Fouad al-Farhan knew they were coming for him. A few days before Saudi security forces swooped on his offices, he sent a letter to friends telling them he was a wanted man. “They will pick me up any time in the next two weeks,” he predicted.

His crime? Writing one of the most widely read blogs in Saudi Arabia.

Mr Farhan, 32, who describes his online mission as “searching for freedom, dignity, justice, equality, public participation and other lost Islamic values”, had already broken ground by refusing to hide behind a pen-name as he vented his spleen about the rampant corruption blighting political life. Now he has clocked up another first – the first blogger to be arrested in the kingdom.

The blogger was picked up on 10 December from the offices of his computer company in Jeddah, but it was not until this week that the interior ministry finally confirmed his arrest.

Blogging has seen something of a boom in Saudi Arabia, allowing dissident voices a space in a society were the media is kept on a tight leash and where political parties and public gatherings are banned. There are an estimated 600 bloggers in Saudi Arabia, male and female, conservative and liberal, writing in English and Arabic.

• 2 Comments

Egyptian bloggers, often at the forefront of exposing human rights abuses, are planning an online festival of torture videos to run alongside the 31st Cairo Film Festival, from 27 November to 7 December.

According to the “Middle East Times”, the parallel festival is the invention of a blogger named Walid, and will feature “controversial acts of torture allegedly committed by the security authorities.” Prizes, including a “Golden Whip”, will be awarded to the best entrants.

Egypt’s bloggers have exposed many incidents of police torture. In a rare case of security forces being sentenced for abusing detainees, two policemen got three years in jail for torturing a man in their custody earlier this month. Footage of the abuse filmed with a mobile phone was widely distributed on YouTube and sparked nationwide and international outrage.

• 0 Comments

Stock photography company Corbis is offering Internet bloggers access to some of its images for their posts for free in exchange for showcasing advertising embedded into the photos.

Corbis and its digital rights partner, PicScout, will allow bloggers to access photos via a Web link from the site PicApp.com, now in a test phase, Corbis Chief Executive Gary Shenk told the Reuters Media Summit in New York on Tuesday.

The photos will either include an ad overlay on part of the image, or embedded advertising that pops up when a Web user runs a cursor over the picture.

“We work with a partner so that those pictures are tracked, and if they’re being used illegally, we can figure that out,” Shenk said. “But as long as they are downloaded through this application, you’re legit and you’re ready to go.

PicApp also offers bloggers the opportunity to earn ad revenue based on how many times Web users click on the images posted to their blogs, according to the Web site.

In June, the company launched an online market for user-generated photos at SnapVillage.com, where images can sell for $1 to $50 each.

• 0 Comments

An Egyptian blogger serving a 4-year jail term for insulting Islam and President Hosni Mubarak has been beaten in prison and sent to an isolation cell, rights groups has said.

Abdel Karim Suleiman, a former law student convicted in connection with eight articles he wrote since 2004, was the first blogger to stand trial in Egypt for Internet writings.

The February verdict was widely condemned by human rights groups and bloggers as a dangerous precedent that could limit online freedom in the most populous Arab country.

Reporters without Borders said Suleiman, in letters sent from prison, had complained of being handcuffed and beaten then put into an isolation cell where he received very little food or water.

Suleiman, a secular-minded Muslim, has not denied writing the articles for which he was convicted, but said they merely represented his own views.

One of Suleiman’s articles said al-Azhar in Cairo, one of the most prominent seats of Sunni Muslim learning, was promoting extreme ideas. Suleiman has also described some of the companions of the Muslim prophet Mohammad as “terrorists” and likened Mubarak to dictatorial pharaohs who ruled ancient Egypt.

• 0 Comments

STA Travel has rolled out a UK version of mapmyadventure.com, enabling travellers from other countries to plan their travels around the UK.

The website uses content from Lonely Planet, STA Travel Blogs and data from Google Maps.

Visitors to the site are encouraged to sign up and add their places of interest. By clicking on different locations, users can read travel blogs and look at the latest images from the area.

It will also showcase events happening

• 1 Comment

As weblogs, or ‘blogs’, become increasingly popular, Nick Poole, employment law solicitor at Darlington law firm Latimer Hinks is warning the region’s employers to beware of the risks represented by these sites.

Recent figures* show that 39 percent of ‘bloggers’ admit that they have posted sensitive or damaging accounts of their employer, workplace or colleagues on a weblog, or on-line diary.

• 0 Comments