Friday, 24 September 2010 06:17
Saudi Arabians Will Soon Need A License To Blog
According to The Media Note, Saudi Information and Culture Ministry spokesman Abdul Rahman Al-Hazza announced last night Saudi time that all Saudi Arabian web publishers and online media, including blogs and forums, will need to be officially registered with the government.
Al-Hazza claimed that the measure will cut down on libel and defamation and is not intended to limit freedom of speech.
However Saudi Arabia has a checkered history when it comes to Internet censorship, and old media is currently very regulated. The government heavily controls the few newspapers in operation and traditional journalists can be detained if they cross the line.
While the Saudi government has arrested bloggers critical of Saudi life and censored activist Twitter pages in the past, this is the first attempt at regulating online media as a whole. As blogging becomes more popular, Saudi Arabian authorities are starting to treat it with the same caution and restriction applied to traditional media in the country.
Of course this has gotten many bloggers upset, and people have taken to Twitter to protest, with the hashtag #haza3, which refers to the Ministry official’s last name. Public protesting is illegal in Saudi Arabia.
The regulation has not yet gone into effect and this story is still developing so stay close for updates.
0
0
1
1
2
2
3
3
4
4
5
5
6
6
7
7
8
8Authors: Alexia Tsotsis
Read 4308 times
Published in
News Technologique-Tech News
accident
Amazing
animal
animals
animaux
art
avec
baby
car
Cat
chat
chien
comment
Crazy
Cute
dans
Dog
droles
Echec
fail
fait
From
funny
how
jump
musique
nature
new
people
plus
pour
route
russia
russie
saut
sauvage
Sport
stupid
sur
Technique
The
usa
vehicules
video
video du jour
videos
voiture
webbuzz
wild
with