Nevertheless, campaigners and supporters from all over the world mounted pressure on the Moroccan authorities. Bashir was released on February 8, 2010, two months after his arrest.

In the following interview Bashir tells his story.

Could you please introduce yourself to our readers?

First, I want to thank the people working for Global Voices for giving me this opportunity to connect with their readers, and for their support and solidarity with me and my cause. I wish them more success and progress.
My name is Bashir Hazzam. I was born in 1982 in Tarhjicht where I received primary education, then moved to Bouizakarne for secondary education. I got my baccalaureate in 2002 in Tarhjicht, then joined the Faculty of Sharia (Islamic Law) at Ait Melloul in Agadir, from which I graduated in Sharia Law in 2008. I engaged very early on in associative work within local associations and was involved in student activities with the National Union of the Students of Morocco (UNEM). I'm a member of the Justice and Charity group (a de jure banned Islamist group, also known as Al-Adl wal-Ihssan or Al-Adl), and also a blogger since 2007.

How did you discover the blogosphere and what do you write about in general?

I discovered the world of blogging when I was a student: I came across a number of blogs and realized that blogging enables people to publish their ideas easily, without control and for free. I liked the idea so much that, after a brief research, I ended up creating my own blog on the Arabic blog publishing website Maktoob. That was back in September 1th, 2007. I chose to call it Al-Bushra (The Good News). My first post was titled: “Electoral Promises: Facts or Fiction.” By the way, I was interrogated by the police about the content of this article when I was arrested last December. As for my writings, I generally blog about national, international political, intellectual and religious issues.

To what extent has blogging and the Internet in general helped you in your life and activities?

The blogosphere enabled me to exchange views and ideas and communicate with many bloggers and writers from around the world. This had a positive impact on my life. Though I'm new to this field, I believe that with the passage of time, I will be able to discover new and important things that will help me improve my blogging and everyday life skills. The Internet is growing so fast, which makes the use of it highly beneficial for those who master it.

After your arrest with Abdullah Boukfou and others, the authorities claimed they had done so because you published “false information harmful to the reputation of Morocco.” Do you agree with this version of events? How do you explain the reasons behind your detention?

I completely disagree with the official version because the statement [I published on my blog] does not include any term that could cause harm to the reputation or interests of the country. And anyone who takes a look at the content of this statement can confirm that it is perfectly harmless, and that it does not include any insult to the country's reputation. To the extent that the Court decided the statement was inoffensive and acquitted me on this specific charge, but still it prosecuted me on the charge of participating in an armed protest, even though I did not participate in the demonstration in the first place. This is something that surprised me really.
I think the reason behind my arrest was to impose a media blackout around the events that occurred in Tarhjicht, after the violent intervention of the security forces against unarmed students and the population that sided with them. They are trying to prevent the truth from filtering to the public.
In fact, the charge of insulting the country's reputation on human rights should be directed at the local authority which perpetrated violence of various kinds against protesters and detainees, who simply demanded their rights in a peaceful and civilized way. We should never have been blamed. We have published the facts that occurred on the ground only to become victims of the tyranny met upon the population at random.

How were you treated during detention? And do you think you received a fair trial?

Except for some sporadic provocations at the beginning of the investigation, officers treated me well. The trial was not fair: I was sentenced to four months in prison, Abdullah Boukfou, the owner of the internet café, to one year, while three students and blogger Boubaker Al-Yadib (who was since released) received a six-month sentence. The trial was moving towards clearing us of all charges when, against the odds, the verdict was pronounced against us. We, and our defense team, felt that the process was controlled by the authorities. So much so that the verdicts were so unequal, particularly as the charges against me were the same as those filed against Abdullah Boukfou, but he ended up receiving a harsher sentence.

There were several interpretations of your release from jail: some said it was an implicit recognition by the authorities of their “mistake,” others suggested it was a public relations exercise to save the reputation of the country abroad. What's your take on this?

All these things might be true. Those indeed might have been the motives behind the authorities' decision to retreat from their initial stance, that has only distorted the image and reputation of the country abroad.

Has the campaign of solidarity in your opinion, influenced the course of events? Do these campaigns really matter?

Yes, campaigns of solidarity conducted by bloggers in Morocco and abroad, led by the Moroccan Association of Bloggers, and broadly supported by national and international human rights organizations, particularly Reporters Without Borders, Freedom House, as well as the media, have contributed significantly to influence and pressure the officials to release us. Thanks to the efforts of all those -and praise first be to Allah- I regained my freedom after two months spent in prison. Without their campaigning, I would have remained behind bars. Also, my affiliation to Al-Adl, has brought a significant pressure to bear, as it is the largest political force of opposition in Morocco. All those factors have eventually contributed to my release.

How would you characterize freedom of expression in Morocco, especially on the Internet?

Freedom of expression in our country is plummeting and is in constant deterioration. Figures from international organizations shore up this claim, placing Morocco among countries with the least regard for freedom of expression. Reality as well supports this perception with a succession of arrests and trials of many bloggers, journalists, human rights activists and opposition figures, harassed solely because of their views. As for freedom over the Internet, the state increasingly wants to impose its control on it. This has been made evident after the attacks suffered by bloggers and the latest arrest, a couple of weeks ago, of a web designer, Abdellatif Ouiass, creator of the website “The World's Best Head of State,” although he has since been released on bail.
This shows clearly how the hands and the eyes of the Moroccan intelligence services want now to extend to the Internet. This, however, will have no significant impact given the extent of the information revolution, which each day overpowers repressive regimes.

