In the wake of Kareem’s prison sentence, a discussion on freedom of expression in Egypt, entitled Bloggers Are Also In Jails, was held last Sunday at Cairo’s Center of Socialist Studies. The main speakers consisted of two Egyptian bloggers and one of Kareem’s defence lawyers: Censorship Is a Lost Cause, Says Egyptian Blogger.

Excerpts:

The lecture hosted three speakers: Ahmed Seif El Islam, lawyer in Hesham Mubarak Center for Human Rights, blogger Nawara Negm and Alaa Seif El Islam, dubbed the godfather of Egyptian bloggers. Each speaker emphasized the importance of free speech and how it is impeded in Egypt.

[…]

Blogger Nawara Negm said she was optimistic about the young Egyptian bloggers. Even though most of them see only corruption, they still love their country and are loyal to it.

[…]

“It is not only oppressive countries, or countries which have strong religious institutions, that fight freedom of expression on the Internet,” said Alaa, adding that the “struggle” is international which should make activists everywhere feel that they’re not alone, and that they have supporters worldwide.

[…]

“Censorship is a lost cause for governments,” he said and “even if they ban one or more individuals, they won’t be able to ban the thinking itself.”

[…]

But the speakers agreed that they didn’t believe the Egyptian government took an actual role to influence Amer’s case. They simply used it to set a precedent.

“The most threatened freedoms at times when citizens demand political reform are those that are socially controversial such as freedom of thought and expression and freedom of belief,” said Ahmed Seif El Islam.

[…]

Nawara Negm showed a mixture of optimism and pessimism. She was pessimistic about the state of the Egyptian opposition in general, saying that the worst thing she learnt through her involvement in Amer’s case was the corruption of the opposition.

“The people who ignored his case shocked me,” she said.