Several UK blogs taken down after legal threats

There is an uproar in UK blogs after several blogs where taking down by ISP following threats of legal action from Uzbek billionaire, Alisher Usmanov, a major Arsenal shareholder. Craig Murray, a former British ambassador to Uzbakistan, wrote a post against the billionare, a law firm complained to the ISP - fasthosts - about the content of Murray's blog. The ISP took down Murray's account but with it also a number of other blogs who shared the same account. More details on here.

It is interesting how easy it seems to shutdown a blogger in the UK.

Links for 21-6-2007

Martin Moore Blog: The twilight zone between blogs and journalism
Excellent post, the example of a newspaper citing a blog in a journalistic work. Yet another example of blurring the line between blogging and journalism.

BB Editor's Blog: A year on

Editor's blog one of the favorite blogs and certainly one of the best ways to learn about editorial transparency, it's has been a year since it's launched - well done.

washingtonpost - 'West Bank First': It Won't Work

An interesting piece, while the authors don't go into the reasons of Hamas outburst and US efforts to undermine the democratically elected Hamas (in fact they seem to agree with this). But they make a good point, that Western efforts to isolate Hamas in Gaza and flood the West Bank with money isn't going to work.

Egyptian blogger Abdulmonem released

Egyptian Abdulmonem has been released from prison, welcome back bro. The blogsphere passed a crucial test for solidarity with one another regardless of political differences. Abdulmonem is a MB blogger, was jailed 15 April 07 and the response was overwhelming. Egyptian, Arab and non-Arab bloggers, liberal or not, supported Abdulmonem.

"Human rights" activists in the Middle East most often campaign for and care about those they preceive as "liberal", the blogsphere must be different however.