A censorship chronicle incorporating digital freedom stories from Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), ARTICLE 19, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Independent, International Press Institute (IPI), IT News, Guardian, Reporters sans frontières (RSF), Telegraph and other organisations affiliated with the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX)
Australia
On 22 August 2012 the senate approved the Cybercrime Legislation Amendment Bill 2011, granting authorities the power to require phone and internet providers to store up to 180 days’ worth of personal communications data. The bill was designed to aid in investigations by both foreign and domestic law enforcement agencies, making it especially controversial since it can result in foreign governments gaining access to citizens’ communications data. (Electronic Frontier Foundation)
Bahrain
Nabeel Rajab, a jailed human rights activist, had an appeal case for his three-year prison sentence postponed until 8 November. Rajab, president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, was sentenced in August for allegedly inciting illegal protests through social networking sites. Rajab led anti-government protests following a crackdown on Shia-led demonstrations against the regime in March 2011.The case had initially been scheduled for 10 September. (BBC)
Belarus
Journalist Anton Suryapin was arrested on 13 July for posting pictures of teddy bears on the internet. One thousand bears were secretly parachuted into Belarus by Swedish pilots as part of a campaign to promote free speech and protest the rule of President Alexander Lukashenko. Charged with ‘Illegal crossing of the state border’, Suryapin was released on 17 August but could face up to seven years in prison if sentenced. (BBC, IPI, Yahoo)
Journalist Andrzej Poczobut was arrested on 21 June for writing articles condemning the government and addressing the plight of political prisoners. Poczobut, a correspondent for online opposition outlets Belaruski Partizan and Karta ‘97, is currently serving a three-year suspended prison sentence for insulting President Lukashenko and was released from prison on 30 June. He remains under house arrest until his trial and could face up to five years’ imprisonment for the new charges. (Amnesty International, Palitviazni)
Brazil
The president of Google Brazil, Fabio José Silva Coelho, was arrested in September for failing to take down a YouTube video attacking a mayoral candidate. A court in the Brazilian state Mato Grosso do Sul deemed the videos ‘insulting and defamatory’ and in violation of the country’s strict election laws. He was later released after agreeing to appear in court to face the charges. Google and YouTube were suspended for 24 hours. (EFF)
Journalist André Caramante was subjected to continuous threats from a prominent former police chief running for local elections and his supporters after he wrote a critical article about the official’s security policy. Caramante’s article was posted on the former São Paulo military police commander’s Facebook page in July. (RSF)
Burma
The government abolished prior censorship of media publications on 20 August, following strict control over journalism for 50 years. Restrictions on 30,000 websites were lifted, including YouTube, international news and exiled Burmese news websites, allowing users unrestricted access to political content for the first time. (BBC, Telegraph)
Pro-democracy media organisation Mizzima News experienced Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on its English and Burmese websites at the end of August 2012. The site has come under a number of DDoS attacks in the past, including during the Saffron Revolution of 2007. (Opennet)
Cambodia
Hang Serei Oudom, a reporter at local-language Vorakchun Khmer Daily, was found dead on 11 September. In an article published online on 6 September, Oudom implicated the son of a military commander in alleged smuggling of logs in military vehicles and the extortion of other illegal loggers in the country. A military police officer was arrested in connection with the murder. (New York Times, UNESCO)
China
Award-winning citizen journalist and environmental campaigner Liu Futang faced charges of ‘illegal expression’ and ‘running an illegal business’ on 11 October 2012. The criminal charges were lodged in relation to his self-published books, which report on environmental disasters caused by Chinese businesses on the island of Hainan. Liu, who was receiving treatment in a Haikou hospital on 20 July when police arrested him, had published many of the articles on his blog, which was taken down. (Guardian, RSF)
Authorities concluded for a second time that the death of activist Li Wangyang was suicide after thousands signed an online petition to have the suspicious circumstances around his death re-investigated. Two journalists were falsely detained in Hong Kong for 44 hours after the security bureau discovered they were investigating the incident. Li Wangyang was found dead in police custody on 6 June 2012. Several family members and activists linked to Wangyang were under surveillance or kept under house arrest amid reports authorities were withholding autopsy results. (Guardian)
Editor-in-chief Chen Chaohui and four other editors from Nanjing-based Oriental Guardian were suspended on 29 August after they reported that China Central Television (CCTV) had covered up an injury suffered by athlete Liu Xiang at the London Olympics on 7 August. The revelation that the state media organ had scripted false coverage about the incident and that politicians had assisted in the cover-up led to more than a million people commenting on the Sina Weibo microblog service. (BBC)
