It was originally reported that he could receive the death penalty, which is the maximum penalty for his alleged crime of "political terrorism" in the northeast African country.

"The charges included conspiring to commit acts of terror, rendering support to terrorism, participating in a terrorist organization (Ginbot 7) and money laundering. Elias is also found guilty of masterminding and providing financial support to the other defendants who remained under police custody since June 2011."

The other defendants, who were sentenced to 14 years in prison and given fines of 33,000 birrs ($1,500.00), were Reeyot Alemu, a columnist for the weekly newspaper Feteh, and Woubshet Taye, who was deputy editor of Awramba Times, which has since closed up shop.

Kifle's higher profile, resulting from his U.S. residency, may have saved him from the death penalty. That may not be the case for another blogger, Eskinder Nega, who was arrested in September, also on "terrorism" charges.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, this is Kifle's second life sentence, following a 2007 decision, also rendered in absentia. The first conviction was on charges of treason and was part of a 2006 crackdown on the press. He was targeted for his publication's coverage of the Ethiopian government's violent clampdown on protests that arose after the 2005 elections in the country.

Photo via CPJ | tip via Scott Baldauf

• In China, Cheng Jianping's mildly ironic tweet earned her a year in re-education camp.
• In the United Kingdom, Paul Chambers' frustration at an airport closure led him to tweet a joking threat to blow it up - culminating in a conviction and a £1,000-fine under Britain's Communications Act 2003.

No matter which you think needs to adapt more - the law, or the way we use social media - we enter 2011 facing a new level of accountability for our spontaneous comments. And the kind of idle conversation that could pass without comment in a pub is now part of the permanent, searchable record.

By the way, this cartoon is part of a 2010 year-in-review I'm putting together. Look for it later this week on Noise to Signal... and in the meantime, I've made a Noise to Signal 2011 wall calendar, free for the downloading. Happy holidays!

More Noise to Signal.

"The number of countries affected by online censorship has doubled from one year to the next - a disturbing tendency that shows an increase in control over new media as millions of netizens get active online," said Lucie Morillon, head of the group's Internet and Freedoms Desk.

The report is a profoundly depressing read. As tech journalists writing from the soft comfort of our homes, it's easy to forget that in many places of the world, the simple act of posting something to a blog has lethal repercussions.

Elections, politics and the economy were the primary reasons bloggers ended up in jail. While China is the worst, Iran, Tunisia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and Uzbekistan also frequently monitor or block websites and blogs.

From the report:

"Two Azerbaijani bloggers, who were sentenced to two years in prison for making a film mocking the political elite.The Turkmen Internet remains under total state control. Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer is still in jail, while the famous Burmese comedian Zarganar still has 34 years of his prison sentence to serve. Victims of Internet policing also include such leading figures in the defence of online free expression as China's Hu Jia and Liu Xiaobo and Vietnam's Nguyen Trung and Dieu Cay.

"In South Korea, a blogger was wrongfully detained for commenting on the country's disastrous economic situation. Around six netizens in Thailand were arrested or harassed just for making a connection between the king's health and a fall in the Bangkok stock exchange."

In March, Reporters Sans Frontières will launch what it's calling the Enemies of the Internet campaign to highlight the countries affected by online intimidation and censorship.

Photo by Amir Darafsheh, Tehran, Iran.

The one thing that's made a big difference for Kareem, his supporters say, has been international attention. Now those supporters are calling for a two week campaign of snail-mail sent to the jail.

Resources

Kareem's primary support group is FreeKareem.org. (Very slow page load.) His crime was in large part denying the truth of Islam, but his supporters say they are primarily Muslims who defend his right to do so.

More in depth coverage of this and other cases can be found at The Committee to Protect Bloggers.

The "Flood the Jail with Mail" campaign is asking you to send a letter or a postcard to Kareem between April 7th and the 21st. You can click on the button below to add a reminder to your Google Calendar.

So far he's been receiving physical mail. Below are the addresses you can use to send that mail, both the English and the Arabic must be present, so fire up your printer and print this page.

Alexandria
Borg Al-Arab Prison
Room 1 Section 22
Prisoner Abdul Kareem Nabil Suleiman
The Arab Republic of Egypt

In too many other cases, the Western tech community has dropped the ball for people working online but living in different places. See, for example, the terrible treatment by YouTube of Egyptian video blogger Wael Abbas, whose police brutality watchdog videos were deleted from the site by the company.

We hope you'll set up a reminder and take a few minutes next month to send Kareem a postcard.