After all that's happened, have you changed the way you blog or write? Do you have self-censorship?

What happened will not affect me. Despite the arbitrary detention, I kept my writing style intact. It will not affect my thoughts or my views. Everyone in this world has the right to express her/his opinions without censorship as long as that does not contradict laws, that are well known in this regard.

What advice would you have for bloggers in Morocco, and in the world who fear the wrath of their governments or regimes?

I would invite people to take advantage of technologies offered by the Internet to highlight their skills and talents, and express their ambitions and aspirations through blogging, so as to break the systematic marginalization imposed by authoritarian states, especially on the youth. That's a way for those countries to reach real progress and keep pace with developed nations, provided that expression remains disciplined, responsible and respectful of the privacy and specificity of others. There shouldn't be any fear of arrest or the repression that hinders the will of the people, as long as what is published by the blogger does not violate the law.

Do you have a final word for those who stood in solidarity with you?

In the end, and through this free outlet, I wish to extend my thanks and gratitude to each one of those who supported me during this ordeal, especially the Moroccan Association of Bloggers, all bloggers and activists in and outside the country, who have shown great solidarity with me. I also thank my defense lawyers, media outlets that highlighted my case, my brothers in the Justice and charity group, and all national and international human rights organizations, especially Freedom House , Reporters Without Borders and all those throughout the world whose conscience has led them to support my case. I urge upon them to continue their solidarity until Abdullah Boukfou, Abdellatif Ouiass (who's now released on bail) and all prisoners of conscience in the prisons of the country are released.

Written by Hisham Almiraat · comments (3)
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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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The verdict and first reaction spread on Twitter.

Media Helping Media quickly commented on the sentence.

According to supporters tweeting from the court, the lawyer for Hajizade, Isahan Ashurov, said the case was about power.

“Today we witness the unfair struggle of mind and physical power.” “Today we witness the unfair struggle of mind and physical power.”

[…]

Supporters have tweeted that Hajizade said the decision was built on lies.

Flying Carpets and Broken Pipelines also reflects on the verdict and says “this is not an end, this is only the beginning.”

Today at the end of the hearing, Emin said he is feeling proud and thats why he is ready to accept the verdict given to him. Adnan, questioned how alleged witnesses will look into the eyes of their families- we will be done with our sentences but I wonder how they are going to live a life built on lies… They both showed their strength to us, we must to the same in return.

Meanwhile, the first ever World Blogging Forum in Bucharest, Romania, immediately issued a preliminary statement.

We, the bloggers, will promote a world in which Internet users shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and repression in any form.

The bloggers united in Bucharest at the World Blogging forum are worried about the situation in Azerbaijan and support #EminAdnan as a Free Voice of the Internet and as a member of the World Blogging Family.

Global Voices caught up with Parvana Persiani, OL! youth activist and Hajizade's girlfriend, at the conference yesterday.

More updates will be posted as of when. Meanwhile, full coverage of the detention, trial and imprisonment of Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli is available in the Azerbaijan section of Global Voices Online and on the OL! Blog (in English and Azeri). The hashtag #EminAdnan is also used on Twitter.

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The “Freedom on the Net” study surveyed 15 countries on the basis of two key components: access to Web and mobile technology and the free flow of information through it. The report covered events that took place in the years 2007 and 2008, identifying new emerging threats to Internet freedom.

The report also states that there is more Internet freedom than Press freedom, and that activists are becoming more creative in resisting governmentally imposed restrictions on the Internet.

In his video interview with Global Voices Advocacy, Robert Guerra, Project Director for Freedom House's Global Internet Freedom Program, talks about this new initiative and shares some of his thoughts about threats to freedom of online expression.

Washington – April 1, 2009 – A new study from Freedom House warns that the rights of internet and mobile phone users are increasingly at risk as governments, both repressive and democratic, expand their ability to monitor and control online activity.
Freedom on the Net identifies wide disparities in internet freedom among the 15 countries studied and raises concern over trends such as the “outsourcing of censorship” to private companies and authoritarian governments' use of undercover agents to manipulate online conversations. The report cites both repressive and democratic governments for internet surveillance and for failing to adequately inform users about censorship standards
“More than a billion people look to the internet and mobile phones to provide a new freedom frontier, where they can exercise their right to freedom of expression without repercussion,” said Jennifer Windsor, Freedom House executive director. “But as access grows, more governments are employing diverse and sophisticated methods to monitor, censor and punish internet users.”

Freedom House developed the pilot study to better understand emerging threats to internet freedom. Freedom on the Net evaluates each country based on barriers to access, limitations on content and violations of users' rights. It captures not only government actions, but also indicates that citizens are resisting government attempts to restrict their online activity.

Findings from the study, which covers events from 2007 to 2008, will be formally released Wednesday to a conference of more than a thousand bloggers in Berlin, Germany. Freedom House hopes to expand the study to examine internet freedom in all countries of the world.
Cuba received the lowest score in the study because of the Castro regime's near total control over internet access. Three other countries received a ranking of Not Free: China, Iran and Tunisia. The vast majority of the countries studied received a Partly Free ranking: Egypt, Georgia, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Russia and Turkey. Estonia tops the study as the country with the most internet freedom. Other countries ranked Free are: Brazil, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

The study's China report shows a particular paradox: a country with an estimated 300 million online users that also has the world’s most highly-developed censorship apparatus. China ties with Cuba for the country with the most curbs on users' rights, including prosecutions for online activities, surveillance and extra-legal harassment of bloggers.

