Bridget Johnson, a consultant for the Free Kareem campaign, writes another fantastic article on World Press Freedom Day: When bloggers are silenced, the world must speak for them.

“It causes us to cry, be grieved, and be struck with frustration to find ourselves threatened with death,” he wrote on May 7, 2006, after escaping 20 fellow students wielding knives, leather belts and sticks who had surrounded his taxi outside the university. “Not because we kill. Not because we loot others’ property. Not because we transgress the limits of our freedom. But because we think!” In February, Soliman was sentenced to three years in prison for “insulting Islam” and one year for insulting President Hosni Mubarak. “I shall not recant, not even by an inch, from any word I have written,” read Soliman’s last blog post before his Nov. 6 arrest, when authorities were closing in. “These restrictions will not preclude my dream of obtaining my freedom.”

[...]

As we mark World Press Freedom Day on Thursday, we unfortunately see that the United Nations body tasked with protecting rights — the Human Rights Council — has taken a giant step backward. On March 30, it passed a resolution urging the world to ban public defamation of religion, specifically Islam, thereby encouraging use of a charge under which Soliman was convicted. The council has passively allowed oppressive nations to stifle free speech and must change course or lose all credibility.

Council members that currently hold cyber dissidents in prison — China and Tunisia — should be removed from the panel. In addition, the U.N. should turn down Egypt’s offer to host the Internet Governance Forum in 2009.

Freedom-loving nations around the world must support these bloggers both in one-on-one dealings with offending nations and by turning up the pressure within international bodies. Arab League members — all of them — must pledge to respect free expression.

Please lobby against Egypt’s inclusion in the IGF by contacting Nitin Desai, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for Internet Governance:

United Nations
Secretariat of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
Palais des Nations, CH-1211 Geneva 10
Swiss Confederation

Tel: +41 22 917 57 59
Fax: +41 22 917 00 92
E-mail: igf AT unog DOT ch

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The March 18 Movement - Bloggers should not be killed

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Sympathetic for Kareem’s case and longing to raise awareness about the injustice he’s been facing, individual human rights activists (accompanied by the Free Kareem Editor) rented a car from Toronto, and drove for four hours to have their voices heard in Canada’s capital city.

Our trip consisted of three primary visits: Parliament Hill, Amnesty Canada, and, of course, the Egyptian Embassy.

I must express my deepest respect and admiration for Cam Vidler, Chris Ding, and Seyitbek Usmanov. Thanks very much, gentlemen, for riding so far and protesting in the rain!

Some of our posters:

Parliament Hill

In the above photo, from left to right: Chris, Seyitbek, and Cam.

Despite the weather, there was a good number of visitors to the Hill. Fliers were handed out, and Kareem’s case was discussed with several interested members of the public, who expressed shock at what Kareem is going through. Some foreigners seemed to understand his situation because their home countries faced similar restrictions on the right to free expression.

One human rights activist told us she was working on a campaign to free Huseyin Celil, a Canadian human rights activist who was sentenced to life in prison by Chinese authorities. She was interested in our campaign and told us she will be checking the Web site.

Before visiting the Egyptian Embassy, the team passed by Amnesty Canada’s main office. We handed them a copy of our open letter to the Egyptian Ambassador, the Free Kareem petition, some of Kareem’s articles, and fliers. They assured us they will vigilantly work for his freedom.

Egyptian Embassy

Embassy officials seemed to expect us! We did not even need to knock on the door when someone opened it and asked us what we wanted. We told him we were here to express our support for Kareem Amer, and that we had a letter and petition for the Egyptian Ambassador. He accepted the package to the Ambassador, and following that, we got to business on the sidewalk.

By this time, several Embassy officials were coming in and out through the door, speaking in Arabic and expressing to each other distress over us protesting in front of the Embassy. They got particularly upset each time we took a picture!

Some of them tried reasoning with us. They were extremely respectful, and they asked us to leave because we did not have permits to protest and hand out fliers in front of their Embassy. However, we insisted we had a right to stand on the public sidewalk, and since there were only four of us it should not be a problem. We were simply peacefully and quietly protesting for Kareem’s imprisonment, we told them.

They tried speaking in Arabic most of the time because they wanted to focus on (intimidate?) the only Arab speaker in the team. They said that the RCMP and police will be coming within minutes and that, as fellow Arabs, they did not want to get an Arab into trouble. However, the authorities never came.

One official, calling himself a diplomat, told us that he knew all about Abdul Kareem’s case and about the situation of the blogosphere (implying we did not need to be here). We explained to him that we were not blaming any individual from the government. We assured them we were on their side, and that we are just raising awareness so President Mubarak can correct the mistake made by the Alexandria court.

Another official told us that we are free to protest, and that he is free to call the police to arrest us. I agreed with him wholeheartedly, and I expressed my sincere wish that Egyptians in their homeland live under the same freedoms he’s enjoying in Canada.

Despite their fierce opposition, they were courteous and we ended the rally on good terms, even shaking hands with them.

We were happy with the outcome and we hope we’ve made a difference last Friday. We dedicate our trip to Kareem and all prisoners of conscience. The truth shall make you all free!

