15 Dec 2009 | Index Index, minipost, News and features
The Australian government has announced that it is to go ahead with controversial internet censorship plans after trials of the new filtering system were found to be accurate. The filter laws will be introduced in parliament in August 2010 and will take a year to implement. Critics said the trial results were not surprising and the policy was still fundamentally flawed. Read more here
10 Dec 2009 | Index Index, minipost, News and features
China has closed one of the country’s largest file-sharing sites. The State Administration of Radio Film and Television said the site BTChina did not have a license to distribute audio and video content. Another popular website, the Chinese translation cooperative Yeeyan, has stopped publishing in recent days. The government says the main targets are pornography, online gambling and other sites deemed harmful to society. Critics, however, say that often acts as cover for detecting and blocking sensitive political content. Read more here
26 Aug 2009 | Azerbaijan News, Index Index, minipost
An additional charge of “intentional physical violence” have been brought against Adnan Hadji Zadeh and Emin Milli, two bloggers who have been held on a hooliganism charge since July in Azerbaijan. The new charge carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison, in addition to the five years they are already facing for hooliganism. Read more here
21 Aug 2009 | Index Index, minipost
Saudi Arabia has begun blocking the Twitter pages of activists in the country. Human rights lawyer Waleed Abulkhair and businessman Khaled al Nasser said their Twitter pages have been blocked since about Monday by the official government Internet censor. This is apparently the first move against known Twitter users inside the kingdom. The men involved claim this is because the government has been made aware of the sites power after its role in the Iran elections. Read more here
