blogger Ahmed Mostafa is facing a military court after a prosecutor announced on 1 March that they would push ahead with charges of ‘publishing false information about the military establishment’. There has been no investigation into Mostafa’s published allegations that a teacher’s son was pushed out of the military academy in order to make room for a more influential individual.
02 Mar 10 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
Ahmed Mostafa, an engineering student at the University of Kafr el-Sheikh, faced a military court on 27 February, accused of “publishing false information about a military institution”. Mostafa, 20, was arrested on orders from the military prosecutor’s office in the Nile Delta city of Kafr el-Sheikh on 25 February.
In February 2009, Mostafa reported on his blog Matha Assabak ya Watan (“What’s Wrong with my Homeland?”) on a student that had been forced to leave a military school in order to make room for another applicant.
“This isn’t the first time for Mostafa’s blog to fall under scrutiny,” said Rawda Ahmed, a lawyer following the case for the Cairo-based Arabic Network for Human Rights Information. “Last year, he was summoned by officials of the Armed Forces on a friendly basis, who explained the problem to him.”