It appears we have a twelfth capital that took part in the worldwide Free Kareem rallies last week! The Young Liberals of Norway held small event outside the Egyptian Embassy in Oslo, and presented a letter to the Egyptian Ambassador. (Hat tip: Knud Edmund Berthelsen)

Many thanks to the Young Liberals of Norway! We are also appreciative of the International Federation of Liberal Youth for spreading the word to its member organizations (including the Young Liberals of Norway) about the Free Kareem demonstrations.

Bahraini blogger Mahmood Al-Yousif, who is currently in Abu Dhabi for a media conference, is about to take part in a session which will be aired on several Arabic networks, and he notes:

The interesting thing is that Egyptian judge who is suing 21 Egyptian blogs is supposed to make an appearance via satellite. Other than the plagiarism issue, do you have any other issues you would like to put to him?

Send your questions (and plenty of them!) to hewar@bbc.co.uk

We consider this an urgent opportunity to question the judge about Kareem’s sentence.

Please send your questions and concerns about Kareem to the address given, folks! Be as respectful as possible but don’t shy away from bringing the important issue to the table. For once we have an opportunity to openly question the fairness of Kareem’s trials and sentence.

Whether or not the judge will actually make an appearance is not for sure, but let us send the questions anyways in hopes that someone else will shed the light upon this issue.

While the judge is not (as far as we know) directly connected to Abdul Monem’s arrest, still, this is a good opportunity to also bring that up. Even though Kareem and Monem had opposing views, they were both victims of the same human rights violation, and must be supported equally.

Update: Mahmood has just noted that the judge did not make it and instead sent his lawyer, but submit your questions and concerns as soon as possible anyways so that our media understands that we want these questions answered soon!

Remember the address is: hewar@bbc.co.uk

Many thanks to Alberto Mingardi for organizing this rally and making it possible. We are especially thankful for the media coverage. Historian Giordano Bruno Guerri writes a piece covering this on Il Giornale. At least 150 fliers were distributed.

(Pictures first published in Dal Mondo.)

UPDATE (April 30, 2007):

Blogosfere, as usual, shows its support for Kareem at the rally (hat tip: Sara Bovi):

- Anche Blogosfere alla manifestazione per Kareem
- Blogosfere alla manifestazione per il blogger Kareem
- Free Kareem

Many thanks to Bidjan Tobias Nashat from the Hertie School of Governance for making this rally possible and for organizing the much needed event. Thanks a lot!

(Thanks to Amnesty for the above pictures.)

UPDATE (May 9, 2007):
Amnesty’s coverage on the event is published here: Mahnwache für inhaftierten ägyptischen Blogger. (Hat tip: Bidjan)

Many thanks to Andrew Perraut, our London Coordinator, who also notes:

…the Embassy staff were watching us carefully again and many of them passed by us several times to read the signs. We even had a few people stop to honk their horns in a show of support or tell us that they hoped Kareem was freed soon. His profile is definitely higher than it was during the last rally.

Thanks Andrew for making this rally possible!

Thanks to Anca Bogdana Rusu and Olga Nicoara for their hard work on making this rally possible, and for sending us the pictures below!

This is a note from the organizer:

Thanks to Olga who put a lot of time and effort into getting the authorization from the City Hall, the Free Karrem Bucharest rally went according to the plan. We were not many but we were passionate about our mission. At 11 a.m. in front of the Egyptian Embassy here in Romania we gathered ready for “fight”, armed with fliers, letters to the ambassador ready to be signed (thanks again to Olga’s devoted work) and last but not least flowers we began. We gave fliers and flowers to people passing by, in an attempt to raise public awareness about Kareem’s case.

The choice for flowers was justified by 2 reasons: first of all to make it clear ours was a peaceful, respectful manifestation, that we mean no harm, just trying to help one of our friends, secondly it is so much more difficult for people to say no when you hand them a flower along with a flier (Horia called it bribery, I prefer to call it successful marketing strategy)….and it did work, most people we spoke to agreed to sign our petition and many also promised to sign the online one. Next week, after we gather more signatures we plan to send them all to the Egyptian Embassy.

Our only hope is that this work manages in some way to help Kareem and to bring him some comfort by showing him he’s not alone and people around the world do care about him and his faith.

Thank you,
Anca

We are extremely proud of their efforts and for this meaningful rally which helped us send a very positive and urgent message to Egypt.

Pictures below:

Many thanks to Henrik Alexandersson, one of the speakers at the rally, for these pictures. We are expecting more from the organizers and fellow protestors!

Rally organizer Jonas carries a sign that translates to “Honk your horn for freedom of speech!”

Johan Norberg speaks out for Kareem.

Stefan Geens, who lives in Egypt.

Member of parliament Henrik von Sydow of the Moderata Samlingspartiet party.

Many thanks to Jonas Virdalm for organizing this rally, who also adds:

There were 6 policemen there watching us and they did not bother to report us. So it was a good demonstration for a good cause.

Thank you so much for making all of this possible! We are very happy that the Stockholm were, as per usual, a great success.

UPDATES (April 30)

1. More pictures here.

2. Videos galore!