People using the Sina Weibo microblog reported difficulties when trying to post messages during the murder trial of Gu Kailai, the wife of an ex-Communist Party official who was found guilty of murdering British businessman Neil Heywood on 20 August. Services were limited during the trial and users were met with a notice that the site was experiencing ‘technical difficulties’. Searches for ‘Gu Kailai’ on Weibo continued to be blocked after the trial ended. (BBC)
In July, Chinese broadcasting regulators ordered all videos to be monitored and censored before allowing the public to view them online. The State Internet Information Office and State Administration of Radio Film and Television issued the decree, saying that video sharing sites such as Youku would be liable to prosecution should they fail to practise prior censorship. (Epoch Times)
There were reports in August that Hong Kong-based PCCW Ltd had been instrumental in ensuring Syrian web users stayed connected to the internet amid ongoing fighting throughout the country. Most other telecommunications companies had withdrawn provision and PCCW was said to be handling the majority of internet traffic to and from the country. Turk Telecom, the main phone company in neighbouring Turkey, withdrew its services on 12 August. (Sydney Morning Herald)
As speculation about the health of Vice President Xi Jinping mounted during early September, a series of related search terms on social media were blocked, including ‘back injury’, ‘vice president’ and ‘car accident’. Rumours continued to spread on Sina Weibo and other blogs, with people using creative terms to refer to the prominent politician. (China Digital Times, Telegraph)
Cuba
Independent journalist Roberto de Jesús Guerra was attacked by state security officers on 13 September. The editor of the opposition news website Hablemos Press and a photographer, Gerardo Youmel Ávila Perdomo, were detained at a police station on their way to an internet training course at the Czech embassy in Havana. Guerra was released hours later but was allegedly beaten and accused of inciting disorder. (Guardian)
On 10 October, prominent opposition blogger Yoani Sanchez was released after 30 hours in custody. Sanchez was arrested while attempting to cover the trial of Spanish youth politician Angel Carromero, who had been charged with causing the death of dissidents Oswaldo Paya and Herold Cepero in a car accident in July. Sanchez claimed that she and her husband were stopped by an official car, arrested and mistreated in custody. (International Press Institute)
Ethiopia
Blogger and journalist Eskinder Nega and five other reporters were arrested in July for conspiring with rebels to overthrow the government. Nega was sentenced to 18 years in jail and others were handed down sentences of between 15 years and life imprisonment. They were arrested under the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation, legislation that has been widely criticised by free speech advocates. The journalists were charged with conspiracy to dismantle constitutional order, terrorism recruitment and training, and aiding Eritrea. (ARTICLE 19)
European Union
Details about an EU project targeting ‘illegal use of the internet’ was leaked on 21 September. The project was set up by CleanIT, run by Dutch police and funded by the European Commission. European NGOs criticised plans to make internet companies responsible for determining the legality of online content and judging whether or not it could be considered to be ‘terrorist’ material; knowingly providing hyperlinks to a site that hosts ‘terrorist content’ will be defined as illegal under the proposals. Companies will also have to hand over information that might be useful for the investigation into illegal internet use. (EFF)
France
On 10 September, Bernard Arnault, head of the LVMH luxury group, sued the newspaper
Libération
for allegedly publicly insulting him. The newspaper printed a picture of the tycoon along with the headline ‘Get lost, rich jerk!’ after Arnault announced his intentions to apply for Belgian nationality. His decision followed President François Hollande’s announcement of a 75% tax band for those earning over €1m (US$1.3m) a year. (Guardian)
Germany
The government reopened an investigation into Facebook’s facial recognition technology on 15 August. The social networking site was accused of illegally compiling a database of identities and was reprimanded after it refused to change its policy on facial tagging recognition software. The data protection commissioner stated that the current database should be destroyed and that, under data protection laws, explicit permission must be obtained from users in future; he added that if Facebook failed to comply, it would face legal action. The country’s federation of consumer organisations added on 27 August that Facebook was giving away customer data without notifying its users via an app service and threatened legal action if it did not reform its policy. (New York Times, Reuters)
Guatemala
In October, two journalists announced via social media that they received email death threats for reporting on child sex abuse offences in a cotton plantation. Carolina Vásquez Araya, writing for Prensa Libre newspaper, and Ika Oliva, who had discussed the offences on her blog, revealed details of sexual abuse committed by a cotton farm manager against the daughters of farm workers, ranging from seven to 14 years old. (Knight Centre for Journalism)
