UK blogger faces litigation

10 Jul 08 | News and features, United Kingdom

British blog Harry’s Place is facing legal action from Mohammed Sawalha, the President of the British Muslim Initiative, after a post on the site claimed that an Al Jazeera article quoted him referring to ‘the evil Jew’ in Britain.
Harry’s Place, which has been running for five years, is one of the most influential and controversial UK political blogs, focussing on criticism of what it sees as collaboration between the British left and Islamist extremist groups. A BBC documentary has previously identified Mr Sawalha as a member of Palestinian group Hamas.

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Blogging: a hazardous business

11 Jun 08 | Asia and Pacific, News and features


Online criticism of politicians is not tolerated in Singapore, writes David Jardine

Singapore, long known for what is sometimes described as ‘soft authoritarianism’ is a dangerous place in which to post dissident blogs. The latest person to discover this is Gopalan Nair, a US citizen of Singaporean origin.

Nair, in his Singaporean days a lawyer and activist for the opposition Workers’ Party, is the latest to fall foul of Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew’s penchant for suing his critics in an effort to both bankrupt them and silence them. Now an immigration lawyer in California, Nair claims on his blog Singapore Dissident that he was ‘harassed and persecuted by Lee’ and this was his reason for taking up citizenship in the USA.
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