Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Political bloggers in the Middle East fight Censorship and Repression
Los Angeles Times: Arabs Take Byte at Regimes
via John Palfrey News
Megan K. Stack has written a good survey of the role of the internet in political dissent in the Middle East:
Speaking of the Bahrain government's attempts to shut down dissident bloggers, one blogger, Mahmood Youssef, "a 43-year-old computer worker who runs a blog known as Mahmood's Den," commented that it was clear that the authorities did not understand what they were up against:
If your interested check out the OpenNet Initiative’s (ONI)report: "Internet Filtering in Bahrain in 2004-2005" as well as their other country studies on internet censorship.
via John Palfrey News
Megan K. Stack has written a good survey of the role of the internet in political dissent in the Middle East:
"The Internet hasn't dawned easily here — not in Syria and not across the Arab world, where a virtual war is raging in nearly every country. In Egypt, opposition movements have used the Internet against President Hosni Mubarak, posting street maps to guide people to anti-government demonstrations. Bahraini bloggers are battling the Information Ministry to keep their freewheeling debates alive, and to keep themselves out of prison. In Libya, Tunisia and Syria, too, online politicking has landed people in prison.
For autocrats such as Syrian President Bashar Assad, technology presents a troubling blend of possibility and danger. They eagerly court its economic and educational benefits but struggle, often with a Luddite's bewilderment, to crack down on its use as a mighty political tool.
Arab governments appear determined to censor cyber-critics and silence unwelcome online voices. They've jailed bloggers, blocked websites and asked Internet cafe owners to spy on their customers.
But it's not working.
Online forums have been embraced by Islamists and the Arab world's underground gay communities alike. The Internet has turned into a virtual debate hall crammed with lengthy screeds, cutting language and calls for rebellion. A colorful repository for the angst of the bulging Arab youth population, the Web is impolite, anonymous and raw — in short, a revelation."
Speaking of the Bahrain government's attempts to shut down dissident bloggers, one blogger, Mahmood Youssef, "a 43-year-old computer worker who runs a blog known as Mahmood's Den," commented that it was clear that the authorities did not understand what they were up against:
"Just because they don't understand the Internet is not our problem," Youssef said. "They think it's like a newspaper or magazine, that they can go and switch it down. But it's a living, amorphous thing."
If your interested check out the OpenNet Initiative’s (ONI)report: "Internet Filtering in Bahrain in 2004-2005" as well as their other country studies on internet censorship.
