The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) reported today that blogger Roshdi Algadir was arrested by the Hisba apparatus in Saudi Arabia on 4th November. He was taken from his place of work in Al-Dammam city, held for three hours, beaten up and forced to sign an agreement never again to publish his work on the internet. The reason behind the attack is a poem that Algadir has posted on his blog: http://aroshdi.maktoobblog.com

Roshdi Algadir, winner of an international award for his collections of poetry, had posted some of them on his blog. Following this he was surprised by members of the Hisba apparatus who snatched him from his work, beat him and accused him of apostasy.

Saudi Arabia is one of the more egregious offenders against free speech. Fouad Al Farhan, the man called the “father of Saudi blogging,” was arrested last December and held without attorneys or family access until April.

Saudi blogger Fouad Al Farhan has been released from prison and is resting at home with his family, according to a message from the Free Fouad group.

Fouad, called the father of Saudi blogging, was arrested on December 11 in Jeddah and held in solitary confinement with no charges and only one family visit.

Confirmed by Saudi Jeans.

Here’s a video featuring Farhan’s daughter (from Arab News via CNN’s Inside the Middle East Blog).

(Oh. My G-d. Why is this embed on the right, again!? I hate the Internets.)

Can’t embed this properly, so, here’s the link to the Farhan video.

Of particular interest is Jamjoon’s belief that Saudi bloggers know they can get the word out on something like Fouad’s arrest without having to rely upon the media, either Arab or global.

Searching for freedom, dignity, justice, equality, public participation, and all the rest of lost Islamic values, and for Raghad and Khetab.

Update: Al Farhan is still in jail, over 80 days later, has only been allowed one visit and has remained in solitary confinement. This isn’t just classy, it’s Kingdom Klassy.

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Saudi blogger Fouad Al Farhan has reportedly been arrested, according to Bloggers Observatory. He was taken into custody at his office in the city of Jiddah on December 11.

Here is the translation of the Bloggers Observatory post, courtesy of Tharwa.

Saudi blogger, Fouad Al-Farhan was arrested on Tuesday, December 11, 2007 following a raid on his office by Saudi authorities who did not give any reason for his arrest.

Fuad is considered one of the first Saudi bloggers to use their real name when posting. He dedicated his blog to a frank discussion of the various social and national issues, in a true embodiment of the slogan of his blog: “in search of freedom, dignity, justice, equality, consultation, and the rest of lost Islamic values… for Raghad and Khattab.”

The authorities are believed to be dismayed with Fouad for his support of the “Ten,” the ten Saudi academics who were arrested earlier this year for their alleged involvement in funding terrorism, albeit the charges have yet to verified.

Fouad has been previously harassed by unknown official parties and was forced to shut down his blog between February and June 2007.

A group has arisen to agitate for his release, Free Fouad.

The rest of the story and updates below the fold.

(more…)

According to Digital Inspiration, the plugin, called Access Flickr, was developed by Hamed Saber, an Iranian photographer who uses Flickr heavily.

The Access Flickr extension for Firefox substitutes the HTTP header parameters before sending a request to Flickr and therefore fools the government filters. This extension is only for accessing Flickr.com, it won’t work for other sites like YouTube or Orkut.

If you live in one of the many countries where Flickr is blocked and use a Firefox browser, you can download Access Flickr from the Mozilla site.

Flickr is, or has been, blocked in Iran, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and China. Can anyone attest as to whether the block is still in place in these countries? Have I missed any?