“Freedom House is heartened by the fact that citizens, even in highly-repressive countries like China, Cuba and Iran, are pushing back with creativity and courage against these growing government controls over the internet,” said Windsor. “Democratic countries should not only support such voices, but also set an example of best practice with their own digital media policies.”

General Trends

Growing Access, Threats: In six (40 percent) of the countries examined, internet use doubled between 2006 and 2008. Mobile phone penetration doubled in three (20 percent) of the countries. At the same time, six countries (40 percent) sentenced a blogger to prison and a third of the countries introduced new internet-restricting legislation. Methods to control and censor traditional media are seeping into the new media environment, but are not as common yet. In addition to imprisonment, torture, and intimidation of internet activists, governments also engage in online harassment by hacking or using technical means to shut down websites.

Censorship Proliferates: Eleven countries (73 percent) targeted political content in at least one instance, and general censorship and control was present in every country studied. Censorship techniques included technical filtering, manual content removal because of government directives, intimidation, judicial decisions and sophisticated manipulation of online conversations by undercover agents.

Outsourcing Censorship: More governments are requiring private actors such as internet service providers, blog hosting companies, cybercafé employees and mobile phone operators to censor and monitor users. This outsourcing affects both local and multinational companies.

More Internet Freedom than Press Freedom: For every country in the study—with the exception of the United Kingdom—their internet freedom score outperformed their score in Freedom House’s Freedom of the Press study, which principally examines broadcast and print media. These differences were most pronounced in the Partly Free countries such as Kenya, Russia and Malaysia.

Civic Activism Increases: Citizens are resisting government control by blogging, using code for sensitive keywords and organizing protests and advocacy groups through social networks like Facebook.

Key Country Findings

• Cuba is one of the world's most repressive environments for internet freedom, despite a slight relaxation of restrictions on computer and mobile phone sales in 2008. There is almost no access to internet applications other than e-mail and surveillance is extensive. Cuba is one of the few countries with laws and regulations explicitly restricting and outlawing certain online activities.
• China is home to the largest population of users, but its rulers employ the world's most sophisticated, multi-layered, and wide-ranging apparatus for repressing internet freedom. It has the most cyber dissidents behind bars, at least 49 as of mid-2008. In addition, cyber dissidents are sentenced to longer prison terms than elsewhere, and extra-legal forms of harassment and violence are on the rise. Authorities and private providers employ hundreds of thousands to monitor, censor, and manipulate online content.
• Iran uses a complex system of nationwide content filtering, intimidation, detention and torture of bloggers, and restriction of broadband access to subvert freedom of expression online. Authorities detained and questioned more than a dozen bloggers in 2008 and a bill enabling the death penalty for online activities passed its first reading in parliament.
• Russia does not engage in significant technical blocking or filtering, but authorities are increasingly removing content through behind-the-scenes pressure. Internet freedom is threatened by a rise in attacks and criminal cases targeting bloggers, while the government manipulates online discussion by funding its own propaganda websites.
• Egypt does not engage in widespread censorship of the internet and the government has actively encouraged access to technology. But security services and their allies are known to monitor users and use low-tech methods of control such as intimidation, detention, imprisonment, and torture to silence online activists.
• South Africa has a high level of digital media freedom, but a majority of citizens are unable to access the internet because of high costs and language barriers. Political content is not censored and bloggers are not prosecuted for online activities. Unlike other countries in the study, South Africa has more people accessing the internet on their mobile phones than from computers.
• The United Kingdom has one of the world's freest environments. But there are growing concerns about the widespread retention of user data by service providers and the permissive environment for “libel tourism” (in which the UK allows individuals, often from authoritarian countries, to sue authors whose work is available in the UK, including online versions). The procedures used by the private Internet Watch Foundation to remove harmful internet content lack transparency and the appeals process could be improved.

Freedom House, an independent nongovernmental organization that supports the expansion of freedom in the world, has been monitoring political rights and civil liberties worldwide since 1972.

Freedom matters.
Freedom House makes a difference.
www.freedomhouse.org

Written by Sami Ben Gharbia · comments (0)
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While the recent months have been witnessing a considerable number of arrests to Egyptian bloggers, most of them are facing ill treatment in their detentions.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) revealed that the Egyptian blogger Dia Eddin Gad is suffering health problems in his cell in Katta Prison, where he has been locked since he was kidnapped on 6th February. AHNRI states in a press release:

Dia has been locked in solitary confinement and deprived of sunlight. He was also deprived of medical care and was threatened with death. ANHRI fears that these retaliatory measures are due to his refusal, along with his family, to join the ruling National Democratic Party. An official with the party proposed that Dia be released once he joins the NDP.

Gad (22-year old) is the owner of Sout Ghaded blog (An Angry Voice), was expressing his rejection of the Egyptian government's practices during the recent war on Gaza, and Egypt's continued support for Israel through fuel sales. The State Security battered him in front of his house before kidnapping him.

Yesterday, Gad’s mother came to a conference hold at Al-Tagmmo’ Party headquarters in Cairo, tilted “Bloggers and Arrests”, she told the attendees:

I have just came back from Kattah prison where my son is detained, he urgues you all to help him, everyone with the tools he has. Please, do something for my son, he is really sick…

The father of the young blogger did not attend the event, as he went through psychological shock, and temporary paralysis, because of the detention of his son.

ANHRI is asking people to show solidarity with Gad by sending complaints to the Ministry Of Interior (the address, fax and email are mentioned below)

Meanwhile, blogger Mohammed Adel, who was detained for more than 3 months, confirmed the bad condition of detention he witnessed during the period of his imprisonment. He told Global Voice Advocacy :

GVA: How were you treated when you were arrested?

