Saudi Arabians Will Soon Need A License To Blog

[onehandle]

According to The Media Note, Saudi Information and Culture Ministry spokesman Abdul Rahman Al-Hazza announced last night Saudi time that all Saudi Arabian web publishers and online media, including blogs and forums, will need to be officially registered with the government.

Al-Hazza claimed that the measure will cut down on libel and defamation and is not intended to limit freedom of speech.

However Saudi Arabia has a checkered history when it comes to Internet censorship, and old media is currently very regulated. The government heavily controls the few newspapers in operation and traditional journalists can be detained if they cross the line.

While the Saudi government has arrested bloggers critical of Saudi life and censored activist Twitter pages in the past, this is the first attempt at regulating online media as a whole. As blogging becomes more popular, Saudi Arabian authorities are starting to treat it with the same caution and restriction applied to traditional media in the country.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/23/saudi-arabians-will-soon-need-a-license-to-blog

[Newsjock]

1. Now they deny it

From the AP:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gllbHGSiriR8CVwW7PGlIGZvu7IA

A Saudi official denied on Friday that bloggers and web forums would be forced to register under a new electronic media law, after remarks he made sparked outrage among Saudi internet users.

Ministry of information domestic media supervisor Abdulrahman al-Hazzaa clarified that the new law will require on-line news sites to be licensed, but would only encourage bloggers and others to register.

"We are not putting it in our mind to license them. There are so many we cannot control them," he said of the thousands of Saudi bloggers and online forum operators.