Global Voices Online

Although no cause for the blocking of YouTube by service provider Maroc Telecom has been ascertained, the current speculation is, as Moonlight mentions, is:

La raison de cette censure serait la publication par ce site de 2 vidéos d'un islmaiste malade mental qui (en cachant bien son visage bien sur) a parlé de la fortune du roi en l'insultant.

The reason of this censure would be the publication by this site (YouTube) of 2 videos of a mentally ill islamist who (by hiding his face well) spoke about the fortune of the king insultingly.

Maghrebism is encouraging readers to sign a petition for Maroc Telecom and parent company Vivendi to restore YouTube access:

The Moroccan government is usually very sensitive to media-attention. They are often very afraid that their image of a moderate, safe and open muslim country will be damaged.
Not realizing that they damage that image themselves.
So please sign and digg away because that is the only way to make them realize that what they did is wrong.

The petition can be found here.

Recent Links also in Middle East & North Africa

Iranian students in Paris criticized Iranian government and its repression policy against Iranian students and opposition in a meeting with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iranian president's advisor in Paris. Here are the films [fa].

Regine, at we make money not art, introduces us to photographs by Bas Princen of Cairo's Mokattam Ridge or Garbage City (Zabbaleen) - where a community of mainly Coptic Christians live and make a living out of collecting, sorting and disposing of Cairo's waste.

Iranian authorities released Mohammad Ali Abtahi,former vice president and blogger on a $700,000 bail one week ago after his lawyer said he had been sentenced to six years in prison. Human rights activists reported [fa] that a few days ago Sasan Aghayi, a blogger and journalist got arrested in Tehran.