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37 Bloggers Who Got Arrested For Blogging

Blogging can be fun, profitable, educational and inspiring but it also can get you busted. Here are the stories of bloggers who got arrested for practicing their craft. Just a note: As I was researching this topic I found the most interesting cases in the last pages of Google search results. Things start getting interesting on about the 20th page of search results. Maybe when we research topics we should get back into the more obscure search results.

Google heavily favors websites which already have lots of traffic. Traffic is a huge factor in search engine optimization that most seo gurus do not talk about. So when you search into the later searches you get more of the local articles and sometimes they have the best stories.

1. Hamoud Bin Saleh was arrested in Saudi Arabia for blogging about his conversion from Islam to Christianity. Hamoud was also arrested in 2004 for the same hideous offense of blogging about Christianity and held in jail for 9 months. He was also detained briefly in 2008 for the same heresy but was released rather quickly shortly before the Saudi-sponsored interfaith dialogue conference held November 12-13 at the UN Headquarters in New York. Apparently it is not kosher to be imprisoning somebody for blogging about being a Christian while sponsoring an “interfaith” dialogue. Kind of looks bad.

Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty

But despite the regular be-headings of sorcerers, adulterers and heretics Saudi Arabia seems to be making progress on human rights. Congratulations Saudi Arabia on heading the Human Rights Council for the United Nations! Here is an article on the subject “No more Flogging for Blogging.”

2. Chicago blogger and online radio host Hal Turner, was arrested for threatening to kill 3 federal judges on his blog if they upheld a hand gun ban. Arresting bloggers is not exclusive to Islamic and/or third world countries. We do it right here in the good old USA home of the 1st amendment.

3. 30 year-old Dinh Nhat Uy was the third blogger arrested in less than a month in Vietnam. He was charged with “abusing democratic freedom.” (talk about the kettle calling the pot black.) His brother was sentenced to eight years for propaganda against the state. In less than a year 46 people arrested for activism on line or on the streets. Dinh was arrested for making a post containing “erroneous and slanderous” information against the communist government in Hanoi.

Pushing the “Publish” button on a wordpress blog and get you 8 years in the slammer in Vietnam. To learn the fate of Dinh Nhat Uy see this article.

4. Meu Soepa, 21, a student of literature at Northwest University for Nationalities in Lanzhou in Tibet was arrested by Chinese authorities for discussing Tibetian issues such as self-immolation and even writing a poem on the subject on his blogspot blog. Here it is:

Who was she that ignited herself in the dark?

Energizing the Land of Snows with her [last drop of] blood!

Who was she that sacrificed herself in the flame?

Leaving behind her last solicitude on the Plateau!

Who was she – the messenger of the Tsanpos, the incarnation of the truth?

You have left

Your hopes for truth and justice,

Spreading throughout the Land of Snows!

You have left,

Bearing all the oppression and grief

You have left,

Amid the prayers of hundreds of thousands of Tibetans!

Nobody knows where Meu Soepa is. The poem was in hommage to 20 year old Tsepe Ki who lit herself on fire in protest to China’s occupation of tibet. She died at the scene.

5. Russian blogger arrested for blogging about pneumonic plague rumours. The 22-year-old blogging medical student, Ivan Peregorodiev, was publicly questioning the 17 confirmed swine flu deaths in the area, wondering ‘aloud’ if the diagnosis was correct. The government has accused Peregorodiev of spreading “deliberately false information related to an act of terrorism” (Article 207 of the Russian Criminal Code).

6. Blogger Brian Couse, 26, of Stanfordville, New York was arrested for making an anonymous threat a on a newspaper blog against a Torrington Police officer. At least he tried to be anonymous. Folks, if you are posting with your isp ip it is very easy to trace who you are. If you plan on threatening people anonymously I suggest using a VPN service. It is not 100% but I doubt Brian Couse was using one. Here is how it works. Newsletter seee ip of blogger who posted “anonymous” threat. They do a 2 second reverse ip search for free and find out the name of the isp of the blogger. They then send a scary legal letter to the isp and they give up Brian Couse faster than you can say “Catch me if you can.”

7. Alabama blogger Roger Shuler, a former local newspaper reporter, writes a blog about Alabama politics, Legal Schnauzer. He wrote a series of posts alleging that Robert Riley, Jr., son of former Alabama governor Bob Riley and a lawyer rumored to be running for Congress, had an affair with lobbyist Liberty Duke.  For exposing this alleged affair (I ain’t say’in it’s so) he was arrested and held without bail.

To learn more about the imprisonment of Robert Shuler click here.

8. Emmanula Ojo, a Nigerian blogger was arrested and charged for a story in which he alleged that Mrs Amosun, wife of Ibikunle Amosun the governor of the Nigerian state of Ogun. was quizzed in London for money laundering. According to him, the First Lady was detained by the London police for being in possession of $300,000. He is no apologizing profusely in order to avoid prosecution. I can hardly blame him. I would not want to spend time in jail in Ogun Nigeria or anywhere for that matter.

9. Another Nigerian news blogger,Desmond Ike Chima, was arrested by the Federal Criminal Investigation Department of Nigeria for writing this headline about Managing Director of the United Bank for Africa, Phillip Oduoza, and superstar actress, Genevieve Nnaji: “RANDY UBA PLC MD, PHILLIPS ODUOZA’S WIFE TO DIVORCE HIM OVER AFFAIR WITH ACTRESS GENEVIEVE NNAJI.”

Chima pleaded not guilty and was released on 100,000 Nigerian dollars bond. ($500 US).

10. A 24 year old Chinese blogger was arrested for making racist comments on his blog in Singapore. Under Singaporean law, comments made with the “deliberate intention of wounding the religious or racial feelings of any person” can result in a jail term of up to three years and a fine. There are Chinese, Malay and Indian communities in Singapore. This blogger apparently did not like the smell of a certain Malay passenger on the train and wrote about the experience on his blog.

“There he sat, unaffected by his surroundings, smelling like he didn’t showered (sic) in years and wore some really scary dirty clothes,” He then went on to make some insulting comments about the Malay and was later arrested. He was shocked at the reaction of the government to his blog post which he though was just for him a few of his racist friends. Be careful what you Tweet folks and be nice to Malay’s in Singapore.

11. Bangladeshi blogger Mohon Kumar Mondal was arrested for questioning the rationality of Islam’s Hajj pilgrimage and criticizing the Saudi government for the stampede that killed hundreds of Muslim worshipers last month. How about that. Going to jail for questioning the “rationality of….” Shouldn’t we always be questioning the rationality of everything? God forbid reality should conflict with our dogma. What would we do?

Reuters

12. Time for some more Iran bashing. I hear you can make good money bashing Iran from certain groups. Well you are not safe in Iran even if you avoid politics altogether. Yes, the message is, YOU ARE NOT SAFE!.Apparently this vague article wants us to believe the well know tech blogger Arash Zad was arrested because he blogged about internet security and more freedom for women. Read the article yourself here. I think it is fishy.

13. Karim Nabil Suleiman, 22 was arrested for criticizing Islamic clerics in Egypt.

14. In the Phillipines Fashion Pulis blogger arrested after Deniece Cornejo charges him with libel.

 

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