With all of the social media successes throughout the Middle East and North Africa in 2011, it would be all too easy to overlook the struggles faced by bloggers and netizens throughout the region. And yet, 2011 was an extraordinary difficult year for free expression, from Egypt's shutdown of the Internet to the numerous harassed, arrested, and detained bloggers from the Maghreb to the Gulf.

Iran: No room for free expression

Less than a week into 2012, Reporters Without Borders puts the number of jailed netizens globally at 126. Within the list, Iran stands out, as my colleague Fred Petrossian writes:

In 2011, the Iranian regime was faithful to its reputation as an enemy of internet as it continued to repress bloggers and even threaten their lives. Blogger Sakhi Rigi got a record breaking 20-year jail sentence. Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, who is serving 15 years in prison, struggled for his health and for a period was deprived of contact with his family and lawyer. RSF talked about the plight of seven netizens in Iran in July 2011. These cases are just the tip of the iceberg. While a few bloggers likeShiva Nazar Ahari andHossein Derakhshanwere released on bail, others like Mohammad Reza Pour Shajari may face charges of ‘Waging War Against God' (moharebeh), for which a death sentence can be pronounced. As Omid Reza Mirsayafi's tragic death shows, the more a blogger is isolated and deprived of a network, the more he is in danger.

Egypt, Syria, Bahrain among the region's worst

But while Iran may rank worst in terms of the number of bloggers detained, life for bloggers in much of the rest of the region has been no picnic. In Syria, where the uprising that started last spring shows few signs of abating, several prominent bloggers were arrested in 2011, threatening countless more into silence. Razan Ghazzawi, a former Global Voices contributor, spent fifteen days in prison in December until being released on bail, but still faces trial for “weakening the national sentiment,” among other charges. Hussein Ghrer, released in early December, also faces trial. Meanwhile, Tal Al-Mallohi, the teenaged blogger imprisoned in 2009, is serving a five year sentence.

Egyptian blogger Alaa Abd El Fattah poses with his wife and fellow blogger Manal Hassan in Tunis just one month before his arrest

A third country in the region ranks among the worst in 2011, though one wouldn't know it from following mainstream media coverage. Bahrain, where a nascent uprising was all but quashed early in the year, levied harsh punishments on several bloggers in 2011, including Global Voices Advocacy contributor Ali Abdulemam, who was sentenced in absentia to fifteen years in prison and is currently in hiding.

Bahraini blogger Ali Abdulemam at the 2009 Arabloggers Workshop in Beirut

Elsewhere in the region, the struggle continues

Though perhaps less systematically, other countries in the region targeted bloggers as well in 2011. Prior to the fall of Ben Ali, Tunisian bloggers Slim Amamou (a Global Voices Advocacy contributor) and Azyz Amami were briefly imprisoned. Amami was then arrested again and beaten by police in September. Though the arrest was not for his blogging but for a joke told near a police station, it demonstrated the tenuous state of free expression in the country.

In Morocco, a blogger and several activists were arrested in September, while Saudi Arabia went after video bloggers who had been documenting poverty in the oil-rich country. And in the UAE, a female blogger was summoned for interrogation over a tweet.

Fighting for a better 2012

Though this represents only a fraction of those intimidated, harassed, and imprisoned in 2011, it is illustrative of the continued struggle faced by bloggers, activists, and other netizens in the region. And as 2012 kicks off with such a large number of bloggers in prison, it is apparent that there is more work to be done to ensure that the right to free expression is guaranteed for everyone. And fortunately, a growing number of grassroots organizations in the region are taking up the fight for digital rights. But nevertheless, bloggers must be ever vigilant, and consider the risks they face as they take their activism online. Global Voices salutes these brave bloggers and will continue to make sure their voices are heard throughout the world.

Photo credits: Jillian C. York.

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Deborah Amos at Georgia Public Broadcasting reports that recent events have stirred political passions in Saudi Arabia.

