Committee to Protect Bloggers

Human Rights Watch (via Reuters) quoted a freelance journalist saying that a blogger was arrested on Thursday, January 17th in Cairo. The police broke up a Kifaya-sponsored protest against cuts in government subsidies. The opposition group, whose name means “Enough.” Had called the protest for 3:00 p.m. that day in Saida Zeinab Square. The police […]

According to Daily News Egypt, Ahmed Mohsen, described as a “Brotherhood-affiliated blogger,” was arrested in the city of Fayoum three weeks ago and is currently being held at Tora Prison. He was arrested as part of a “crackdown” on members of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization that is banned in Egypt. His detention was […]

Reporters Without Borders awarded its Foundation de France prize Wednesday to Kareem Amer, according to FreeKareem.
Kareem, a 23-year old Egyptian former university student was sentenced a year ago to four years in prison for “offending Islam” and President Mubarak. He has been beaten and tortured in prison. FreeKareem is collecting donations to keep him […]

It looks as though Wael’s YouTube account has been restored, after being blocked several days ago. The reason given for the initial block was that the videos he posted, many of police brutality in Egypt, violated YouTube’s terms of service. We’ve written Wael to ask if the reversal was on-the-sly or an official about-face.
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Update: […]

Update: According to RSF (via Esra’a - thanks), El-Hendy has been released.
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According to Reporters Without Borders, the Egyptian authorities have arrested another group of bloggers today.
Among the arrested are Hossam El-Hendy

El-Hendy, 22, who works for the daily paper Al-Dustour and the website Eshreen (www.20at.com), was covering a 28 November protest that erupted when a […]

Update: Wael’s account restored, without videos.
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Update: If another of the video hosting services wanted to score some serious points, they should offer to intercede with YouTube on Wael’s behalf, salvage his videos and rehost them on their service. They’d be doing justice a nice turn, as well as getting some good P.R. Please help us […]

FreeKareem published a memo from the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information today about Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman. An Egyptian blogger also known as Kareem Amer, last week he marked the first year of a four year prison sentence for speaking his mind on his blog.
He’s being tortured in prison.
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According to an article in Egypt’s Daily News, Hala El-Masry, a Coptic human rights activist and blogger also known as Hala Helmy Botros, was arrested in Qena governorate this weekend and interrogated by State security.
She claims she was forced previously by state security to discontinue her internet blog Aqbat Bela Hodood (Copts Without Borders) […]

On her blog Egyptian Chronicles, Zeinobia says a Muslim Brotherhood-aligned blogger named Abd El-Rahman Faras was arrested yesterday. A post titled “We will watch them as they watch us” on his blog (Ar.) “My tongue is my pen” was the trouble.

(H)e had written personal details about the officers of the State security in Fayoum […]

As we mentioned before, we are co-sponsoring a protest on November 6 with FreeKareem. On that date, the Egyptian blogger Kareem will have been unjustly incarcerated for one year, due to communicating his opinions on his blog. There are physical marches and other activities set to coincide with this date. On our end, we are […]