Yesterday’s Drudge Report linked to a Reuters story on Kareem, in which his situation is placed in the larger context of the crackdown on bloggers in Egypt: Egypt’s bloggers test state media control. (Hat tip: Andrew)
Excerpts:
Earlier this month, Abdel-Karim Suleiman, a 22-year-old former law student at al-Azhar Islamic university, became the first Egyptian jailed for his blogging when he was handed a four-year prison sentence.
“Despite their small number, the bloggers have established themselves as an alternative media outlet,” said Ehab el-Zalaky, a senior editor at the independent weekly newspaper al-Dustor, who has written extensively on bloggers.
Blogs also provide a platform for religious and social minorities whose issues rarely find space in traditional media.
Anti-Christian discrimination in Egypt is documented in one. Blogs by lesbians discussing their desires and feelings are new outlets for self-expression.
“In a society too conservative to accept these relationships, it was the first time for such explicit bold talk to appear in an Egyptian media outlet,” said Zalaky.
[…]
Bloggers and human rights organisations have condemned the conviction of Suleiman. They fear it sets a dangerous precedent for Internet censorship in Egypt, home to some 5,000 blogs across a population of more than 70 million people.
The Foreign Ministry has criticised the reactions to the verdict and said it was an internal matter and up to the judiciary to decide on.
Writing on his blog (http://karam903.blogspot.com) shortly before his detention in November, Suleiman was defiant.
“I am not scared at all … I will not back away one inch from what I wrote and handcuffs will not prevent me from dreaming of my freedom,” he blogged.
Since Suleiman’s arrest, said fellow blogger Wael Abbas, 32, Egypt’s blogosphere has changed. “I cannot say I am not afraid,” he told Reuters. “With this government one has to expect the worst.”
[…]
INTERNET BLACK HOLES
Botros, 42, says she was also persecuted by security authorities for reporting on a number of sectarian clashes between Muslims and the Christian minority in southern Egypt.
“They beat up my father at night on the street and told him: ‘This is a gift from your daughter’,” she said. “I was summoned to the police during the night and they treated me roughly. I was kept in solitary confinement for hours.”
UPDATE: It’s on The Washington Post!
UPDATE #2: It’s also on The Sydney Morning Herald .