“Duraa Ali, a 22-year-old journalism student dressed in a full abaya and face veil, asked at the forum if a woman could start a revolution in Saudi Arabia. Women are the ones with the least rights, she said to applause in the room.

Ali was studying in Bahrain when the protests began there. She was thrilled by the demands of Shiite protesters who challenged the Sunni royal family and disturbed by the violent reaction to those demands.”

At Twitter #saudiwomenrevolution has considerable following and more tweets in support and sometimes against the women's demands are added every day. It represents an important step in bringing out concerns of Saudi women out in the open and is contributing to the lively discussion on democracy and gender equality in the Arab Muslim world.

Here is a snippet of tweets for #saudiwomenrevolution

At Facebook, Saudi Women Revolution page has 591 supporters and growing. Although majority of posts here are in Arabic, there are some English comments and it has attracted support from non-Muslim men and women from various parts of the world. Cartoons depicting Saudi women and their daily struggles are eye opening, some very poignant.

As global support for Saudi women grows, authorities there are certainly uncomfortable with rising political consciousness among the public. James Nixon at Thniq says that,

“A group of intellectuals, human rights activists and lawyers met on February 10th to form Saudi Arabia's first political party, the Umma Islamic Party, demanding an end to the country's absolute monarchy.

All of them were arrested on February 18th, with authorities demanding they renounce their demands in return for their release.”

Tough ahead for Saudi women and women demanding change, but as events in Tunisia and Egypt prove-people power can never be ignored for long.

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According to The Economic Times,

“According to the new conditions by country's Culture and Information Ministry, anyone who wants to open a blog, an online newspaper, or any similar forms of e-publishing must be of Saudi nationality, over 20 years in age, and must have a high school or higher qualification.

The applicant must be with a good record of appropriate behaviour conduct, and should have a license from the Ministry, Al Arabiya said.

All license holders will now have to display their license information on their websites.”

Eman Al Nafjan, a Saudi blogger, has launched a petition through Change.org asking Saudi authorities to “stop blocking online freedom of speech”.

Saudi Jeans, perhaps the most popular blog chronicling life and times in the country,is critical of the new law and say that they will not register with the government.

“I have no plan to register my blog with MOCI(Saudi ministry of culture and information), but if you are considering that choice you probably want to know that not anyone can do this as they please.”

Looks like the Saudi authorities will hear strong internal criticism about their policy this time, perhaps a signal that things are changing in the country.

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Naoufel Chaara is a talented Moroccan blogger. His website [Ar] has been recently nominated for the Deutsche Welle's 2010 BOBs international award in the Best Arabic Blog category. Naoufel's usually caustic views on people and power in his country and the Arab world, often pack a strong punch with his pretty sizable readership.

One would expect that a dissenting voice is mainly threatened by local power's systems of censorship, but Naoufel's surprise was so big when he learned that his blog was actually banned outside of his country's frontiers.

In the following short interview, the blogger explains how he came to know about the ban and if this impacts on his writings.

Can you introduce your blog and the kind of topics you cover?

How did you learn that your website was blocked in some Arab countries?

How do you explain the censorship?

What was the reaction of your blog's readers?

Will this ban influence the way you write on your blog?

Are there ways to circumvent this censorship?

Any final thoughs?

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According to Arab News, a 27-year-old Saudi man, Ahmad al-Faqih, has been arrested in January for making and publishing a humoristic and sexually charged video on Youtube and has been charged with morality crimes. The young man was impersonating a police officer and flirting with a person off-camera:

The video depicts a young Saudi man dressed in a police uniform inside a vehicle flirting with the man holding the camera. He asks the cameraman for his driver’s license and offers “comfort.”

At one point, he waves around what appears to be a real handgun. Later in the approximately two-and-a-half-minute video on YouTube, he lifts up his shirt and rubs his chest. The video quickly spread online and through SMS until police detained both men involved in the act. Attempts have been made to block the video from being viewed in Saudi Arabia.

