Saudi Arabia, will introduce the state registration of blogs and forums

Ministry of Information and Culture of Saudi Arabia will introduce a mandatory registration of Internet media and web publications. This tehnoblog TechCrunch wrote with reference to the statement made by Minister Abdul Rahman Al-Gazza (Abdul Rahman Al-Hazza).

These measures will affect including blogs and forums, which will have to obtain a license to continue. It specifies that the registration will be introduced to combat the spread of slander on the web.

It is noted that Saudi Arabia is already mandatory registration of print media. Al-Gazza said that the Saudi government with the help of this initiative is not going to restrict freedom of speech in the country.

However, in 2009, Saudi Arabia among the ten worst countries for bloggers in the world according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. It was reported that the authorities were actively regulate access to the Internet and compete with dissent in cyberspace.