Adel: Yes! I was beaten up to give my email passwords. Then I decided to go on a hunger strike, but once I pretended not to feel like eating I was subjected to electric shocks. They were really strict. But finally I announced to them I was on a hunger strike, then a DA representative visited me, and later I was released.

Bloggers who are tortured or detained in poor conditions are believed to be prisoners of conscience. Recently, experts of the Human Rights Council have concluded that the Egyptian authorities have detained blogger Kareem Amer arbitrarily for his online criticisms and for exercising his right to freedom of expression. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) communicated its decision to Amnesty International (Link to the WGAD decision PDF).

Kareem who was sentence in 2007 to four years in prison for writing on his blog criticizing Egypt's al-Azhar religious authorities and President Mubarak, was subjected to torture and ill-treatment. Last year, he had written in a letter from the prison telling that:

I was beaten and put into an isolated cell with scarce food and water, I was subjected to a crude, non-humane and degrading treatment

In his letter, Amer is referring to the ‘physical and moral’ torture to which he is being subjected. He said he was ‘handcuffed and beaten’.

—————–

The Ministry Of Interior
25 Sheikh Rihan street- Bab el-Louk
Cairo, Egypt
Fax: 27960682
Email: moi@idsc.gov.eg
The Attorney Genera/ Justice Adbdel Majid Mahmoud
Supreme Justice Council
Ramsis street- Cairo-Egypt
Fax: 25774716

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Banners from Egyptian Facebook groups calling for the May 4 Strike.

After little less than a month following the April 6 strike in support of the textile workers in Mahalla City, 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 Hosni Mubarak, on May 4, 2008, are currently spreading all over the blogosphere and the Internet. And like the preparation for the April 6 strike, the internet has a vital role to play in mobilizing for the upcoming protest. SMS, email, blogs, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter: almost all of these outlets are used by Egyptian Internet activists in their campaign the May 4 event. We've even seen a Facebookist Movement to Overthrow Mubarak being created. Another group entitled “We don't want Muslim Brothers” is calling for the strike but without participation of the Muslim Brotherhood, who recently decided to join May 4 protest.

Logo of the Egyptian Facebook group “Facebookist Movement to Overthrow Mubarak“

This approach of politicising the internet is not taking place without concerns being raised not only by pro-government and state-run newspapers (who recently waged a campaign against web 2.0 services like Youtube, Blogger and Facebook used by online activists) but even by opponents of Mubarak's regime and outspoken bloggers. And while the Al-Gomhuriya daily called for a “boycott [of] Youtube and Facebook websites” and the weekly Rose El-Youssef portrayed the former website as “a secret room aimed at running Egypt”, blogger Hossam el-Hamalawy, an outspoken Egyptian blogger, wrote, in a blog post titled “I do NOT endorse the May 4th General Strike Call” criticizing what he described as a call “coming from the cyberspace by bloggers, “Facebook activists” and the Islamist-leaning Labor Party whose leaders have declared themselves more or less as some “provisional govt” in cyber-exile”, that:

We, the Egyptian bloggers, have always prided ourselves on the fact that we have one foot on the ground and the other in the cyberspace… But this time, it seems some have thrown both their feet as well as brains in the cyberspace and are living some virtual reality, mistakenly believing (helped by the media sensationalist coverage of the “facebook activism“) that they are the ones behind the events in Mahalla…

Blogger and activist Nora Younis was kind enough to agree to this interview over email. Nora shares some of her ideas with us about the role of Internet in Egypt as a platform for political activism.

Sami Ben Gharbia: What was the role of internet in mobilizing Egyptian citizens to participate in the April 6 strike and do you believe that the kind of Facebook Group, with its 71,200 members, has an effect on the street?

Nora Younis: Internet was the main tool in mobilizing for the 6 April strike. It's true a tiny fringe of Egyptians have access to Facebook but the 70,000+ members of the group acted as strike advocates in the society and took the debate from PC screens to taxis, workplaces, dinner tables and breadlines. This forced the topic on the independent main stream media. The second tool in mobilizing for the strike was SMS. People I have known for years with no relation to politics or public participation were circulating messages advocating the strike. The word “strike” has never been uttered and repeated that much in Egypt during my lifetime. However, we should not forget that what gave April 6 its weight was the labor movement uprising and their struggle for a dignified minimum wage. Internet alone, without the popular base, wouldn't have led to the successful strike we witnessed April 6.

Sami: we've seen an anti-strike Facebook group formed to counter the pro-strike group and it seems that the political battle is taking place on blogs and on social networking websites. How do you describe this new development and do you believe that the Egyptian government or the ruling party is behind the aforementioned group?

Nora: Young members of the ruling party have initiated blogs and Facebook groups to polish the regime's image and counter the call for dissent. Such pages are probably encouraged by party officials, because when it comes to content they lack the passion. Furthermore, they remain unable to attract members and visitors.

Sami: It seems that the Egyptian regime is trying to calm down the situation. During the last week many of the previously arrested activist and bloggers have been released such as Khaled Hamza Salam the editor-in chief of Ikhwanweb, and blogger Mohamed Sharkawy and Esraa Abdul Fattah. How do you assess the situation in Egypt at this stage?

