South Asia
Bangladesh bans Islamist group in blogger attacks
Bangladesh authorities banned the Ansarullah Bangla Team, an Islamist militant group suspected of involvement in the murders of three atheist bloggers this year.
Tag: politics of cyberspace
East Asia
Prominent China rights lawyer formally indicted
Chinese prosecutors said that human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang has been indicted on charges of fanning ethnic hatred and provoking unrest for comments that he posted online.
South Asia
Bangladesh: protest murder of secular blogger
Hundreds of protesters gathered in Dhaka to denounce the murder of blogger Avijit Roy, who was hacked to death with machetes following threats over his atheist views.
Greater Middle East
Egypt: activist gets five years in retrial
An Egyptian court sentenced secular activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah to five years in prison in a retrial on charges stemming from the 2011 uprising.
Greater Middle East
Bahrain: investigation of opposition online content
Bahrain's Ministry of Interior initiated a criminal investigation into alleged illegal content posted by the country's main opposition group, a-Wefaq National Islamic Society.
Southeast Asia
Cartoon wars hit ‘moderate’ (sic) Malaysia
In "moderate" Malaysia, an opposition leader is sent to prison for "sodomy," and when a cartoonist lampooned the sentence, he was arrested for "sedition."
Greater Middle East
UN rights experts urge Oman to release activist
Rights activist Said Ali Said Jadad was arrested with no warrant by Omani authorities, charged with undermining the prestige of the state and inciting demonstrations.
Greater Middle East
Egypt: court upholds convictions of activists
Egypt's Court of Cassation upheld convictions and three-year prison sentences of three activists for violating the country's controversial new anti-protest law.
Watching the Shadows
Obama’s sixth year: a World War 4 Report scorecard
World War 4 Report offers its annual annotated assessment of Obama's moves in dismantling, continuing or escalating the apparatus of the Global War on Terrorism.
East Asia
China: draft counter-terror law ‘recipe for abuses’
Human Rights Watch calls China's proposed counter-terrorism legislation a "recipe for abuses" that would instate "total digital surveillance," and allow foreign military missions.
Europe
#JeSuisCharlie hypocrisy goes off the charts
Under the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie, an attack on free speech is being used to justify further attacks on free speech… in the paradoxical name of protecting free speech.
Greater Middle East
Egypt: atheist gets prison for Facebook posts
An Egyptian court in Baheira governorate sentenced student Karim Ashraf Mohamed al-Banna to three years in prison for announcing on Facebook that he is an atheist.