Suspects arrested in blogger assassination. Five suspects were arrested in the politically-motivated killing of Brazilian blogger Ednaldo Figueira. Federal and civil police from the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Norte made the arrests in a joint operation on July 2 and 3.
In June, Figuiera became the first blogger to be assassinated. Figueira, who was also a newspaper editor and the president of the local branch of the Workers Party, used his blog to discuss drug-related corruption in his home state of Rio Grande do Norte.
Syrian blogger arrested. Blogger and Web developer Anas Maarawi was arrested at the first of the month. His supporters have started a Facebook page to publicize his situation. A blog has also been started, as well as a hashtag, #freeanas. Anas is just the latest in a series of arrests in the troubled country.
Iranian actress and blogger missing. Iranian actress and blogger Pegah Ahangarani, who was scheduled to travel to the Women’s World Cup in Germany on July 4, is missing. Many are concerned that she was arrested in Iran prior to her departure. She had a contract to blog about the championship for the German news organization, Deutsche Welle. According to a friend, she was summoned to the Iranian intelligence ministry the day before she was scheduled to leave and told that she would be arrested if she showed up at the airport.
Iranian blogger and publisher arrested. Iran cannot arrest too many bloggers. Mehdi Khazali was a publisher and the son of a prominent leading cleric, Ayatollah Khazali.
Egyptian military cements rule. The military in Egypt was considered a friend of the people during the protests. After Mubarak stepped down, however, the Egyptian military took over a harsher role, imprisoning a blogger, among others, and inspiring a movement against its continued role. The movement, which uses the hashtag #noscaf. Now, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces is setting up rules that will influence any new constitution to allow an outsized role for the military.
Nothing good will come of this.
CrowdVoice launches with new design, more content. CrowdVoice, a user-generated platform for reporting on, and dialoguing about, freedom and civil society, has relaunched. Users now have the ability not just to add content (photos, posts, videos) to an existing page, but to add new pages, or “voices,” themselves.
New pages include Malaysia and Malawi, where there have been protests, the Gaza flotilla and a page for gay American issues. The service is still blocked by the government of Bahrain, where it is located.
Like most of Mideast Youth‘s undertakings, CrowdVoice is well-built, attractive and easy to use. It’s easy already to see the effect the freer approach will have on the platform’s reach; it will be interesting to see how that freedom will affect the overall quality.
Alleged members of Anonymous arrested. In December of last year, three Dutch teenagers were arrested; in January of this year, British police arrested five alleged members of the hacking collective; another British teen was arrested in June; and now, in the U.S., the Federal Bureau of Investigation has arrested 16 people across the country and served 35 search warrants in the course of a series of raids.
Those arrested have been charged with conspiracy, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, and with intentional damage to a protected computer, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
Egypt army photo by Al Jazeera