India
The Press Council of India (PCI) announced plans to gain control over the internet and push for reforms to the Press Council Act following a meeting in New Delhi on 27 August. Saying that self-regulation was ‘oxymoronic’, The PCI also planned to change its name to the Media Council. At least three of its members stated that no formal agreement had yet been made. (Times of India)
Authorities ordered the blocking of 300 websites responsible for spreading rumours and derogatory content in the wake of the lower Assam ethnic riots on 22 August. Among the material blocked were 16 Twitter accounts, two of which belong to journalists considered to be affiliated with right-wing politics. (Times of India)
The government threatened to prosecute Twitter unless it agreed to comply with its requests to block objectionable content from accounts created on 9 and 20 August. The microblogging service was accused of failing to take action against an alleged campaign of misinformation allegedly sent via Twitter, Facebook and YouTube users in Pakistan. Facebook agreed to block material inciting hatred or violence on 22 August. (NDTV, Times of India)
Bulk text messages were banned for 15 days on 17 August, to prevent ‘hate messages’ being transmitted amid an environment of communal violence and fears that people from the northeastern part of the country might be targeted. Sending more than 20KB of data through mobile phones was prevented, as was sending more than five text messages at a time. (Hindu)
Six Twitter accounts that were falsely associated with the prime minister’s office were blocked in August. One of the users posted a communally sensitive tweet. Legal charges were expected to be taken against the alleged perpetrators for misrepresenting government officials. (NDTV)
International
In September, Google blocked access to the YouTube trailer
The Innocence of Muslims
in Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India, Russia and Indonesia. The film was also banned by governments in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Sudan, who blocked YouTube access entirely when Google refused to remove the clip. On 11 September, demonstrations at the US embassy in Cairo and the consulate in Benghazi broke out in violence. Four US diplomats in Benghazi were killed as a result of demonstrations, which some reports linked to demonstrations against the video; other reports claimed the attacks had been planned prior to the controversy. Google stated it would consider blocks in other nations where the film is deemed illegal, but rejected an application from The White House. (Foreign Policy, New York Times)
Iran
On 24 September, Google mail was permanently blocked ahead of plans to create a domestic internet service. An official statement said that the service would be filtered or blocked until further notice. (thenewstribe.com)
In an attempt to block text messages about the country’s currency crash, the country’s internal mobile networks blocked all texts including the words ‘dollar’, ‘foreign money’, ‘euro’ or ‘USD’ on 11 September 2012. The dollar sign was also said to have been blocked. (Gizmodo)
Kenya
On 24 September, blogger Dennis Itumbi launched a case for compensation from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for his alleged wrongful arrest on 22 March. Itumbi was accused of hacking ICC emails after he allegedly published an article entitled ‘The Dangers in Our Skies, Revelation of Leaked Emails’. He accused the court of giving false testimony and presenting forged evidence, corrupting and interfering with a witness, bribery and intimidation, as well as tampering with the collection of evidence. (Capital FM)
Blogger Robert Alai was tried for posting an offensive and ‘threatening’ tweet on 22 August. Alai allegedly posted a tweet on 16 August that accused Dr Alfred Mutua of ordering the murder of human rights activists GP Oulu and Oscar King’ara and associating them with terrorist organisation Mungiki. The pair were shot on 6 March 2009 and no one has been charged for their deaths. (Star)
On 5 September, the government warned that those sending offensive SMS and internet messages could be liable for substantial fines. The National Steering Committee on media monitoring said that technology and legislation would be put in place to ensure that any messages inciting hatred are detected and those responsible prosecuted. Eight bloggers were under investigation for hate speech. The Ministry of Communications and Information warned people to be vigilant for those who try to influence opinion along tribal and religious lines ahead of the 4 March 2013 elections. (Daily Nation)
Kyrgyzstan
Parliamentarians and security services proposed legislation for online censorship in August 2012. Measures, to be launched in spring 2013, include a system to search Kyrgyz-language and .kg websites for content inciting hatred, which the government said would protect children as well as blocking extremist material. The bill was assessed by the Committee of Parliament on 24 September. An online petition against the measure attracted almost 10,000 signatures, according to organisers. (Freedom House)
Kuwait
