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It’s a never ending story it seems.
Freedom of speech is already a sharp two sided sword in Western countries.
But in Asia and the Middle East you don’t have it.
Simple as that.

When you are a blogger and one with a critical mind at that, you can easily get into trouble.

This time it’s a young man from Burma, who reported during the uprising in 2007 via his blog.

A Burmese blogger has been sentenced to 20 years in jail for posting a cartoon of the military leader Than Shwe.

Nay Phone Latt was arrested in January; the sentence delivered on Monday included 15 years for offences under the Electronics Act, two years for “creating public alarm” and three and a half years for offences under the Video Act, his mother said.

Full article on BBC

And he’s not the only one. And not only in Burma.

Dubai, 14 April (AKI) - Thousands of websites in the United Arab Emirates were blocked on Monday, according to an email statement sent by DU, one of the country’s major Internet service providers, to all its users.

The list of websites that have been blocked does not only include anti-Islam sites or those that are deemed morally inappropriate, but also various information sites such as the Arab Times.

Full article on AKI

A well-known Saudi blogger, Fuad Ahmed al Foran, was jailed last December for criticising the government in Riyadh in his blog and a Bahraini blogger and human rights activist, Abdullah Mohsen, was also recently arrested.

What is going on?
There’s a long article in todays Arab Times about this as well.