From Reporters Without Borders:

Government repression no longer ignores bloggers

The Internet is occupying more and more space in the breakdown of press freedom violations. Several countries fell in the ranking this year because of serious, repeated violations of the free flow of online news and information.

In Malaysia (124th), Thailand (135th), Vietnam (162nd) and Egypt (146th), for example, bloggers were arrested and news websites were closed or made inaccessible. “We are concerned about the increase in cases of online censorship,” Reporters Without Borders said. “More and more governments have realised that the Internet can play a key role in the fight for democracy and they are establishing new methods of censoring it. The governments of repressive countries are now targeting bloggers and online journalists as forcefully as journalists in the traditional media.”

At least 64 persons are currently imprisoned worldwide because of what they posted on the Internet. China maintains its leadership in this form of repression, with a total of 50 cyber-dissidents in prison. Eight are being held in Vietnam. A young man known as Kareem Amer was sentenced to four years in prison in Egypt for blog posts criticising the president and Islamist control of the country’s universities.

Read the full report here.

Share This

As a follow-up to our previous entry, we have just launched this video as a visual response to Mrs. Mubarak’s “peace” activities.

Share This

The Earth Times report that up to 800 participants aged 18-25 gathered in a Sharm el-Sheikh resort to discuss peaceful means of communication within the troubled region.

Suzan Mubarak, Egypt’s first lady and core member/sponsor of the Women’s International Peace Movement, shares her insight with the young and diverse delegates:

“Peace is not a far-fetched idea. Youth is the most solid resource base,” Mubarak said in her opening speech. “Listening is a great start, but acting upon what you hear is more important.”

Unfortunately, acting upon what he heard is precisely what Kareem did, and he is facing prison time for it. We believe that with Kareem still in prison many youth writers, human rights activists, and even just mere students interested in free speech will take this message as a threat. Kareem is an example of a grand error which we hope to see corrected by the Egyptian government.

Hopefully Suzan Mubarak, who has done an excellent job preaching peace and tolerance, becomes more aware of Kareem’s imprisonment and perhaps tries to influence the authorities to free him which would give her words more practical strength. It’s indeed very important to act upon what one hears, but it’s quite dangerous for such youth activists to do that if fear and punishment is a risk, which is why it would make more sense for Egypt to correct the mistake of imprisoning Kareem which will be a positive example and reflection of Suzan Mubarak’s great words.

Read the full article here, which is very hopeful, but our friend Kareem is still in prison due to free speech and we wonder how quickly this can be addressed for the sake of real peace in Egypt and the rest of the Arab world.

Share This

Alexandra Sandels reports:

A former student at Al-Azhar University, 22-year-old Amer was sentenced in January of this year to four years in prison for insulting Islam and President Mubarak on his internet blog. The case marks the first time Egypt sentences a blogger for ‘tarnishing’ online writings.

Correction of the article - Kareem was actually sentenced on the 22nd of February, after months of being in prison without fair trial, but moving on:

As co-chairs of the Congressional Task Force on International Religious Freedom (TIRF), Franks and Cleaver also stressed the need for the Egyptian authorities to investigate the alleged rise of Islamic extremism at Al-Azhar University and attacks on Coptic Christian communities in Egypt; topics Amer addressed on his blog.

Furthermore, following several security crackdowns on outspoken Egyptian bloggers in the past year, Franks and Cleaver urged Mubarak to protect freedom of expression for all Egyptian bloggers and “ensure Egypt’s vibrant blogging community continues to thrive without persecution.”

The alleged deteriorating press environment in Egypt has caught the attention of rights groups around the world.

It concludes:

Earlier this year, Franks spoke to the Egyptian Ambassador in Washington Nabil Fahmy, and urged him to “look into the case of Amer.”

Members of the US Congress also submitted a bipartisan letter to the ambassador in January, demanding the release of Amer.

On March 12, Amer lost his court appeal and began his prison term.

But his supporters still pin hopes on foreign governments and rights groups to take continued action in the case.

While his prison term started in late February, today marks Kareem’s 283rd day in prison, as his arrest took place on the 6th of November.

