It seems that it is not only third world regimes who block people's blogs. Apparently, Google's Blogspot has decided to join the bandwagon, and has blocked Nawara Negm's Blog (Tahyees [Ar]), without specifying any reasons. And Ahmed Shokeir writes here about the incident:
With stereotypes and alternate and usually contradictory as well as inaccurate perceptions of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh still prevalent in both societies, a new online youth media project has been set up by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State to be implemented by Project Harmony.
Afrigator's list of top 45 female African bloggers: “Ever wondered who the top female bloggers are in Africa, or which women you should be following online? We did, so we compiled the following list. For us compiling this list was an interesting excercise as we didn’t explicity know which blogs are authored by woman but we went on a mission to find out.”
Nigerian blogger, Jonathan Elendu, has been arrested by the State Security Service (SSS), the federal security enforcement agency in Nigeria.
Jonathan Elendu created Elendu Reports in 2005. It is an online news site focusing on federal corruption, economic mismanagement and government inefficiency. Jonathan has been living in the US since 1999:
The Blogoma, or Moroccan blogosphere, was buzzing today over news of Moroccan blogger Mohammed Erraji's acquittal. Erraji was arrested last week for writing on his blog that the King or Morocco's charity toward his people encourages them to remain helpless rather than work hard. Under local media laws, it is illegal to criticize the monarchy.
Taking advantage of his time in Salta, Argentina, Jorge Gobbi is helping to organize a Beers and Blog for local bloggers [es] on Thursday, September 4.
Javier Aroche invites Guatemalan bloggers to gather at Pizza and Blogs 2008 [es] on August 30.
Drima, the 2007 Weblog Awards finalist, turns 22, “I hated the 20th, hated the 21st (which I actually didn’t even remember until I started receiving “happy birthday” wishes via text messages), but the 22nd? Oh my, I’m totally loving it.”
See Global Voices special coverage page on the South Ossetia crisis.
The conflict between Georgia and Russia over the breakway territory of South Ossetia were accompanied by cyber-attacks on several Georgian official government and independent media sites. But rather than prevent journalists from utilizing the Internet to report on the war, it achieved the opposite. Many Georgians — media professionals and citizen journalists alike — set up blogs to report or comment on the conflict.
Kangni Alem announces a new blog by Algerian writer Salim Bachi [Fr].
Saudi blogger Fouad Al Farhan is now a free man, after spending 137 days in detention in Jeddah. While bloggers have all along speculated why he has been held by the authorities for this long, Arab bloggers are unanimously excited over his release. And they also share their hopes for the release of other jailed bloggers.
According to Global Voices Advocacy, Al Farhan was arrested on 10 December 2007 for unspecified “violation of non-security regulations.”
Saudi Arabia:
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