Egyptian bloggers, cyberactivists and activists on the ground continue to pay the price for speaking up against the rising cost of living and calling for higher wages and a better life. What started as a call for a strike on April 6, quickly spiralled out of control, with a face off between rioters, protesters and the police. Here’s an account of what has happened and is still happening to some of the activists who have used the worldwide web to spread news of what is happening at home.
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According to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, the website of the leading Egyptian Movement for Change - Kefaya, has been blocked in Egypt since May 4 by the government-owned Internet service provider TE Data, Egypt’s largest ISP:
Many of Kefaya website visitors were surprised of their disability to browse the site during [...]
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Saudi blogger Fouad Al Farhan is now a free man, after spending 137 days in detention in Jeddah. While bloggers have all along speculated why he has been held by the authorities for this long, Arab bloggers are unanimously excited over his release. And they also share their hopes for the release of other jailed bloggers.
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After little less than a month following the April 6 strike, during which a number of prominent Egyptian bloggers and internet activists were arrested, preparations for the next round of a planned general strike to mark the 80th birthday of President Mubarak, on May 4, 2008, are currently spreading all over the blogosphere and the Internet. Blogger and activist Nora Younis shares some of her ideas with us about the role of Internet in Egypt as a platform for political activism.
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Two Egyptian activists, Esraa Abdel Fattah Ahmed, who launched the “6 April” Facebook group and blogger Mohamed Sharkawy, have been released. Both Esraa and Sharkawy were arrested on 5 April while distributing leaflets announcing the 6 April strike.
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Judge Abdel Fattah Mourad, who requested the ban of 51 blogs and websites deemed insulting the state’s dignity and threatening Egypt’s interests, has lost his case. On December 29, 2007, the Administrative Judicial Court rejected the lawsuit and ruled in favor of freedom of speech on the Internet.
“Minor victories give us hope and [...]
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The jailed Egyptian blogger Kareem Nabeel Sulaiman was awarded this year’s Human Rights Prize in the category “Cyber-dissident” by Reporters without Borders (RSF) and “Fondation de France“:
The young Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer is the laureate in the Cyber-dissident category. The 23-year-old was sentenced to four years in jail for criticism posted on his blog of [...]
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