Nora: The Egyptian regime took preemptive measures to abort the April 6 strike by arresting activists early morning from their homes, and taping their calls days before. After the day was over and with the rising riots in Mahalla measures were taken to contain and calm the situation, as a way to weaken the planned May 4 strike. A government delegation headed to Mahalla, met some 2000 textile workers, and promised bonuses and privileges. Government statements have alienated Mahalla workers from the riots. Popular bloggers-activists have been released. All seems to be in attempt to calm the situation before May 4 - the president's 80th birthday.

Sami: The use of web tools has caused the arrest of some of those activists, but it also helped release the American student James Karl Buck who was arrested while photographing the 6 April demonstration. His Twittered message ‘ARRESTED‘ through his cell phone alerted the world about his arrest. Who do you believe is going to win this new kind of battle of information?

Nora: On April 5 the number of my Twitter update followers was 90. On April 6 it was 130, and today it is 180. Only because I was Twittering strike and detainees updates. James Buck gained wide support through his Twitter SMS. More people are joining the blogsphere, Facebook, and Twitter by the hour. I don't think this could ever be reversed. There is a techie, passionate, frustrated generation now on the playground….and one could only expect more to come. In few years time there will be no need for registration of political parties. Like-minded people will organise and will be heard.

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The proposal will now pass to the European Council. If adopted as a European Union (EU) law, the proposal could have an impact on future trade negotiations between the EU and governments engaged in Internet censorship. “As the adopted amendment on treating internet censorship as a trade barrier is currently only the wish of the Parliament it is not yet part of EU legislation. We will nonetheless keep on pressuring the European Commission and the Council to formally adopt such a proposal in EU legislation,” Jethro van Hardeveld, the political assistant to Jules Maaten, said in an email.

On November 7th, 2007, a public hearing on “Censorship & cyber-dissidents. Freedom on the internet in authoritarian states” was organized by Jules Maaten and two other MEPs from the Alliance for Liberals And Democrats for Europe (ALDE Group) in Brussels. The hearing included voices from cyber-dissidents from Tunisia and China, Reporters sans frontières (RSF), and the Dutch ISP XS4all, on “the increasing grip of governments in repressive states on the content of the Internet.”

The hearing also called for a European version of the Global Online Freedom Act (PDF) in the United States: “The EU will now have to make supporting journalists and cyber dissidents a priority. Free speech must remain the basis of the Internet. Europe should follow the American example where legislators are working on a Global Online Freedom Act. We urge the European Commission to follow this example and come up with a European version of this Act,” Jules Maaten declared.

In a recent parliamentary question on February 21, 2008, Jules Maaten asked whether the Commission is, “willing to invest 20 million euros in technologies able to develop and distribute anti-censorship tools and services which could help Internet users breach electronic firewalls set up by China, Iran and other closed societies?”

I sent some questions for an interview to MEP Jules Maaten which were answered by his political assistant Jethro van Hardeveld:

Sami: Can you give us a brief background about this Internet anti-censorship proposal?

Jethro van Hardeveld: Since 2006 our office has been active on the issue of internet censorship. We started working on internet censorship with the resolution and debate in the European Parliament in Strasbourg in 2006 on ‘freedom of expression on the internet'. The motivation for working on the issue of online censorship is that free speech must remain the basis of the Internet and that human rights should also be protected online.

Sami: Why this focus on the “great firewall” of China? Does China represent the primary target of this initiative or does it also include all other countries engaged in online censorship - even those commonly described by the EU as “moderate Arab regimes” such as Morocco, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, etc.?

Jethro van Hardeveld: The proposal is not focussed at any specific country. It calls on the European Commission to deal with censorship in third countries through it´s external trade policy. It is in no way solemnly directed at China. In a press statement (also attached) from Jules Maaten however we did mention the ‘Great Firewall of China' as it it is a concrete example and one of the most well known cases of censorship.

Sami: The European Union's association agreement with countries like Tunisia explicitly requires them to observe human rights and political freedom, however, the EU did not establish a well-functioning mechanism to address continuing human rights abuses by those governments, so how you will deal with the online censorship? Are we going to see the EU boycotting products or imposing sanctions?

Jethro van Hardeveld: We are calling for the EU to adopt a European version of the American Global Online freedom Act. This EU legislation should cover and deal with online censorship by European internet companies in third countries. This legislation should also contain provisions obliging European internet companies to place their servers in non authoritarian/western states, in order to guarantee that will we not get another ‘Shi Tao' case (the arrests of cyber dissidents ). Furthermore, the European Commission more or the less admitted in an answer to written questions by Jules Maaten that the self regulation in the European internet industry has failed. The European Commission answer: …”the Commission welcomes this clear and unequivocal statement and calls for the industry to work in close cooperation with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on a code of conduct to prevent and counteract cyber repression. The Commission regrets that, so far, no progress has been made on this issue.”…

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The goals of the “Fouad’s Week” event, as outlined on the blog campaign, are to:

1- Let Fouad rest assured that he WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN, this is the only thing he asked for before his detention.

2- Send a message to those who detained him: “Violating one's right to speak peacefully and freely, will only support his message, and give it a burst of momentum”.

From their side, human rights organisations expressed concern and called for the release of Fouad Alfarhan. And while Reporters Without Borders condemned the government’s silence on the matter, Amnesty International has expressed fears that he is being tortured. “He is still being held, without charges and without access to a lawyer, a doctor or his wife. For someone to be held in secrecy like this, it is likely he is being ill-treated, interrogated or tortured. Why else would he be held in secrecy?” Lamri Chirouf, a researcher at Amnesty International, told ArabianBusiness.com.

