Sites Blocked, Hacked as Uprising Gains Further Momentum

Sana'a, Apr 2, 2011- Yemen's most famous news outlet, marebpress.net was blocked by the Yemeni government for covering the news of the Yemeni youth revolution. Another major news website, almasdaronline.com, was blocked in Yemen three weeks ago.
Other sites were hacked including the mouthpiece of the Islah Party amid an intensified war against the electronic media in Yemen coinciding with the peaceful uprising demanding the ouster of the regime across the republic.
Management of islah.net said hacking its website was an attempt to prevent it from covering the popular revolution as hundreds of thousands have been conducting protests and sit-ins to call for the resignation of President Saleh.
The hackers posted photos of President Saleh and the phrase: ‘yes to dialogue’ on the homepage of the website, the management said.
“Such cheap ways are not useful and will not help resolve any problem or save the regime which is on the verge of collapse,” it added, holding the government responsible for attacks on its website and local media.
As the popular uprising started to escalate in many part of the republic, some websites were blocked in the last few months including almasdaronline.com, nashwannews.com and yemennation.com.
Officials at these website accused the authorities of blocking the websites because of covering the protests and the deadly crackdown on the protesters.
There were no official comments on the accusations.
Source: Yemen Post