Global Voices Advocacy » Eman AbdElRahman

Egypt: Another journalist to be deported

Eman AbdElRahman — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:28:00 +0000

To continue the series of harassing or deporting journalists in Egypt, like Travis Randall, Philip Rizk and Wael Abbas; Per Bjorklund, a Swedish journalist and blogger has been detained in Cairo airport upon his arrival. He’s been stopped by security and is to be deported back to Prague without an explanation; he was only told “your name [was] on the computer.”

Per is regarded as one of the most active foreign journalists covering the Egyptian labor strike wave and human rights abuses for a number of Swedish publications as well as activist websites like Electronic Intifada. He also writes in his blog Egypt and Beyound, where he identifies himself as:

A freelance journalist currently based in Cairo. Covering the daily struggles for a another Egypt and another Middle East, that are too often made invisible in the narratives of mainstream media.

As usual, Egyptian Leftist was the first to publish “Free Per” banners on his blog.

Hossam El Hamalawy was one of the first to break the news:

Swedish journalist and blogger Per Bjorklund has been stopped around half an hour ago at the Cairo Airport. An Immigration Police Officer told him his “name [was] on the computer,” according to Per with whom I spoke on the phone few mins ago.

Per is in some room at the airport, where there are other people, and he awaits an explanation from the police.

Another foreign journalist, James Buck commented on his blog Journalism not a crime:

Per is a great journalist who helped me get connected when I was in Egypt. Looks like Cairo has decided to keep dissenting journalists out of the country. This is a big step backward for press freedom.

On a different note, Egyptian journalist and blogger, Scarr, published a touching post tackling the other side of the story.

Per was one of the people involved in the To Gaza march – as was Travis Randall – but other foreigners on that march have been in and out of Egypt since then without problems. No, there’s no great plan. This (“your name is in our computer”) is just yet another instance of what they do best: bullying disguised as bureaucratic procedure, as thought-out policy.

Talking about Per's girlfriend she said:

The last call I got in this whole sorry saga was an hour ago, when A rang me, still at the airport. No-one had bothered to tell her that Per had been deported (or at least told that he was going to be deported. His phone was switched off after Hamalawy spoke to him). She had been waiting there, alone, all that time. She broke down in tears.

First tweets about Per's detention.

Egyptian blogger, Mostafa, questioned if the repetitive incidents was a sign for new measures taken by the government against journalists:

Per is a brave journalist and his writing is almost always highly informative. He is a nice guy. This is both outrageous and depressing. I wonder if this stupid government is trying to reduce the number of foreign journalists in anticipation of the next two politically intense years.

More details can be found in a post by Joseph Mayton at Bikya Masr and Zeinobia at Egyptian Chronicles.

MENA: Introducing, “The Circumventer”

Eman AbdElRahman — Sun, 24 May 2009 21:42:30 +0000

Alexandra Sandels, from MENASSAT, writes her interview with Walid Al-Saqaf, a Sweden-based Yemeni Internet expert, regarding the launch of his new program Al-Kasir (means the circumventer in Arabic) - during a summit on blogging in Cairo which was entitled “Blogging for the Future“.
Al-Kasir, which is currently available in its Beta test version, is a new software aiming to circumvent web censorship in the Middle East and beyond, where it allows Internet users to access blocked websites.
You can also read Esra'a's post on Mideast Youth on why Al-Kasir is different from other similar tools, and how it’s beneficial to users in the Middle East.

Egypt: Bloggers for Terrorism

Eman AbdElRahman — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 12:29:05 +0000

Last November, blogger Mohamed Adel, or General Mait (dead), was detained because of a photograph taken of him, with a Palestinian Hamas official. The damning evidence was clicked when Adel participated in a humanitarian caravan to the Gaza Strip.

Since then, Egyptian activists and bloggers have been left scratching their heads, thinking of ways to draw attention to the plight of their detained colleague. Their efforts included posting banners over Facebook, holding Press conferences and even going on open strikes in front of the General Prosecutor office. All this amounted to nothing, forcing them to come up with a totally a new idea.

On February 2, an online initiative called “Operation General Mait” was launched in solidarity with Mohamed Adel. A group of Egyptian bloggers were photographed with fake AK-47's and toy guns. They were imitating Adel's photograph holding a gun with Hamas leaders that was used as evidence against him by the Egyptian government.

Mina Zekry explains the initiative to Alexandra Sandels on MENASSAT as follows:

“Our aim is mainly to bring attention to how ridiculous the (Egyptian) government's photo fabrications are (of cyber-activist Mohammed Adel). We are trying to cut-off an escalation of the process against him,” Mina Zekry, a prominent blogger and “Free-Adel” campaigner told MENASSAT on Tuesday.