In the meantime, Hands Across the Middle East Alliance (HAMSA) , a non-profit organization that works to connect activist efforts in America and the Middle East, organized a vigil on Saturday 9 February in front of the Saudi embassy in Washington, D.C. to draw attention to the Fouad's case. The rally marked the 60th day of the blogger's imprisonment. The HAMSA initiative has also launched an online letter-writing campaign addressed to Saudi Foreign Affairs Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal. So far, 1330 people have sent letters.

Image from the C.R.I.M.E. Report a bi-weekly e-newsletter published by the HAMSA initiative.

I spoke with Nasser Weddady, a Mauritanian activist who directs HAMSA's outreach efforts, about this rally and the effectiveness of mixing offline an online activism:

Sami: Last Saturday Hands Across the Middle East Alliance (HAMSA) organized a vigil in front of the Saudi embassy in Washington, D.C., why did you felt the need to take to the streets and demonstrate?

Nasser: The issue for us is why we didn’t do it sooner. This rally happened two months after Fouad was arrested. Activism is not only online, it is also on the ground. Here in the US, we have the freedom to organize. In fact, the Saudi embassy security minder tried to intimidate us thinking that he could simply make us go away because his government does not like a protest in front of its embassy. There are a lot of people here who are very concerned about Fouad and want to do more than writing a letter. Besides, I was initially scheduled to come Washington to give a talk about Fouad’s case to Congress so we decided that we should have both events.

Sami:Did you get any reaction from the Saudi embassy?

Nasser: The Saudi embassy security tried to intimidate us at first. They insisted on seeing some sort of permission to be on public grounds — no such thing is required. However, we had gone the extra mile by having filed for a permit to run a demonstration. A totally superficial formality. Then they called for the Capitol Police to monitor the situation. The Police officers were visibly annoyed by having to come keep an eye on a protest. Meanwhile, a Saudi individual of some capacity in the embassy was monitoring the scene and calling back and forth on his cell phone. He then asked through one of the guards to have the name of the organizers and that of the person the protest was done for. All in all, the Saudi staff’s behavior just confirmed the world’s impression of them: intolerant and muzzling.

Sami: We've seen dozen of activists rallies in front of Egyptian embassies around the world calling for the release of the detained blogger kareem Amer without any success. How optimistic are you about this kind of actions and why has nothing changed?

Nasser: Grass roots protests typically don’t generate results immediately. It took the US civil rights movement YEARS of grass roots protest to end segregation. The campaign for the Burmese dissident Ang Su Kyi has been going on for a decade. It would be strange to think that US activists in the 50’s and 60’s or the Burmese monks who took to the streets last year are wasting their time. The protests are a key component of a larger campaign. They will not necessarily per se get an activist released, but are rather an element of multi-faceted struggle. Every time a protest happens a report gets sent back by these diplomats to their governments letting them know that these dissidents are not forgotten. It is also a moral statement that we will use the freedom we have here to demonstrate and will exercise it to support dissidents under fire.

Sami: Free Kareem and Free Fouad campaigns are very successful in attracting the attention of the global blogosphere and the mainstream media, though, they didn't achieve their goal of releasing booth detained bloggers, how can you explain that? Do you believe there is a correlation between a successful media campaign and a failed mission when it comes to the Middle East, a region that is very sensitive to foreign pressures?

Nasser: The decision-making process about handling dissidents is very complex and varies from case to case. the question for activists is not to outguess the dictators. The challenge is to stand up for what is right and take action. A media campaign alone will not necessarily get someone out of jail. It is, however, a vital component of a successful campaign. Harry Truman had an expression: “Sunshine is the best disinfectant”. Generally the best and most effective step to solve a problem is to acknowledge it and spot-light it instead of remaining silent. We are optimistic that Kareem and Fouad and the other bloggers we never hear about and who are behind bars will be released-thanks to grass roots protests, media coverage, diplomatic interventions and letters from thousands around the world who care. What HAMSA is strategically aiming to achieve is fusing online and offline activism. We want to create air cover for dissidents. Ultimately what we need is for lots of people to join these campaigns to succeed. Next time a free Fouad rally happens a thousand people should be there.

Written by Sami Ben Gharbia · comments (0)
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Bylaws and Founding Declaration of the China Netizen Party

Preface

1. Preface to the Nature and Objectives of the China Netizen Party
2. The Four Basic Principles of the China Netizen Party
3. The Three Major Tasks of the China Netizen Party
4. Member Registration, Establishment of Party Chapters, and Party Fees and Assets of the China Netizen Party
5. Daily Study and Work for Members of the China Netizen Party
6. Oath for Members of the China Netizen Party

2007 was a year of victory for Chinese netizens, as one-by-one they laid bare and denounced such incidents as the “South China Tiger” to “Ouyang's Crater” and other which deceived both the Chinese People and the world. This clearly illustrates that in the Internet Age, obscurantist policy no longer has its desired effect on The Netizen. The Chinese Netizens hereby rise up! We are determined to form the Chinese Netizen Party to serve not only as a symbol of the complete abandonment of fanaticism and blind assent, but also as a sign that China has entered the Internet Age and a revolutionary milestone in public opinion within Chinese society, that we have now risen.

1. Preface to the Nature and Objectives of the China Netizen Party:
1. The China Netizen Party both is and isn't a Party;
2. The China Netizen Party bears the characteristics of humanity only and a political party not at all;
3. The China Netizen Party is of unity and mutual love only and class struggle not at all;
4. The China Netizen Party is of lawful operations only and forced or sly profiteering not at all;
5. The China Netizen Party is of justice and conscience only and violence and deceit not at all;
6. The China Netizen Party swears to take all deceit, forgery and revisionism as its enemy;
7. The China Netizen Party swears hatred at all deletion of posts, censorship and other such forms of violence;
8. The China Netizen Party will hold The People's leaders to the key principle of The People of “where there's doubt, we'll investigate”.

