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The Layalina Review

VOL. V NO. 16, July 17-July 30, 2009

Bloggers under Attack

In Egypt, three young bloggers were arrested last week during the government’s increasingly intense campaign to stifle dissent and freedom of expression online, reports Noha Atef for Global Voices Advocacy.

Blogger Abdel Rahman Ayyash was arrested at the Cairo airport on July 21 after attending a youth conference in Turkey.

Later that day, Magdi Saad, who blogs at Yalla, Mesh Mohem (“Come On, Who Cares”), was also arrested at the Cairo airport. Saad is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest opposition group in Egypt, according to The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

The third blogger, Ahmed Abu Khalil, was arrested at dawn on the morning of July 22 when security forces raided his home. Abu Khalil, a self-proclaimed “Islamist,” blogs at Bayarek (meaning “lanterns”) and writes primarily about his personal life.

The three consecutive arrests are the latest in a series of media-related seizures in Egypt, a nation which CPJ ranks as number ten on their list of the “10 Worst Places to Be a Blogger.”

Amnesty International issued a public statement calling Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to order the release of Musaad Abu Fagr and Karim Amer, two activists who have been imprisoned for over 18 months and who are now considered by the organization as “prisoners of conscience.”

Abu Fagr has been held without charge or trial since December 2007, when he was arrested in connection to demonstrations in North Sinai over Bedouin rights. Fagr is the founder of the Sinai-based movement, Wedna Na’Ish (“We Want to Live”), which fights for land and citizen rights for the Bedouin people.

Amer, on the other hand, was sentenced to four years in prison in 2007 for criticizing President Mubarak and the Islamic faith. The three recent arrests and the general trend now in place show that security forces within Egypt are unlikely to stop similar future arrests, even in light of protests from human rights groups worldwide.

“We call on the authorities to explain why Abdel Rahman Ayyash, Magdi Saad, and Ahmed Abu Khalil are being detained. These arrests are but the latest in an ongoing attempt to silence online journalism in Egypt,” wrote CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Mohamed Abdel Dayem.

Joseph Mayton for Menassat reports that Ayyash’s arrest “comes as he continues his push to create a new space for discussion over the Islamist movement in Egypt.”

With blogging gaining in popularity across the Middle East, the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University has published an extensive study called “Mapping the Arab Blogosphere: Politics, Culture, and Dissent,” which analyzes the numerous trends which continue to shape a burgeoning and controversial industry across the region.

The study examines the development of the Arabic blogosphere and its connections to politics, culture, religion, and other major issues.

Specifically, it finds that Egypt represents by far the largest “cluster” of bloggers, which can be divided into several “sub-clusters,” including secular reformists and members of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose online presence, though illegal, has been more or less tolerated up until recently.

In addition, in a recent interview with Iran Press Watch, Esra’a Al-Shafei, the founder of Mideast Youth, expressed her views on the positive role of the internet as a venue for unity and free speech.

“It’s…the only source that truly brings us together regardless of our opinions or backgrounds, something traditional media has failed to ever achieve,” she said. Al-Shafei stressed the resilience and dedication of youth who have continued to express themselves in new formats, despite advanced methods to deter or silence them.

“The worsening amount of censorship in the region is certainly causing people to long for freedom of speech, hence why so many people are risking their lives for it. Our generation is very different, and we do not accept censorship,” she concludes.

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