Syria has stepped up its widespread censorship of the Internet, blocking access to a string of websites critical of the regime, including some run by leading dailies, a human rights group said.

La liste des sites interdits en Syrie est particulièrement longue. Le gouvernement de ce pays bride particulièrement la liberté d’expression et n’hésite pas à mettre au secret pour un simple forward d’email…

In December 2000, not long after the Syrian government first allowed email, the wife of a prominent Syrian businessman received an email containing a cartoon showing a donkey with President Bashar al-Asad’s head mounting another donkey with Lebanese Prime Minister Emile Lahoud’s head. The woman, a resident of Damascus, forwarded the message to her friends. After one of the recipients informed on her, Syrian authorities arrested and detained her without charge for nine months in what one writer described as « deliberately humiliating conditions. »

Cependant…

Only three Web sites tested with pornographic content were blocked: playboy.com, sex.com, and netarabic.com/vb (this last is a message board with pornographic content).

Web sites that focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered issues were generally available.

Quand Kouchner dit que la Syrie est « sur le chemin de l’apaisement », il doit penser à ça…
Source : Asian Sex Gazette.