Global Voices Online

“Big companies lobby every day for control of internet access, speed and content. In essence they want to transform the freeway model of networking to a toll road version,” writes Jordanian blogger Bakkouz, who appeals to his readers to join the Save the Internet coalition and sign the Internet Freedom Declaration.

Recent Links also in Middle East & North Africa

Hadi Ghaemi, a leading human rights activist, writes in Huffingtonpost: “Much of the international public and media consider mass protests in Iran to have ended, because images of hundreds of thousands of demonstrators no longer appear on TV screens… But the protest movement is alive and continues to challenge the legitimacy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government, and to demand fundamental rights.”

Adil Najam discusses about a recently released list of 8000 persons including the president of Pakistan and 34 Pakistani politicians who have benefited from the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), promulgated by former president Pervez Musharraf on Oct 5, 2007. This ordinance “grants amnesty to all those against whom politically-motivated cases were registered between Jan 1, 1986, and Oct 12, 1999.”

Maghreb Blog reports that the sentence of Chakib Khayari, a human rights activist and whistleblower, has been upheld in a Casablanca court. Khayari is set to serve three years in prison for accusing high-level civil servants of aiding in drug trafficking.