According to Police Lt. Nawaf Bouq, who told Arab News, the young man is facing three charges: One is for homosexuality; the other for general security; and the third is for impersonating a police officer.

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Apart from serving as an additional means of personal communication, Twitter is used in the Arab-Islamic Middle East by a whole range of groups and individuals, covering the entire gamut of society. ‘Tweets' are employed by political and social movements, religious websites and Islamic cultural centers, as well as for the promotion of films, fashion and commerce. News organizations, such as CNN, the BBC (especially its Persian language service), Al-Jazeera and the Voice of America all have popular Twitter feeds. Twitter speeds up the capacity to deliver the news because of its short and restricted structure, so much so that it is often chosen over newspapers as a person’s primary news source.

As a parallel information universe, Twitter enables the dissemination of information, mobilization of public opinion, and evasion of governmental censors.  In Syria, for example, Twitter enabled a wave of protests against the decision by the website, ‘LinkedIn' – a social networking geared towards those interested in business – to block its services in Syria, and the decision was ultimately reversed. Earlier this year in Iran, Twitter was employed by ‘the March 18^th movement' in remembrance of the Iranian blogger, Omid Razah, who died in prison on this date, and to pressure the authorities to release seven Bahai leaders that were arrested during the month of May.

A particularly powerful demonstration of Twitter’s potential came following the arrest of an American journalism student in Egypt while filming a demonstration. He immediately sent a message via his cell phone announcing his arrest to 48 “followers” on Twitter, and the message quickly spread around the world. As a result of the ensuing attention and entreaties, he was quickly released. Similarly, the well-known Egyptian blogger, Wa'el Abbas, was quick to publicize his arrest and subsequent experiences with the police this past April, causing embarrassment to Egyptian officialdom.

The usages of Twitter by women in the Arab world are especially varied, not surprisingly, given the relative anonymity it provides to the user. Twitter allows women to search for spouses, describe their lives, discuss issues pertaining to the status of Muslim women in their societies, and communicate and show solidarity with like-minded individuals, for example, lesbians. Women from Saudi Arabia tend to hide their personal ‘Tweets' so that only those who have received their permission in advance can read their announcements. Women from most other Arab societies, which are socially more open and less hierarchical than Saudi Arabia, are more likely to enable their ‘Tweets' to be read by all.

Women’s advocacy groups make good use of Twitter: for example, the Egyptian group ‘All of Us are Laila' has fought against the inequality in women’s daily lives, in Egypt and the Arab world in general, for the last three years. So does Queen Rania of Jordan, who writes about diverse subjects on an almost daily basis, to a readership of about 125,000.

To be sure, there are those who belittle Twitter’s reliability as a source of information, pointing to its maximum limit of 140 characters per item, and the instant worldwide dissemination of Twitter items without any cross-checking information to confirm their truthfulness. But these limitations are also the basis of its strength. Twitter serves as a speedy and direct platform able to bypass official state media oversight and the limitations on free speech by authoritarian governments. In the Middle East, in particular, it is nearly the only path for different social groups to get their messages across without government interference.

The power of Twitter in transmitting onsite and immediate reporting was highlighted in the months leading up to the Iranian presidential elections and in the subsequent demonstrations against the falsification of the results. Along with other on-line social networks, Twitter served as an almost exclusive source for the unfolding events in the streets of Tehran.

However, Middle Eastern governments have not remained passive in the face of the rapid expansion of the new media, and particularly of on-line social networks which increase the possibilities for individual action and challenges to governments.  The authorities around the region have invested considerable efforts in regulating and restricting these new means of communication. For example, the Dubai government partially blocked the use of the highly popular social networking Facebook website and the internet voice and video Skype program, claiming that their action was justified by “content that was not concurrent with the religious, cultural, political, and moral values of the United Arab Emirates.” Iran has cracked down heavily on Twitter and other social networking sites.  Not only has it blocked access to particular internet sites, it has also installed content filters and monitored traffic on them. This was done by means of Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) features installed as a condition for the company’s access to the Iranian market. The ability to monitor internet and Nokia cellular phone traffic resulted in the arrests of a number of persons transmitting reports about the unfolding events in Iran, resulting in a consumer boycott in Iran of Nokia phones as an act of protest.