Posing in photos with fake AK-47s and toy guns, Zekry is part of a new initiative launched on February 2 called “Operation General Meit” – meit being Adel's blog title (and nickname) that translates to “Already Dead.”

Prominent Egyptian bloggers Wael Abbas, Zekry, Mohammed Gamal, and Egyptian human rights activist Noov Sevary launched the online campaign in solidarity with Adel, a 20-year old IT student and blogger who was arrested on a Cairo street in November of last year.

No formal charges have been brought against Adel, but sources in Cairo say that he could face charges of “terrorism and involvement in an armed organization” because of photos he took in Gaza last year.

Among the founders, Wael Abbas was the first to publicly announce the launch of the campaign's first phase on his Jaiku profile and on his blog, where he was photographed in a picture cross-legged and his finger raised in the air, mimicking an Islamist about to convey his message to the world.

In his Jaiku message, Abbas says:

The first phase of “Operations general mait” is -with phots- on Misrdigital, Mina Zekry and Mo Taher blogs. Followed shotly on Gemyhood, and Asaad blogs. Invitation is open for participation.

Assad, Ahmed Adel Fattah, Ahmed Maher, Egyptian Secular, Leftist Egyptian, Mina Zekry, 7mksh, Gemyhoood and Mohammed El Taher, who called themselves February 30th military wing of Martyr Malik Mostafa, published their photos posing with fake guns. They all said that if Adel was a terrorist, then all of them are terrorists too.

Mo EL Taher who is also running Free Adel blog wrote:

محمد عادل لسة لحد دلوقتى فى المعتقل صحيح أحداث غزة غطت على اعتقالة والمدونين ماعدوش بيكتبوا عنه ، لكن دلوقتى أحداث غزة هديت ، المفروض اننا نرجع كلنا ونكتب عنه

كل الناس تدون تانى عن عادل وتحط البنر على مدونتها علشان ماننساش ان فية واحد اتسجن واتعذب ولسة ماخرجش علشان بيعبر عن رأية

Adel is still detained. People stopped writing about him because of Gaza's events; but now Gaza's events are much quieter and we should return to writing about him.

Everybody should blog about Adel, and place banners on their blogs so as not to forget that one of us has been imprisoned and tortured because he was expressing his views.

Going on further, Leftist Egyptian and Ahmed AbdelFattah fabricated an Osama Bin Laden reaction to the campaign:

كرد فعل اولي على عملية العميد ميت اعلن اليوم شيخ المجاهدين أسامة بن لادن في تسجيل صوتي جديد بثتة قناة الجزيرة، افاد فيه تأيده و مباركته التامة للعملية و القائمين عليها من حركة 30 فبراير بالجناح العسكري بكتائب الشهيد مالك مصطفى، كما اعلن ايضاً استعداده التام لدعم الكتائب بجسر جوي يوفر ذخائر الخرز البيلاستيكي برتقالي اللون…

As an initial response to the operation, Sheikh of Mojahedeen Osama Bin Laden announced today, in a new audiotape broadcast by Al Jazeera television, his full support to those who made it from the February 30th military wing of the Martyr Malik Mostafa. Bin Laden also announced his readiness to support the battalions with an air bridge to provide ammunition of orange beads …

Blogger Mostafa, who was supposed to join the campaign, wrote a different point of view:

تحمست لمشاركة المدونين ووعدتهم بمشاركتهم بشراء سلاح بلاستيكي و إلتقاط صورة و نشرها هنا. ولكن شيئ ما منعي.
فالكلاشنكوف (أو أي سلاح) كان قاسم مشترك في قصص تهديد و إغتصاب و قتل و تعذيب و إرهاب و تدمير و خطف و تشريد و هجرة سمعتها بنفسي.
أعذروني أنا أكرة الأسلحة فهي دمرت حياة ناس كثيرة أعرفهم. و البلاستيك منها يمجد العنف.
الحرية لمحمد عادل و القلم و لوحة المفاتيح و الكاميرا.

I was enthusiastic to join the bloggers, and promised them to participate by buying a plastic weapon, then to publish my picture on my blog. However, something stopped me.
Kalashnikov (or any weapon) was a common thing in all stories I've heard myself of threat, rape, murder, torture, terrorism, kidnapping, destruction, displacement and migration.
Excuse me, I hate weapons as they have destroyed the lives of many people I know. And plastic ones glorify violence.
Yet, Freedom is to Adel and to the pen, the keyboard and the camera!

Five days after the launch of phase one of “Operations General Mait,” more and more people are joining the campaign. And you can follow their activities, as well as media coverage, on their Facebook group.