Yemen Filtering
By Curt on Jan 29, 2008 in YemenPortal, Yemen, Free Kareem, Filtering, Blocked
Update: Sami sends the following note, via FreeKareem.
Today, It is allowed for anyone in Yemen to Access Free Kareem campaign. It seems that Yemeni Authorities had received tens of letters asking for releasing this site.
Unfortunately, they blocked my newest blog. It is bad to know that I could not access it from Yemen, and my friend too. I was thinking that it is a technical problem that my blog is new and there is nothing new or hard up to now. I only using it to write some comments and post my articles and reports published in the NP. By the way, My blog does not contains any “sexy” contents, only my comments about Free Kareem site.
However, Lots of friends outside Yemen said there is no problem with them to open my blog.
Seven months ago, when the Parliament members asked the Minister of Media said that he wants to organize its role only, but it is free for all people in Yemen to get their own blog, and express their own view.
I want to say for His Excellency Hassan Al-Lawzi, it is only less than one week, and I did not finish my blog designing yet.
I hope that they will release it as soon as possible,
Since October, a host of websites have been blocked in Yemen. They include YemenPortal and FreeKareem. YemenPortal was accused of being a threat to national security (it’s simply an aggregator of local content, done for the administrator’s PhD program). CPJ reports that it may have been due to the content on the site.
(YemenPortal administrator Walid) Al-Saqaf said he believes his site may have been blocked after it posted citizen videos of a January 13 protest in the southern port city of Aden. The videos show security forces firing unprovoked at the crowd, he said, in contradiction of the government’s account.
FreeKareem, devoted to the imprisoned Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer, was blocked for having “sexual content.” Yeah. Well. Not so much. No doubt defending a blogger who criticises Islam is the real issue.
Seven other Yemeni sites and who knows how many external ones have been blocked. The Yemeni sites include YemenHurr, Hour’s News, Hdramut, Al-Teef, Al-Yemen, AdenPress, and SoutalGnoub.
Simon Columbus | Jan 29, 2008 | Reply
Blocking Free Kareem! for having sexual content is really weak. They don’t even try to sound convincing…