Time will tell regarding the impact of Twitter on the relations between Middle Eastern authoritarian governments and their citizens. In the meantime, Twitter has demonstrated a capacity to serve as a means for continuous and rapid dissemination of information among wide sectors of the population.  To be sure, this alone cannot bring about far-reaching social change or a fundamental expansion of political and social freedom, but it certainly carries much potential, and even inspires hope among long-disenfranchised and cynical Middle Eastern publics.

This research has been published on July 26th, 2009: Tel Aviv Notes, Dayan Center, Tel Aviv University (PDF).

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Blogger Khaled al-Nasser told AFP that his tweets which included links to other websites like a Human Rights Watch report on Saudi Arabia which may have bothered censors. Human rights activist Waleed Abu al-Khair also referred to human rights violations in his tweets.

Despite the blockage, both al-Nasser and Abu al-Khair are still able to update their Twitter accounts, due to the fact that you don’t need to access your account in order to send new tweets. Ironically, Saudi Arabia’s Communication and Information Technology Commission has a Twitter account that was launched last June. CITC has 81 followers, but they are not following anyone.

* Image Credit: Kharejaljasad

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Based on information obtained by ANHRI, the Saudi authorities jailed the young blogger at the infamous Eleisha political prison in Riyadh; a prison which in 2004 witnessed the arrest of the reformists Matrouk el Falih, Ali el Domini and Eissa al Hamed.

The 28-year-old alumni of the al Yarmouk University in Jordan has been arrested twice before; for nine months in 2004 and last Nov. Saudi Arabia, which decided to sponsor an interfaith dialog conference in New York last Nov. and because his arrest may tarnish its image and expose the Saudi government's false allegations, has to set him free. That conference was attended by representatives of 80 countries.

But the blogger re-arrest, after the conference wrapped up, raised fears upon his life because the entire world is busy following up the aggression on Gaza and the Saudi authorities may seize the chance to make him an example with nobody watching.

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From left: Sudanese blogger Kizzie Shawat, Egyptian blogger Nora Younis, Tunisian blogger Sami Ben Gharbia (Source: The Huffington Post)

One blogger, two journalists, and one online writer were prevented from traveling to Beirut, Lebanon, to attend the 3rd Arab Free Press Forum that took place on 12 and 13 December, 2008

Saudi Arabia prevented the leading Saudi blogger, Fouad Al Farhan, from attending the event where he was scheduled to take part in a panel entitled “The Changing face of Arab blogging“.

Tunisian human rights lawyer and online writer, Mohammed Abbou, was also stopped from boarding a flight, for the fifth time since his release from prison in July 2007.

Tunisian journalist and editor of the online magazine Kalima Lotfi Hidouri, and Mazen Darwish, director of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, were also prevented from leaving their countries for Beirut.

L. Hidouri was held by police overnight, before being released on the next day.

In his opening remarks, Timothy Balding, World Association of Newspapers (WAN) CEO, has vigorously protested these incidents:

we can at least thank the authorities of Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and Syria for this eloquent and timely demonstration of their contempt for, and fear of, free expression, as we open this Forum

In 2007, Fouad Al Farhan was arrested for unspecified “violation of non-security regulations.” He was released on April 26, 2008, after spending 137 days in detention in Jeddah.

In 2005, human rights lawyer and onlineMohammed Abbou was arrested and sentenced to prison for three-and-a-half years for writing online articles criticizing the Tunisian penitentiary system, and comparing his country's political prisoners with those held in Abu Ghraib. He was jailed for nearly 28 months, and released on 24 July, 2007.

