Ethiopian blogger given 18 years for criticizing arrests of journalists

    Eskinder Nega is a prominent Ethiopian blogger. He won the coveted Pen America's Freedom to Write for his work. However Nega and 23 others were accused of having links to an opposition group called the Ginbot Seven. Ethiopia considers the group a terrorist organization. The 23 were found guilty of having links to this organization.  Nega was originally arrested last September after he had published a piece that questioned the government's  arrest of some journalists.
  While Nega was sentenced to 18 years another opposition activists Andualem Arage was given a life sentence. Human right group have criticized Ethiopia's anti-terrorism laws as being much too broad. This is not the first time that Nega has been arrested. Since starting his first newspaper in 1993 he has been arrested at least seven times!
   Amnesty International said. "The imprisonment… is emblematic of the Ethiopian government's determination to gag any dissenting voice in the country," For more see this article.  

U.S.: Activists videotaping animal abuse may be tried as terrorists

   Law enforcement officials are fond of finding new uses for anti-terror laws. For some time the Joint Terrorism Task Force of the FBI has suggested that activists carrying out undercover operations on farms to reveal animal abuse should be tried as terrorists.
  The act under which activists could be charged was originally called the Animal Enterprise Protection Act. Note that it was the enterprises not the animals being protected! Now the act is called the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. The penalties associated with conviction under the act are much more severe than for crimes that activists have sometimes committed such as trespass and theft (of animals).
    An example of  the activism involved is exhibited in the actions of  the Group Gourment Cruelty. The group went to a fois gras farm and videotaped how the ducks were overfed and also took a few ducks. The group said these were acts of Civil Disobedience protesting the cruelty to the ducks. The leader of the group did not object to the trespassing charges taking them as a reasonable price to pay for his civil disobedience. However, he considers it outrageous to classify any such act as terrorism.  However, that seems to be exactly what some law enforcement officials and the law want to call it. For much more see this article