17 Nov 10 | Egypt, Middle East and North Africa
Online free expression activists around the world are rejoicing at the news that jailed Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer has been freed and had returned to his family’s Alexandria home. Amer won the Hugo Young Award for Journalism at the Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression awards in 2007.
Amer’s four-year jail sentence actually ended on 5 November, but the Egyptian authorities held on to him for nearly two weeks extra — prompting protests from Amnesty International and others. The Egyptian government — which grants itself sweeping powers under the so-called “emergency laws”— has a history of acting in defiance of its own judiciary. This includes openly ignoring court-ordered releases, or releasing a suspect and then immediately re-arresting him.
So the delay in Amer’s release had supporters worried that the police would simply keep him indefinitely.
Amer was sentenced to four years in prison in 2007, having already served two years in custody, for a package of charges that include insulting Islam, encouraging sedition and defaming President Hosni Mubarak.
His crimes: a series of blog posts that bluntly expressed his atheist beliefs and his criticism of the state of Islamic discourse. His case has already prompted a long-running solidarity campaign by supporters who consider him a “political prisoner”“, guilty of nothing more than thought crime.
Amer has made no public statements since his release. According his supporters, he has requested a bit of quiet and privacy with his family. It remains to be seen whether he will renew his writings, or whether the Egyptian police — particularly the notorious Alexandria contingent — will leave him alone.
11 Nov 10 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman, better known by his blogging name, Kareem Amer, was due to be freed on 5 November after completing a four-year jail sentence for criticising the government. Instead, he has been held illegally for the past five days, and has reportedly received a severe beating from an official at the headquarters of the internal security department in Alexandria. During his sentence, Amer’s letters have chronicled episodes of solitary confinement and torture.
29 Oct 10 | Middle East and North Africa, News and features
Political uncertainty pushes the government to roll recent free speech gains and muzzle independent voices. Ashraf Khalil asks, will Facebook be next?
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29 Oct 10 | Egypt
These are uncertain times in the Arab world’s most populous nation. President Hosni Mubarak is 82, fresh from major gall bladder surgery and in uncertain health. There’s a parliamentary election coming next month, a crucial presidential vote next year and a general sense of uncertainty about everything.
It’s an unfamiliar feeling in a country where politics is generally plodding, stage-managed and extremely predictable. The latest evidence of that uncertainty: a multi-level government push to tighten its control of information.
The past month has witnessed a number of incidents that analysts and activists say amount to a comprehensive effort to roll back limits on freedom of expression and muzzle independent voices.
First came the abrupt cancellation of two popular public affairs television talkshows, one of them featuring maverick journalist Ibrahim Eissa. Then came Eissa’s abrupt firing as editor in chief of the daily newspaper Al-Dostour. Eissa was fired by the paper’s brand new owners, just days after prophetically writing that the government would begin targeting troublesome journalists more extensively.
Blogger Baheyya, an anonymous but deeply respected commentator on the Egyptian political scene, wrote at the time that, “The regime’s goal is clear: to control the flow of political information at an exceptionally sensitive time, limiting the public’s exposure to alternative constructions of political reality.”
Eissa himself said in a television interview (in Arabic here) that the government “requires total silence” and “a return to where we were in 2004” before the explosion in independent media and the efforts of the Kefaya movement succeeded in pushing through longstanding redlines.
Within days came more government actions. The broadcast licenses of 12 satellite channels, most of them religiously themed—were cancelled. A government statement declared that the channels were guilty of “inciting religious hatred” or selling unlicensed medical products. Information minister Annas Al-Fiqi ominously described the moves as “corrective measures.”
A second government decree effectively restricted the ability of satellite news channels to do live broadcasts from the field.
Now there’s concern that the government will turn its attention to Facebook, the social networking platform that has become an effective tools for activists to connect, disseminate information and organise protests. Guests on a recent state television talk show railed against Facebook as a danger to domestic stability.
“We need to prevent problems, strikes and vandalism in the country by regulating it,” said one guest.
Commentor Ossama Diab, writing in the Guardian said, “The recent media crackdown — and the talk of ‘regulating’ Facebook in Egypt — is an indicator that the regime does not have the slightest intention of playing the political game fairly and freely.”
Ironically, the current campaign takes place at the same time that Egypt is being credited with an overall improvement in press freedom. The organisation Reporters Without Borders released its annual press freedom index, last week, moving Egypt up 16 spots to 127.
