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The Layalina Review

VOL. V NO. 10, April 24-May 7, 2009

Internet Clampdown Stronger than Ever

Al-Jazeera reports on the various ways in which authorities are stepping up censorship of online media. The article cites a study by the Committee to Protect Journalists, which reveals that "45 per cent of all imprisoned media workers worldwide are bloggers, web-based reporters, or online editors."

According to the CPJ's "Ten Worst Countries to be a Blogger," Menassat highlights that the Middle East region is the most notorious against freedom of online speech. While Burma was the worst offender, countries from the Middle East and North Africa dominated the top ten: second place went to Iran, third to Syria, fifth to Saudi Arabia, seventh to Tunisia, and tenth place to Egypt.

Egyptian journalist and blogger Nora Younis says to Al-Jazeera that, while previously online writing had been ignored by censors only a few years ago, "bloggers are nowadays taken seriously by authorities as well as Arab media."

American University in Cairo's Naila Hamdy, a journalism professor, says that Arab governments have been slow to catch on.

"So far, unregulated satellite has brought fuelling of sectarian wars, political dissent and opposing views," Hamdy says. He adds, "With the possibility of thousands more stations and other technologies catching on in a second."

As Al-Jazeera points out, however, catching up involves broad, heavy-handed government measures. Several countries have imposed travel bans on bloggers, and many have been notoriously imprisoned.

In related news, back in 2000, the BBC reported that Saudi Arabia famously shut down a female-only Meccan internet cafe, on charges that it was used for "immoral purposes."

Such allegations were vague then as now. "What was uncovered was against both our religion and our traditions," civil police Brigadier Yousuf Matter said of the Mecca incident.

These days, government accusations are similarly general. Egyptian blogger Abdel Karim Suleiman, known under his blog name, "Kareem Amir," is serving a four-year sentence at Borg Al-Arab for "insulting Islam and President Hosni Mubarak."

Syrian blogger Tariq Baissi received three years imprisonment for "weakening the national feeling and the national ethos" for a six-word long comment criticizing Syrian security services to Al-Jazeera.

Other bloggers from Tunisia, Nazira Rijba and Slim Boukhdir have been harassed and threatened for their online writing, reports the CPJ.

Boukhdir describes working amid the constant fear and reality of censorship. "Every time I changed its address throughout 2006 and 2007, the Tunisian censor would track it down and block it," he explains.

Reuters reports that, while Syria has attempted to improve its ties with the West, through means including increased tolerance of free speech, a new report from the Syrian Media Center points out that reality has shown no actual reduction in harshness of Syrian censorship. This includes popular sites like Facebook, YouTube, and Amazon.

The report, "Syrian pens fall silent," showed that the government blocked 225 internet sites in 2008 -- an increase from the 159 blocked in 2007.

Yet Magharebia, notes a new development in the censorship war. There is a new group in Morocco designed to protect the rights of bloggers. The group is designed both to educate the public as to what practices are within their legal right.

Anticipating government pushback, the group also aims to educate the blogger community on best practices, in order to prevent drastic censorship measures, explains Said Benjebli, who was elected president of the new organization.

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