2. The Four Basic Principles of the China Netizen Party:
1. Open;
2. Rational;
3. Non-violent;
4. Unified in action;

3. The Three Major Tasks of the China Netizen Party:
1. Expose all deceitful and hypocritical behavior, restore balance in the world;
2. Put down violence in all its forms, restore perfect harmony to society;
3. Call for an ideology of “all-citizen involvement, speak the truth in unison”, with the ultimate goal of restoring power to the people.

4. Member Registration, Establishment of Party Chapters, and Party Fees and Assets of the China Netizen Party
1. Regardless of nationality, race, gender or age, any netizen on earth who identifies with the objectives, basic principles and basic tasks of the Chinese Netizen Party may declare themselves members of the China Netizen Party, and all party members without exception are not to sign up or register in any fashion;
2. The China Netizen Party collects no party fees or assets.
　　
5. Daily Study and Work for Members of the China Netizen Party
1. Study, practice and speak out in the two main areas of China Netizen Party work, justice and conscience;
2. All members of the China Netizen Party must profoundly understand that righteousness and conscience alone can save China. And the ultimate establishment of an ideal society for all depends on our efforts today.
3. The objective of the China Netizen Party is to expose and denounce lies, with all internet communities, forums and websites in China as our battle positions. Networks are our weapons, netizens are our troops!
　　
6. Oath for Members of the China Netizen Party
　　Realization of the China Netizen Party's historical mission depends upon the joint efforts of all party members! Together through the good and bad, joined in times of trouble, let us firmly unite the majority of the people and fight for justice! And for conscience! Long live Justice! Long live Conscience! Long live The Chinese Netizen!
　　
China Netizen Party Central Committee
China Netizen Party Acting Chairman, Zhang Buwei
February 4, 2008

　　skype：zhangbuwei1989 gmail：zhangbuwei1989@gmail.com

China Netizen Party means of contact:
Skype: zhangbuwei1989
Gmail: zhangbuwei1989@gmail.com

The birth of the CNP was announced this month by Guo Quan, the former Nanjing University professor now preparing to sue both Yahoo! and Google after recently discovering he'd become victim of the online equivalent of being disappeared, with his name filtered out of search results on the two search engines' Chinese sites. His chances of really being disappeared look higher now too after Guo wrote an open letter late last year calling for increased democracy and just last month started his own political party to that effect, the New People's Party, believed to be the reason he lost his teaching job.

Fittingly, one of the few places mention of the CNP can now be found within China is in the midst [zh] of discussions of the offline rescue missions organized spontaneously by netizens this past week for those trapped by the snow, where readers can be seen networking quickly, constantly updating and redirecting efforts accordingly, cooperating with police who alone weren't able to keep up.

Guo, a historian known for his work on the Nanjing Massacre as well as a harsh anti-Japanese stance in general, while with those credentials alone is fit to represent a large portion of China's 200,000,000 netizen population, it was probably a smarter move to stick with his political party and name ‘Zhang Buwei' as the China Netizen Party's acting chairman. Guo, it should be mentioned, has done scandal-busting work of his own. Zhang himself has not yet written publicly about the CNP, but was willing to answer a few text-based questions:

Q Does the China Netizen Party have a website or blog?

A No

Q When can we see one?

A There is no plan for one at present. We'll mainly be keeping contact through e-mail and Skype. Most of our activity will be on mainland forums.

Q Not even a microblog, like Fanfou or Twitter? This was a key topic at last year's Chinese Blogger Conference.

A Not sure about that.

Q It's not safe to go establishing parties in China; how likely is it that this will prove dangerous for you, Guo Quan and other members?

A The CCP might take Guo or me down at any time. We're already well-prepared that we might go to jail. Pressure on members of the China Netizen Party will be slightly less, because the bylaws of the China Netizen Party don't define us a proper political party.

Q How do you plan to confirm membership, or how are members supposed to identify themselves as supporters or members? Badges for their blogs, for example. There's little information on the China Netizen Party to be found online in China right now.

A Like I just said, the Party isn't a proper political party, so members don't need to always need to identify themselves publicly. That's one; second is that all work is divided internally among party members, and when they receive their respective work assignments, they just go and carry out that work on the bbs forums, so they don't need to disclose their identities.

Q Will your party carry on the kind of blogging work Hu Jia was doing? And, what is your thought on the kind of work Hu Jia did?

A The nature of of the work of my current party, the New People's Party, is identical to the work Hu Jia did. I have nothing but admiration for him and his work.

Q I just read a piece on Boxun from an An Jun, who wrote that s/he rejects the China Netizen Party because it itself “rejects class struggle”; how space for growth do you think there is in China for the kind of “one-man human rights organization” work that Hu Jia was doing?

A There's an extremely large space, because there are so many fields in which rights need to be defended; like laid-off workers, peasants who've lost their land, etc. At the same time, upholding rights is something countrywide, with regional elements. This is why there exists absolutely no cases of there being too many people or groups taking part in the rights movement's (and other democratic movements') work. Precisely on the contrary, in the face of the CCP at present, the more these kinds of people and groups, the better. We could even advocate for human wave tactics and drown the CCP in a flood of our spit, it's completely possible.

Q According to my standing, in his academic career Guo Quan frequently took an anti-Japan stance, do you think this will affect mainland urban (ie. most) netizens' decision to get involved in the China Netizen Party?

