System 13

In support of Amnesty International’s Call to Bloggers, I’m writing this post to bring up some cases where people have been persecuted by governments after expressing their opinions. Allegedly some of these people broke the law in other ways, but considering where these incidents took place, one has to take such statements with a grain of salt (or three…)

The most recent case of someone being arrested due to expressing their opinion is the case of Kianoosh Sanjari in Iran, who

. . . was arrested earlier this month while reporting on clashes between security forces and supporters of Shi’a cleric Ayatollah Boroujerdi. He is being held incommunicado and Amnesty International fears that he may be at risk of torture or ill-treatment. Sanjari had allegedly gone to the home of Ayatollah Boroujerdi in the capital, Tehran, to prepare a report on the clashes that were taking place there. [Source]

He was arrested on October 7th. Currently, no one knows where he is located, nor do they know what exactly he has been charged for. Amnesty International is concerned that he is at risk of being tortured. [Source]

Some more information from The Independent:

CHINA

Published state secrets
Shi Tao was sentenced to 10 years in prison after “illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities”.

His crime was to have e-mailed details of the Chinese government’s plans to handle news coverage of the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 2004. Yahoo! provided crucial information in the case, linking the message and e-mail account with Shi ’s computer. Reporters Without Borders accused Yahoo! of acting as a “police informant”.

TUNISIA
Exposed state torture
Mohammed Abbou was sentenced in 2005 to four years in prison for assaulting a colleague at a lawyers’ conference (a questionable charge) and for “having published information that would disturb public order”.

Human rights activists believe Mr Abbou’s real crime was to have posted a series of online articles denouncing the torture of political prisoners in Tunisia and comparing Tunisia’s President, Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, to Israel’s then prime minister Ariel Sharon.

VIETNAM

Denounced corruption by officials

Nguyen Vu Binh was sentenced to seven years in prison and three years’ house arrest for “spying”.

Mr Vu Binh wrote several online articles calling for greater political and economic freedoms, denouncing official corruption and calling for the establishment of a liberal democratic political party. He was called “reactionary” at his trial.

Reporters Without Borders says that Vietnam is second only to China in cracking down on internet freedom of expression.

While on the topic of freedom of speech rights, check out the EFF. Among other things, they have a legal guide for bloggers.