The online portal Malaysia Today has been blocked by the
Malaysia largest ISP TMNET on orders from the Malaysia Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) as such overseas visitors and non TMNET subscribers can access the site but those using TMNET can not.

A MCMC official is quoted thus:

“It is being blocked because we found that some of the comments on the website were insensitive, bordering on incitement.”

He further says that all other ISPs have been ordered to enforce the ban.

Malaysia Today is often controversial with commentaries which the government finds distasteful.  Though the government purports to allow free speech this action from the MCMC which is a government regulatory body is the complete opposite.

The Malaysia Today admin are now using the other URL address that redirects to the site.

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Thanks to Kamal for the tip

Criticism seems to be something lots of people can not stand, the Vallejo City Manager has barred city employees from access two blogs that report on the city fall into bankruptcy.

SF Gate, San Francisco Chronicle says

City Manager Joseph Tanner on Monday added the Vallejo Times Herald’s local news blog and the Vallejo Is Burning Web site to the list of Internet addresses employees cannot access from city computers. “We blocked these because they are political in nature,” Tanner said. “We blocked them because one is an anti-bankruptcy site and the other is a rag of a newspaper.”

The two sites, Vallejo is burning and Vallejo Times Herald have now been ranked together with porn, gambling, social networking and hate sites that have been banned.The city labour unions are up in arms decrying the affront on free speech, the are qouoted on SF Gate

“With this bankruptcy filing, the city declared war on its employees and our contracts,” said one employee who requested his name not be used because of Tanner’s memo. “Now they want the opposition with our hands tied behind our backs and gags in our mouths.”

We, here, don’t think Tanner’s actions will save the city from bankruptcy if indeed it is indeed in the red.

Prominent Tibetan blogger Woeser has been detained by the Chinese police, according to the Times (via Status of Chinese People).

Woeser, a prominent poet who lives in Beijing, had returned to Llasa, the Tibetan capital, and was visiting her mother when police presented her with a warrant. The warrant stipulated she had been photographing allegedly sensitive military installations.

After interrogating her for eight hours, she was returned to her mother’s home, where she had been staying with her husband. They left soon after that to return to Beijing. They had originally planned on a month-long visit.

Woeser’s poetry was originally approved by the Chinese government. In 2003, her prose book “Notes on Tibet” was banned and she has been unable to get officially published in China or Tibet since. With a Chinese father and a Tibetan mother, she writes mostly in Chinese. After the March riots Chinese hackers vandalized her blog.

She is not the first Tibetan blogger to be harassed by the Chinese police. Jamyang Kyi was arrested in April. There has been no news on her since then. Update: According to Clothilde at RSF, she was released about a month after being arrested.

We just got word that Brian and friends are on a plane to Los Angeles, arriving Monday morning. He was released with 7 other US citizen detainees: Jeff Goldin, Tom Grant, Mike Liss, James Powderly, Jeff Rae, John Watterberg and Jeremy Wells.

They have been released 6 days early, largely (we believe) because of political pressure and media attention that forced the US Embassy to take action.

The fate of the other 2 international detainees, Florian Norbu Gyanatshang a Tibetan with German citizenship, and Mandie McKeown from Britain, is not clear. Please feel free to call their respective embassies and urge their immediate release. For more info on phone numbers and other action steps, see the Free Tibet 2008 website.

There are other important steps we can take to make sure that their detention gets the international attention it deserves and that the underlying cause — freedom for the people of Tibet — is advanced. We can keep putting pressure on media to tell the real story of the Olympics in China. We can continue to raise awareness about the oppression and violence in Tibet. We can work to support independent media, so we actually get to hear these stories.

Please see below for Update #3, which I sent out, bleary-eyed, to only about half of you last night. It has some more info about advocacy, and one brief reflection from me about the situation.

And don’t forget about the solidarity actions in NYC today. Now they should be extra fun!

Take care,
Eowyn (Brian Conley’s wife)

Glad to hear you’re coming home, Brian. We were worried about you a bit. I mean. Whatever. *shrugs* But still.

Mohammed Refaat, one of the Facebook activists arrested a month ago with has been rearrested, according to Agence France Presse.

Refaat, who runs the blog “Matabbat” (Speedbumps), was first detained on July 21 after police raided his home and confiscated his computer, the groups said.

“He was accused of offending state institutions, destabilising public security and inciting demonstrations and strikes via the Internet,” the groups said.

“State Security decided to release him on August 17… but an order to arrest him was issued under the state emergency law,” they added.

Update:

Jill Tan, Asia Representative from Apple Inc. informs us that iTunes in China is now working. 

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As athletes downloaded the album “Songs for Tibet” from the iTunes store, in support of the Tibet cause,(the music is also good BTW), China retaliated by blocking the iTunes store in China, anybody who wanted to access the store got a error message.

The Apple Support forums were inundated by complaints by iTunes accounts holders in
China and here is a response one of them got from Apple support. 

My name is Bryan and I understand that you have not been able to connect to the iTunes store for the last couple days and that you are concerned that it would be an issue withChina blocking the iTunes store. I’m sorry to hear that and I’m happy to assist you with this today.

ITunes is not being blocked in China from our end, but access to the iTunes Store IS restricted in some areas inChina. This would also explain why it’s happening to your friends there as well.

I would advise that you contact your ISP about this matter. Please also note though that accessing the US iTunes Store outside of the geographic region of the United States is not supported, and that attempting to access it while inChina is at your own risk.The iTunes Store Sales and Service Policies are available for you to review:

Terms of Sale
http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/us/sales.html Terms of Service
http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/us/service.htmlThank you for being a valued iTunes Store customer. I hope that you have found the above information helpful and that you have a great day!Kind Regards,

Bryan
iTunes Store Customer Support  

Funny thing is that, according to China.org, the official government information site it is the Chinese citizens who are offended by the songs of Tibet album and they are the ones who want iTunes shut down,

A music album advocating “Tibetan independence” recently available for paid download on iTunes has ignited strong indignation among Chinese netizens.

According to Chinanews.com, the angry netizens are rallying together to denounce Apple in offering “Songs for Tibet” for purchase. They have also expressed a wish to ban the album’s singers and producers, most notably Sting, John Mayer and Dave Matthews, from entering China.

Many people have made remarks on online forums to express their anger, even those who have been fans of the artists in the past.

Some say they will boycott all Apple products from now on, including the popular iPhone, which is not available in China since negotiations among Apple, China Mobile and China Unicom broke down

This is completely opposite of what is happening at the apple support forums it seems to be a case of the Chinese authorities are continuing with their habit of blocking sites.

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We are trying to get word from Apple and will update you once we receive it.

h/t to informationweek

Around 5 am US Eastern Standard Time Brian’s family received calls from the US Embassy in Beijing. An Embassy representative had visited Brian and the 5 other detainees, and we were assured that they were doing ok. Brian had written messages to different family members and he seemed in good spirits. He seems to be coping well with the situation and is finding solace and distraction in speaking Arabic with another detainee! Read the rest of this entry…