Moroccan Blogger Mohamed Eraji has conviction quashed; Swedish Wiretapping documentary goes viral.

Written on 19th September 2008                                                                                                              1 COMMENT
David Petherick, Contributing Editor, United Kingdom

Last week, we reported that Mohamed Erraji was sentenced to two years in prison and fined, for “showing disrespect to the king”, which is, according to Morocco’s press code, an offense. We felt that it was worth bringing to your attention the fact that the freedom to say what you wish online is far from Universal.

We also were happy to allow our readers a world exclusive preview of ‘Wiretapping Sweden‘, a documentary film which we think deserves your attention because of the dangerous and international scope for the precedent set by a new law in Sweden allowing government monitoring of your online activity and correspondence (and you don’t have to live in Sweden, or anywhere near it, for this to affect you).

Today, we are happy to report that Mohamed Erraji conviction has been quashed (albeit on a procedural technicality), according to Reporters without Borders. And we are also happy to announce that the ‘Wiretapping Sweden‘ documentary has been widely publicised, and has had over 10,000 views so far.

So tonight, as another Next Web Salon takes place in Amsterdam, Morocco may be almost listening, and Sweden may still be wiretapping, but it’s been a fairly good week for the open spread of ideas across the Next Web.

Mohamed Erraji, Morocco, Reporters Without Borders, sweden, Telephone tapping

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