China and Oman Continue Democracy Crackdown

This Week in Censorship: Oman, South Korea, and China Crack Down on Dissent

Internet Censorship: S Korea, China and Oman Continue Democracy Crackdown in Worrying Trend

Democracy, elections and voting at Democracy Chronicles

A famous Omani blogger has been arrested. Take a look:

The Sultanate of Oman has received little attention throughout the so-called Arab Spring, despite unprecedented protests last February. Although there is no reported online political censorship , reports that the government monitors private communications, as well as the country’s recently amended penal code (which suggests punishment for those charged with weakening the “prestige of the state”), suggest that the Omani blogosphere likely engages in self-censorship. Despite that, no blogger has ever been reported arrested in the Gulf country…until now.

According to a report from Global Voices Advocacy, Muawiya Alrawahi was detained for a blog post and a series of tweets in which he criticized the government. The report states that Alrawahi wrote, in a now-deleted Arabic-language post on his blog, about “suffering sexual abuse as a young teenager, his earlier involvement with Oman’s Internal Security Service (ISS), his admiration for and connections to ex-ISS Brigadier-General Khamis Al Ghraibi (now imprisoned under charges of spying for the UAE), his lack of religious belief, his disillusionment with Oman, and his loss of faith in the ruler Sultan Qaboos.” Alrawahi’s arrest comes shortly after the arrests of two journalists in the country on charges of “insulting” the country’s Minister of Justice.