You can read Trent Franks’ press release here, which was published earlier this month.

If you are interested in a good way to spread awareness and to help us get the message across to Egypt, please consider being a part of our worldwide rallies. The next date will be Friday, November 9th, which will be 3 days after Kareem’s one year anniversary in prison.

Click here for info. Contact us if you are interested in getting involved. Kareem is depending on your help.

Share This

The Southland Times reports, ‘Pupils join protest to support human rights’ -

Southland Girls’ High School pupil Charlotte Leask signing a gumboot to symbolise Amnesty International’s “Give Google the Boot” protest.

Girls’ High joined activists nationwide in a protest to defend human rights in cyberspace as part of this year’s Amnesty International Freedom Challenge.

Last year Google launched a self-censoring Chinese search engine, which affects Chinese users by restricting search results for topics such as human rights and political reform.

These restrictions go against the constitution of the People’s Republic of China, which guarantees freedom of expression, Amnesty International says.

The school’s challenge aims to free Chinese journalist Shi Tao and Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer who are in jail for simple internet activities.

Tao is serving a 10-year sentence for sending an e-mail containing information on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. While Amer, a student activist, is serving four years for writing a blog criticising his university and Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

Students raise funds, from The Timaru Herald -

Julia said the campaign was about shutting down repression and rebooting human rights. This year’s theme was internet repression and working to end the restriction of freedom of expression on the internet.
She said it was based on Kareem Amer, who was imprisoned for blogging his thoughts on the government and journalist Shi Tao, who was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in 2004 for posting information on the web instructing fellow journalists how to handle media coverage of Tiananmen Square.

Roncalli students fighting for freedom

All of these students did a great job in this wonderful opportunity to voice their concerns for innocent victims like Kareem and Shi Tao. We at the Free Kareem Coalition truly appreciate it and strongly encourage other students in the world to take their lead and support the battle for human rights and free speech.

Share This

In a recent press release, Congressman Franks stated:

“I am very concerned about Kareem and the example Egypt is setting in the region by suppressing peaceful discussion of human rights concerns. It is time for President Mubarak to back up his stated support for democracy with action— by making the laws consistent with Egypt’s international human rights commitments, pardoning those who have been unjustly convicted, and ensuring that government officials and society respect these commitments.”

Kareem’s case is only one example of the deterioration in Egypt’s stated respect for human rights and religious freedom over the past year. Most recently, there have been serious concerns that Shaymaa al-Sayed, a Christian convert who was taken into custody by the Egyptian police, interrogated, and later released to her family – who beat her before driving her away – will be killed by them if the State does not intervene soon. In late May, five Koranists were arrested in Egypt. The letter addresses concerns related to several other religious groups, including the Baha’i, Jewish and Coptic Christian communities which have all experienced similar problems.

Read full press release here.

Share This

From RSF:

Reporters Without Borders wrote to French President Nicolas Sarkozy today asking him to intercede on behalf of imprisoned blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman and imprisoned journalist Abd al-Munim Gamal al Din Abd al-Munim when he receives a visit from his Egyptian counterpart, Hosni Mubarak, on 2 August.

“When you met with President Mubarak in April, you said you wanted to pursue the ‘same relationship of friendship and trust’ that he had with your predecessor, Jacques Chirac,” the organisation said in its letter. “You called then for the ‘reinforcement of bilateral relations in all areas.’ This cooperation must be accompanied by new demands for the protection of human rights in Egypt. In particular, there is an urgent need to clearly and openly raise the problem of press freedom, as journalists are often arrested, threatened or attacked there.”

The letter added: “The promise which President Mubarak himself made in 2004 to decriminalise press offences has not been kept. Only defaming civil servants has been decriminalized. Thirty-five press offences continue to be punishable by imprisonment, including publishing inaccurate reports, defaming the president or foreign heads of state, and undermining ‘national institutions’ such as the parliament and the army. Egypt does not hesitate to censor journalists’ articles and websites, towards which President Mubarak displays a particularly disturbing authoritarianism.”

