Thursday, January 13, 2011

Saud Arabia requires a license to create online publication

Saudi Arabia has imposed a new law requiring every citizen who wants to publish a new website (eg blogs) to obtain a government license. According to Fast Company, the measure has come into effect this January and is harder than the drafts they met last year. The license issued by the Ministry of Culture has a term of three years and the applicant must be over 20 years, a citizen of that country, demonstrate good conduct and a minimum level of schooling.

This action seriously affects 31% of residents in that country without citizenship. The law recommends that any Internet, national or not, who wants to have an activity on the Internet to register with the Ministry of Culture. Human rights groups have criticized these measures censorious.

Christoph Wilcke, researcher in the Middle East at Human Rights Watch said that "what the kingdom needs is a legal protection for freedom of expression without any conditions, licenses or registrations." Anyone with an Internet activity without a license can be fined up to 100,000 riyals (about 20,000 euros) and any future activity will be prohibited on the Web The law requires that digital publications include a "call to the religion of Islam" does not violate Islamic law or jeopardize national security.

In fact, Internet publications are treated as those using other media such as paper, and the creators of new sites must notify the company that hosts it, which will facilitate the blockade by the authorities.
Posted by Manlio Gandolfi at 7:04 PM

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