A The main aim of the China Netizen Party is to expose and denounce the untrue, and any opposition to anti-Japanese sentiment is irrelevant; our party members haven't raised this this kind of question as they joined up.

Q And the last questions, what is the China Netizen Party's stance on net neutrality and Creative Commons?

A The China Netizen Party strongly applauds and supports internet neutrality and Creative Commons, both key tenets and goals of the China Netizen Party.

Q With no blog or website at present, where should those interested go for the latest information in the future?

A The party will circulate announcements through various media.

Released along with the party's bylaws is a letter from Guo:

Guo Quan: Upon the establishment of the China Netizen Party, a word on the Chinese netizens' internet revolution

Today (Feb. 4, 2008), Acting Chairman of the China New People's Party, Changsha Chapter, Mr. Zhang Buwei received instructions from the Chinese New People's Party Central Committee to form the China Netizen Party, serve as its first acting Chairman, and take the lead in directing the work of the China Netizen Party's internet revolution. Mr. Zhang is 31 years old, and during his student days sought to advance the process of democratization in China, fighting in recent years for the democratic cause and in raising awareness of civil rights. Last year he suffered persecution from the CCP leading to asset losses already of 50,000 RMB.

Over the year of 2007, Chinese netizens succeeded outstandingly as they acted to seek out and speak the truth, winning widespread respect and esteem from the Chinese people.

Guo's letter goes on to list three examples, the first being when in June city leaders in Wuxi, Jiangsu, whose main water supply is algae-infested Tai Lake, held a press conference demonstrating the tap water to be drinkable, two claims that Guo says were put to rest by one netizen who did some simple fact-checking and discovered that the “real” water the city leaders were photographed drinking came out from the restaurant faucet filtered first by a German water purification system. The second example is Chang'e, who went up, disappeared, reappeared, and only sent back one photograph, which, as with Guo's third and most relevant example, the ‘South China Tiger', netizens quickly proved had been manipulated, despite several very public official protestations to the contrary. In the Tiger case, in case you missed it, the lies went much further and dominated online discussion for months. The general conclusion it seemed was that all official public statements are now up for the most scientific of scrutiny and that no similar future lies will go unpunished, adding at the same time to an already-weakened sense of faith in the government.

I won't list all the other examples here, but I believe that 2008 stands to be a year of brilliant exploits for the China Netizen Party. China has no real news, it only has propaganda; China's “news” bears no truth, it contains only lies. Now is the time for the China Netizen Party to unleash its master plan.

I think that in 2008, aside from exposing and denouncing lies, there are many other things the China Netizen Party could also do.

The China Netizen Party could actively investigate the truth behind incidents the CCP wishes not to disclose, the collapsed bridge in Fenghuang, Hunan, for example, where not only were there no basic body counts in the news, but also no basic information about the incident; from the architect's name to the construction company's name, the essential news readers wanted most urgently to know did not appear.
[…]
With incidents like this, what the China Netizen Party ought to do is to go and actively investigate the numbers of dead, their names, their ages, their genders, and release the truth of the incident, letting the Chinese people see what they can't in the CCP news.

As the new year of 2008 began, the south of China was buried under heavy ice and snow, but how many people froze to death? How many starved to death? Where did they die? What were their names? Where they men or women? What did they once do for a living? Recently there's been news from Guangzhou that one of the stranded travelers was trampled to death. Well, what was his name? The China Netizen Party ought to stay closely united, so labor can be divided, to unleash the advantage of a people's battle, to restore truth to history, and allow for every common person in this nation to at least leave behind their own names and deeds.

Let not goodness be buried over, and leave evil with nowhere left to hide.

Let every upright Chinese person shout out across the world, and let all those who hope for a strong, democratic China see the bloody battle the Chinese people are fighting in their desire for and pursuit of democracy.

2008, which has already begun, will be a year of internet warfare.

This year, the internet will be our weapon, and the the netizens our troops!

Finally, it is my heartfelt wish that our great nation will see democracy realized soon, allowing our people to live happily and our democratic country to grow strong!

With the CNP communicating over private networks and routine net censorship presumably taking care of the rest, there's been almost no discussion online on mainland websites of this new party; overseas anti-CCP website Boxun featured one short piece from writer An Jun:

An Jun / To the grassroots netizen party:
1. You write that you don't want class struggle. That's great! I recommend that you eliminate class struggle!
2. You write that you will bear only the characteristics of humans and none that of a political party, that's great! I recommend anti-party-ness and anti-brutality alike!
3. You didn't write on whether you will establish unions and associations for youth and women. Please don't pull a one-party power-snatch and turn yourselves into the Dictator Party!
4. You didn't write on whether or not you intend to turn the country's news media into your own mouthpieces. I recommend the abolition of “Party-privatized state media”! Cancel outright all party mouthpieces!
5. Logically speaking, if you won't have class struggle, then won't be seeing everyone out there. See all groups with views different than yours as hostile forces then! Does that mean you'll have humans as your enemies though?

What I've written here is just a few words because I think you've written is weird and silly. Don't ever think that I'm on your side!

Fragments of related commentary could be found on the snow disaster thread on Tianya where the bylaws were first posted:

-Mainland netizens, stand up! Form the China Netizen Party with determination!

-Grassroots activities that get politicized end up getting aborted
What I'm saying doesn't sound very nice
Hehe

-It may not sound nice, but it's realistic….

-The hope and conscience of China is on the internet.

Written by John Kennedy · comments (3)
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