Family pleads for jailed Saudi blogger - CNN.com
"....According to Haidar, her husband just wanted to encourage discussion about religion in his homeland. But starting a liberal Internet forum in conservative Saudi Arabia can be a dangerous pursuit.
"No one wanted to take his case," said Waleed Abualkhair, Badawi's attorney. "Because they believed that anyone who'd take this kind of case, that means he destroys his (own) reputation. But I don't believe in that. I believe that everyone has his right to have a lawyer. And I believe that Raif is innocent."
Unfortunately, Raif Badawi's case is not unique : ((
And not only are people being jailed for wanting to hold public discussions about their religion (Islam) - but now it appears KSA may try to block communications uless the carriers agree to KSA monitoring and censorship.
Saudi Arabia may block Skype, Viber, WhatsApp, others - CNN.com
For Al-Nafjan, the move is a "waste of time."
"People will know it's not safe and move to another application," said Al-Nafjan. "The same thing happened with BlackBerry."
Saudi authorities threatened to ban BlackBerry service in the kingdom in 2010, accusing the company of not complying with regulations. The CITC demanded the company install local servers so the service could be censored. An agreement was eventually reached but it is not known what steps were taken by the manufacturer of the Canadian smartphone in order to do so.
"People who are aware know that it's not that big of a deal even if these applications are blocked," explained Al-Nafjan. "The issue is if they ban the Internet or if they don't provide Internet sevices. As long as the Internet is available, there's no way that they can end freedom of speech -- it's gone beyond the point of no return."
"....According to Haidar, her husband just wanted to encourage discussion about religion in his homeland. But starting a liberal Internet forum in conservative Saudi Arabia can be a dangerous pursuit.
"No one wanted to take his case," said Waleed Abualkhair, Badawi's attorney. "Because they believed that anyone who'd take this kind of case, that means he destroys his (own) reputation. But I don't believe in that. I believe that everyone has his right to have a lawyer. And I believe that Raif is innocent."
Unfortunately, Raif Badawi's case is not unique : ((
And not only are people being jailed for wanting to hold public discussions about their religion (Islam) - but now it appears KSA may try to block communications uless the carriers agree to KSA monitoring and censorship.
Saudi Arabia may block Skype, Viber, WhatsApp, others - CNN.com
For Al-Nafjan, the move is a "waste of time."
"People will know it's not safe and move to another application," said Al-Nafjan. "The same thing happened with BlackBerry."
Saudi authorities threatened to ban BlackBerry service in the kingdom in 2010, accusing the company of not complying with regulations. The CITC demanded the company install local servers so the service could be censored. An agreement was eventually reached but it is not known what steps were taken by the manufacturer of the Canadian smartphone in order to do so.
"People who are aware know that it's not that big of a deal even if these applications are blocked," explained Al-Nafjan. "The issue is if they ban the Internet or if they don't provide Internet sevices. As long as the Internet is available, there's no way that they can end freedom of speech -- it's gone beyond the point of no return."