The Reporters Without Borders letter reminded President Sarkozy that Suleiman, better known by the pen name of “Kareem Amer,” was arrested on 6 November 2006 for articles posted on his blog (www.karam903.blogspot.com) in which he criticised Egypt’s leading religious institutions including the Sunni university of Al-Azhar, where he studied law. He was sentenced to three years in prison on 22 February for “inciting hatred of Islam” and insulting the president.

Click here to read full article.

We hope that Egypt will take these concerns very seriously and release our innocent friend Kareem.

Share This

On today’s Al Masry Al Youm (Arabic), Dr. Ali Jum’a Mufti explains that God has given the freedom to all humans to alter their faith, and should they do that their fate awaits them with God on Judgment Day. Dr. Mufti uses certain verses within the Holy Quran to support this argument, “whoever wants to believe shall believe and whoever wants to disbelieve may do so,” as well as “you have your religion and we have ours,” and finally “there’s no hatred in religion.”

Dr. Mufti adds that if a person merely rejects Islam, there is no punishment against that and it should be left in the hands of God. It may only involve the judicial body should that person be actually harmful, an argument not in favor of Egypt’s ruling against Kareem Amer. What Kareem went through is a personal struggle between Him and God, and he is free to believe and express whatever he wants as long as it doesn’t preach violence, which Kareem is also innocent of.

Why, then, did Kareem get sentenced to three years in prison for “insulting” Islam, if the Koran specifically notes that he is free to do so and only God reserves the right and power to punish such person for sinning? Why does the Egyptian government take upon the role of God in this case, punishing whoever it wishes in the name of Islam? We at the Free Kareem Coalition respectfully demand a valid justification on the basis of Kareem’s sentence. Where in the Quran is this action supported? More importantly, where are the rest of the Muslim voices to condemn this grave misrepresentation and injustice?

We are Muslims. Our faith teaches us to live and let live. We are not afraid of criticism as it is normal nor should we allow our governments to play the role of God and make decisions that they don’t have the right to do. Our opinions are our own and we are free to express them, should they be against Islam then the decision is up to God to do as He wishes. The role of the government is to protect us, not imprison those they ideologically disagree with.

We kindly ask the Egyptian government to respect our individual freedoms, if not in the name of humanity, then at the very least in the name of Islam!

Read the article in Arabic here.

Share This

Dear readers,

In a few months, on the 6th of November, it will be Kareem’s 1 year anniversary in prison. Can you believe it? One entire year in prison so far merely for speaking his mind! Sharing a dreadful place with actual criminals, because he was brave enough to express his opinions…. on a personal blog!

It’s time for the world to move, and it’s time for us to show Egypt that we have NOT forgotten about Kareem. The less action people take, the more likely similar incidents will happen. We have to oppose this and we have to do it together, as strongly as possible. We must unite to support Kareem regardless of our backgrounds, religious differences, nationalities, or whatever else that usually keeps us apart… we must unite for human rights and free speech, regardless of whether or not we personally agreed with Kareem’s political and religious statements.

We have decided to mark Kareem’s one year anniversary with another (and more powerful!) Free Kareem worldwide rally… we are aiming for at least 20 cities, where people will gather in front of their local Egyptian Embassy with signs and statements to free the innocent blogger.

Due to the fact that the 6th of November will be on a Tuesday, where many people might have work or classes, we think it’s best to move the rally date to Friday, the 9th of November.

We are looking for as much help as we can get to make this possible, so please help us by contacting us using the below info (or via our contact form) and let us know if you are willing to organize one. Please consider doing so! All we ask is that you gather with a few people in front of the embassy to make your voices heard, knowing that many people around the world are also dedicating their time towards this noble and vital cause.

Contact info:

Please provide:

Name
Country
Your requirements (flier information, banner advice, directions, etc)

Thank you, we are trying our best to make this as successful and effective as possible, so please contact us now for collaboration, suggestions and ideas! And more importantly…

SPREAD THE WORD!

Share This

For the Arabic readers and bloggers, here is a translation of our letter campaign:

(You may also download the document in word.)