Here are the summaries of the presentations of the panel: The Changing face of Arab blogging (source: Arab Press Network):

When Tunisian bloggers suspected that the presidential jet was being frequently used for personal business by friends and family of the president, they used airport records to track its travels and compared it to official government records. Only one of ten trips proved to be official. Using Google maps, the bloggers illustrated their findings by “following” the plane in a video that was posted on YouTube and could be viewed within Tunisia. This and many other testimonies of how bloggers distribute information in the Arab world were shared at the 3rd Arab Free Press Forum, taking place on 12 and 13 December in Beirut, Lebanon.

The second session of the Forum focused on the changing face of Arab blogging. The three presenters are all living and writing from outside their countries.

“Internet with ID”

Mohammad Al-Abdallah, Blogger, I'm Leaving and I'm Not Coming Back

Syria has imposed draconian restrictions on internet usage, requiring users to provide detailed identification and requiring internet cafes to keep records on the habits and site visits of all their users - and it blocks YouTube, Facebook, Wikipedia, Skype and other international sites.

Despite these restrictions, internet usage in Syria - introduced only in 2000 — is growing, and is expected to reach 10 percent of the population by 2009.

The number of Syrian bloggers is also growing, and they provide a vital service to the country, says Mr Al-Abdallah, who provided an evolution of the internet in Syria.

“We have become a source of information for Syrian citizens, despite all the constraints and obstacles for even just being on the internet,” says Mr Al-Abdallah, who left Syria after being arrested twice and facing a third arrest (his father and brother and both in jail). “A small number of citizens are trying to circumvent the embargo. This if of great importance in a country where the government doesn't allow people to meet and get together.”

“I had no venue to express my opinion”

Kizzie Shawat, Blogger, I Have No Tribe, I'm Sudanese, Sudan

Kizzie Shawat is a pseudonym for a young college student who began blogging because “I had no venue to express my opinion.”

Ms Shawat, who writes about female genital mutilation and other controversial topics, sees her role as providing a view of her country from a different perspective from official sources.

Though censorship is strict in Sudan, the authorities have not been successful in blocking all opposition websites, says Ms Shawat, creating an opportunity for bloggers like herself.

But she has another audience as well - the vast Sudanese diaspora - among whom she tries to encourage unity in a divided country. “Our national identity is important and I try to emphasize this in my blog,” she says.

“It is an important forum for social activism,” she says. “You have to allow people to express themselves and we're not used to doing that.”

Beating the censors

Sami Ben Gharbia, Blogger, Fikra, and Global Voices Advocacy Director, Tunisia

Tunisia has what may be the world's most sophisticated internet blocking apparatus - it not only block websites, it pirates them and adds false and misleading information. But that doesn't stop Tunisian bloggers for finding and using innovative ways around the system, and providing compelling multimedia reports to provide a counterpoint to official propaganda.

When official media “reported” that the Italian region of Tuscany had named a major highway after Tunisian Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, bloggers photographed the new street, showing it was an insignificant rural road leading to nowhere.

Suspecting that the presidential jet was being frequently used for personal business by friends and family of the president, bloggers used airport records to track its travels and compared it to official government records. Only one of ten trips proved to be official. Using Google maps, the bloggers illustrated their findings by “following” the plane in a video that was posted on YouTube and could be viewed within Tunisia.

Bloggers have also found interesting ways of beating the censors, such as buying Google Ads keywords so their information pops up whenever someone searches for certain words.

Mr Gharbia's presentation focused on the methods Tunisian authorities use to block independent information - including “deep inspection” of e-mails - and how freedom of expression advocates try to get around them.

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He says:

I chose the six countries in the book because they are routinely referred to in the West as “enemies” or “allies” of Washington and we were rarely gaining true insights into life for average citizens, away from stories about “terrorism”. I wanted to talk to bloggers, writers, dissidents, politicians and citizens and hear their stories, removed from “official” perspectives.