On 4 June, blogger Hamad al Naqi was jailed for 10 years for blasphemy after he ‘endangered state security’ by insulting the Prophet Mohammed and the rulers of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia on his blog. Charges for his arrest on 27 March also included publishing false news on Twitter via his mobile phone. Al Naqi denied all charges, saying his Twitter account was hacked. On 18 April he was stabbed in the neck by a fellow inmate after the prison administration allegedly spread the news that al Naqi insulted the prophet. (Digital Journal)
Blogger Abdulaziz Bou-Hamid was arrested in September after a police officer accused him of libel and slander. The incident in question is claimed to have taken place at an opposition sit-in at el Eradah square, where the blogger argued with a police officer who then filed two reports against him, accusing him of defaming the interior minister and other ministry personnel. (ANHRI)
Malawi
On 10 October, an inquiry into the death of opposition blogger Robert Chasowa concluded that he was murdered. Chasowa, a student, used his blog to call for democracy and regularly criticised former president Bingu wa Mutharika. He was found dead on his university campus in September 2011, following weeks of receiving violent threats. His friends and family were convinced he was murdered, but police insisted it was a suicide. This caused outrage in the local press and a number of journalists covering the story were briefly detained. (RSF)
Malaysia
Blogger and opposition politician Amizudin Ahmat was granted an appeal on 28 August after being sentenced earlier that month to three months’ imprisonment. Ahmat, a member of the opposition People’s Justice Party, was charged with contempt of court after breaking an order not to criticise the Culture, Information and Communications Minister Rais Yatim. He had previously been sentenced to pay high damages for defamation and was banned from publishing articles about the minister. Since the verdict, he has posted 11 further articles. The High Court ruled that the new publications, together with the language used, merited severe punishment. (RSF)
Oman
On 9 September, six activists were charged with information technology crimes as well as with charges of insulting the sultan and undermining the position of the state. They were given sentences of up to a year and a half, as well as each receiving a fine of 1000 Rials (US$2600). One of the arrested activists is a member of the Omani Team for Human Rights and they had all taken part in protests in July. Only days later, on 16 September, blogger and journalist Mokhtar bin Mohamed el Hana’y was accused of insulting the sultan and violating the information technology law. The court simultaneously adjourned the trials of five other activists until October. (ANHRI, Freedom House)
Pakistan
Mobile networks in the Balochistan province were frozen on 14 August, the 66th anniversary of Pakistan’s independence, in the name of ‘national security’ and ‘upholding law and order’. Balochistan has been the target of government censors in previous years, which has ordered the blocking of Balochi news and culture websites. (Freedom House)
A 14-year-old blogger was shot by the Pakistani Taliban on 9 October, leaving her in critical condition. Malala Yousafzai, a peace campaigner who was vocal in her support of women’s rights, was attacked in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on her way home from school. (CNN)
On 11 August, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) ordered the country’s internet service providers (ISPs) to block 15 ‘scandalous’ websites, including a site that featured a video clip of a PTV news anchor criticising a senior figure at the media organisation and a site that broadcast an intimate conversation between two politicians. (the News)
Panama
The government took steps to introduce restrictive copyright laws in late September. If introduced, those thought to be in breach of copyright will only be given 15 days to prove their innocence and be liable to pay heavy financial penalties. The move was said to be part of the country’s compliance with some of the aspects of its free trade agreement with the United States. The bill was approved on 26 September. (EFF)
Philippines
On 9 October, the Supreme Court ruled that the drafted Cybercrime Prevention Act should be suspended for 120 days. A temporary restraining order was issued on the request of 15 groups of petitioners challenging the constitutionality of the law, which came into effect on 3 October. The law makes libel a cybercrime punishable by up to 12 years in jail; it also allows officials the power to search and seize data from people’s online accounts. (BBC)
Russia
In August, details emerged about the Foreign Intelligence Service’s plans to develop systems for monitoring the internet. The agency was believed to be funding three projects at a cost of 30 million rubles (US$900,000) that aimed to target information from blogs and social networks, both in Russia and abroad. There were reports that the programme had already been tested in some Eastern Europe countries. (IT News)
Saudi Arabia
A former prisoner was arrested on 8 August after he tweeted and posted a video about the torture he suffered while in prison. Fahid Saad al Otaibi was arrested by plainclothes security service officers, brutally assaulted and taken to an unknown location. He was previously detained in a political prison for 16 months without trial. (ANHRI)
Ra’if Badawi was arrested in July. The editor of Free Saudi Liberals was arrested under the 2007 Anti-Cybercrime Law and charged with offending religious values. The website acts as a platform for debate on religion. He could face up to five years in prison, in addition to a fine of up to 3 million riyals (US$800,000). (Human Rights Watch)
