Ramy Raoof

Latest posts by Ramy Raoof

Egypt: Security beats Blogger badly

  16 October 2009

Today, Friday 16th October, the Egyptian blogger Demagh Mak and his brother had been stopped for “ID check” in Tanta (Egyptian Province) by a police officer named Mohamed El-Dahrawy. For no reason, the police agent beat blogger Mak on his back, while asking for IDs. Andd when Mak asked him...

Egypt: Bargaining Bloggers to stop opposing the Government

  29 September 2009

“You will be behind the sun” was the expression used by the Dean Abdul Hadi, General Inspector of State Security at Fayoum (Egyptian Province), while he was interrogating the Egyptian blogger AbdelRahman Fares last Friday, 25 September, 2009, who blogs at Lesany Hoa elKalm (My Pen Is My Tongue). Hours...

Egypt Interrogating Netizen for a Blog Comment

  9 September 2009

On September the 3rd, 2009, Khaled elBalshy, the Editor-In-Chief of the Al-Badeel newspaper, who maintains a personal blog at http://elbalshy.blogspot.com, was interrogated by the Interior Ministry's Internet Crimes department for a comment on one of his blog posts left by an anonymous visitor. The comment was in response to a...

Egypt: American blogger and activist detained,Laptop Confiscated

  2 September 2009

Last night, Tuesday 1st September 09, the American activist and blogger Travis Randall, who participated in a small march supporting Gaza earlier this year, was detained by security officers for tow hours upon his arrival at Cairo International Airport. Security officers gave no explanation for the detention. Furthermore, they confiscated Randall's laptop and cell phone.

Egypt: the Influence of Facebook Events and Groups

  19 August 2009

Within the dynamic and expansive electronic media landscape in Egypt, Facebook became widely used by Egyptian citizens for different reasons and in several occasions, especially when it comes to shape the public opinion in opposition to the Egyptian government. For example, the Egyptian government recently announced, through the ministry of communication, a “Fair Usage Policy (FUB)” to be implemented in Egypt, aiming to limit the bandwidth consumed by internet users and determine specific downloadable amount.

Egyptian Government utilizes Electronic Media

  12 August 2009

Despite its attacks on online activists, especially on bloggers, in an attempt to combat utilizing electronic media for human rights and politics, the Egyptian government has begun using the same electronic tools, but for its own interests. Mr. Gamal Mubarak, son of current President Hosni Mubarak and the General Secretary...

Egypt: Security Officers continuous confiscating Digital Devices

  10 August 2009

The Security Officers escalates their attacks on online activists, specifically bloggers. Today 08 August 2009, the Egyptian Blogger Wael Abbas was stopped while his coming back from Beirut, and confiscated his CDs, flash memories and camera memory cards. It should be mentioned that this is the second time for Abbas...

The Egyptian Government and the detention of Internet activists

  4 August 2009

Many reasons and factors helped the emergence of electronic media in Egypt. For example, suppressing different media outlets, such as newspapers, TV channels and radio-stations, difficult procedures for founding new media bodies, censoring media content prior to publishing, different forms of repression targeting journalists, very narrow margin for freedoms and...

Egypt: No to Illegal Confiscation of Personal Devices

  13 July 2009

On the 30th of June 2009, the security officers at Cairo International Airport have detained an activist blogger, Wael Abbas, who frequently writes about torture cases and police abuse in Egypt. Mr. Abbas was also frisked and the officers confiscated his laptop computer and other belongings.