Antony attended the Global Voices Summit 2008 in Budapest as a panelist. You can find several references to Global Voices in his book.

Here, Antony presents his book on You Tube:

I interviewed him about the book:

Q: Before starting your trip to Iran, you wrote that you were skeptical that the internet on its own can bring real revolutionary change to this country. What do you mean by revolutionary change? And what do you think now?

The concept of revolution is a fluid term. I met few people in my travels that wanted great shifts in their country. My book profiles a number of dissidents and bloggers across the globe who are striving for political, social and moral change – including Saudi Arabia’s most famous blogger, Fouad Al-Farhan, recently released from prison for challenging his nation’s nepotistic rule - but they recognize that only a tiny minority of citizens would join them in massive upheavals.

The internet cannot on its own bring large change, but it can facilitate and empower people to find their voice and campaign openly. No technology has existed before the web to do this. I don’t idealise the internet, nor believe Western-style democracy is the goal of people in the countries I visited. Foreign meddling is largely resented, though opening up the lines of communication with Westerners is welcomed.

In Iran, after nearly thirty years of revolution, most young people I met were exhausted; what they don’t want is to be bombed by the US or Israel.

Q: You quoted an Iranian journalist who worked with international news agencies, and said that foreign media in Iran are only interested in nuclear issues and Al–Qaida. Don't you think it is the same in other countries? After all, Iranians are more interested in the US elections than the American health care system. How do you see the role of blogs in covering the less “hot” issues in Iran?

Western media is currently in a massive crisis of confidence. Resources are declining, fewer journalists are being employed and localism is being celebrated. It’s therefore not surprising, though regrettable, that so many stories in our press about a place such as Iran is obsessed with Ahmadinejad, terrorism, Iraq or human rights. These are all vitally important issues, but they don’t define the place.

My book reveals a side of Iran that is rarely seen in our terrorism-obsessed media.

Living in Sydney, Australia, I see daily the obsession with the US election, as if we all have real influence over Barack Obama or John McCain’s campaigns.

Blogs in so-called repressive regimes cover issues that time-constrained and narrow Western journalists usually do not. For this reason alone, they should be discussed and promoted.

Q: Are there any real commonalities between the Iranian, Egyptian, Syrian and Saudi Arabian blogospheres, or any radical differences?

The Iranian and Egyptian blogospheres are large and growing, and influencing the political process. The regimes, recognizing this, are increasingly imprisoning bloggers and activists to try and silence them. International solidarity, from other bloggers and certain governments, is making the job of repressive regimes more difficult. Imprisoned bloggers won’t be forgotten.

I was impressed with the depth and diversity of the voices in both Egypt and Iran, something I feature extensively in the book, from the left to the right, women, activists and Islamists. Frankly, this scene is far more engaged than in many Western nations.

In Saudi Arabia, the blogosphere is less developed though still remains active. Censorship of “pornographic” sites is limited, though the regime is starting to fear the power of activists. Reading female bloggers – as a gender they’re actively marginalized in society – is refreshing if we want to understand this previously “silenced” group.

Q: What were the biggest challenges you faced writing this book and doing your research?

Gaining full access to some of the countries was challenging. Investigating the role of Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and other Western multinational firms and their collusion in web censorship in a state such as China. Protecting my sources was equally important. I took precautions before I contacted bloggers in most countries and when I arrived there.

A key aim of the book was to move away from the traditional role of Western journalist as a filter of quality. In every featured country, my perspective is unavoidable, of course, but I was determined to redefine my position in relation to the people I was interviewing. Their voices were far more important than mine.

Q: What do you think about the role of Global Voices in helping people learn about unheard voices? Any ideas for how to make Global Voices more efficient?

The strength of Global Voices is its ability to educate readers across the world about different countries and cultures, often issues and perspectives ignored by the myopic Western media. Language remains a key problem, however. More effort should be placed into finding connections between the West and the rest because the internet is currently a space where these two worlds rarely interact.

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