Sudan
On 16 September, the Ministry of Communications blocked YouTube. No official reason was given, but analysts suggested the decision was based on the assumption that the video sharing site is used by rebel movements to communicate. The decision was strongly condemned by several journalists and activists who, despite contacting the National Communication Authority, were given no information about the censorship. Syria, Pakistan, India, Iran and Turkey have all blocked the site since it launched in 2005. (ANHRI)
Syria
There were reports that citizen journalist Fatima Khaled Saad was transferred to the headquarters of the general intelligence department in Damascus on 17 July. The activist was detained at the end of June for possession of recordings about the country’s revolution. There were reports that she had been the victim of violence and ill treatment while in custody. (RSF)
Prominent citizen journalist Salim Qabbani was arrested by security forces on 14 July while on assignment in Damascus. Qabbani is a member of the Local Coordination Committee in Homs and played an active role in firsthand reporting on Syria’s conflict. (RSF)
June and July 2012 were marked by the killing of an unprecedented number of citizen journalists. It was estimated that 10 citizen journalists were killed between late May and June. Among them were Suhaib Dib, victim of a targeted killing by security forces on 4 July; Mohamed Hamdo Hallaq, killed on 2 July; Samer Khalil al Sataleh, who died in Douma on 28 June; Wael Omar Bard, who had filmed demonstrations and violence and died on 26 June; Ghias Khaled Hmouria, who died during the filming of an operation by the rebel Free Syrian Army in the Damascus suburb of Douma on 25 June; and Omar al Ghantawi, killed by a sniper while filming shelling in Homs on 21 June. (RSF)
United Kingdom
On 9 October 2012, Azhar Ahmed was sentenced to a community order and instructed to pay costs of £300 (US$470) after he posted a message that read ‘all soldiers should die and go to hell’ on Facebook. Ahmed admitted posting the comment two days after the death of six British troops on 6 March and was charged with grossly offensive communication. (Guardian)
Teenager Matthew Woods was jailed for three months on 8 October for posting explicit jokes on Facebook about missing schoolgirl April Jones. Woods, who also posted offensive comments about another missing child, pleaded guilty to ‘sending by means of a public electronic communications network a message or other matter that is grossly offensive’. A crowd of around 50 people also gathered outside his home in an angry protest against the posts. (Guardian)
Paul Chambers, found guilty of sending a menacing tweet, won his High Court appeal against the case on 27 July. Chambers, 27, had joked about how he would blow Robin Hood Airport in South Yorkshire ‘sky high’ if it wasn’t reopened in time for his flight. He was convicted in May 2010 following charges under section 127(1) of the Communications Act 2003, and fined £1,000 (US$1602).(Independent)
Facebook apologised after it deleted a post on free speech organisation ARTICLE 19’s page in early July. The post linked to a report about torture in Syria. Although a spokesperson for the social networking site admitted they had made a mistake, ARTICLE 19 was not provided with a clear explanation as to why the post had been removed. (Guardian)
Teenager Reece Messer was issued with a harassment warning on 31 July after sending offensive messages to Olympic diver Tom Daley via Twitter. Another Twitter user, Daniel Thomas, faced charges after he tweeted a homophobic remark about Daly and fellow diver Peter Waterfield. Charges against Thomas were dropped. (New Statesman)
United States of America
On 17 September, Twitter handed over posts by Occupy Wall Street protesters to a judge in New York after being threatened with a fine for contempt of court. The judge requested information in order to strengthen the case against protester Malcolm Harris, who was charged with disorderly conduct after being arrested on 1 October with approximately 700 others protesters on Brooklyn Bridge. Twitter had initially refused the order, saying it undermined privacy laws. (BBC, Bloomberg)
Google added the Pirate Bay domains to its blacklist of censored search terms in September. The pages were still indexed and accessible via the company’s search engine, but GoogleInstant and Auto Complete did not display related search results or website domains from the popular torrent tracker. Google began blocking piracy-related searches in January 2011. (Next Web)
On 31 July, Twitter suspended British journalist Guy Adams’s account after he posted critical comments about the US media organisation NBC’s Olympics coverage on the social networking site. Adams, the Independent’s Los Angeles bureau chief, published the corporate email address of Gary Zenkel, the executive of NBC responsible for the coverage of the games. According to NBC, Twitter alerted the network to Adams’s posts and suspended his account for a breach of privacy. (Independent)
On 10 August 2012, a federal judge ruled that the government and police can access material about members of the public using Facebook profiles. Police searched the profile of alleged gangster Melvin Colon in relation to a wider investigation into drug dealing, murder and racketeering. (Gigaom)
Edited by Natasha Schmidt
Compiled by Milana Knezevic and Daisy Williams
