A group of 20 to 30 bloggers and activists including prominent blogger Wael Abbas and Kifaya movement leader George Ishaaq were detained on 15th January bound for Naga Hammadi, the site of recent sectarian clashes. The group was headed to meet the region’s bishop and to visit families of those killed in the January 7th massacre on the eve of the Coptic Christmas.¬† Six Copts and a Muslim church guard were killed. Read the rest of this entry…

Setting the scene* here: Members of the OpenNet InitiativeInitiative attending the United Nations-sponsored Internet Governance Forum (IGF) this weekend in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, were attacked by UN security officials for simply holding aloft a poster that read, “The first generation of Internet controls consisted largely of building firewalls at key Internet gateways; China’s famous ‘Great Firewall of China’ is one of the first national Internet filtering systems.”

Apparently the Chinese government now has the United Nations doing its censoring for it when people are expressing themselves beyond the Great Firewall. Open Internet Initiative members in their Asia office will be writing a formal complaint to the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights about the illegal and uncalled for act of censorship.

“We condemn this undemocratic act of censoring our event just because someone is trying to impress or be in the good graces of the Chinese government. It is ironic that while people are allowed to gather here to discuss freedom of expression online, censorship and surveillance practices on the Internet, we are being restricted in expressing our views.” ‚Äî Al Alegre, Foundation for Media Alternatives, a member of the ONI Network

*Sources: BoingBoing, Open Internet Initiative and Computer World

The verdict on imprisoned Egyptian blogger Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman’s final appeal, which was expected today, was postponed by the judge considering the appeal to September 15th.

From Free Kareem: “We sincerely hope that the Egyptian government will do what they should have done over 3 years ago and conclude this tragedy by FREEING KAREEM. … Considering the amount of death threats Kareem has received both online and offline, his security will still be at risk and your support will be extremely crucial in keeping him safe regardless of the decision that takes place tomorrow morning.”

CPB urges people to contact Kareem via the above mentioned Free Kareem website. Attempts to visit Kareem have proven difficult and The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) reported in July they were not allowed access to him. His lawyer was only able to contact Kareem in July by bribing guards to deliver a letter. Whether or not your message actually reaches Kareem is not the issue. The message will be sent to the government keeping him behind bars.

Tamer Mabrouk

Tamer Mabrouk, a blogger in the Egyptian town of Port Said, has been levied a huge fine for writing about a chemical company in his country, Trust Chemical Industries, according to an email from the blogger. His blogging outlined irregularities in the company’s activities, including alleged dumping of hazardous materials into the Suez Canal. They responded by suing him and the Egyptian courts ruled against him. Read the rest of this entry…

Wael Abbas, who is a prominent Egyptian blogger and human rights activist, recently started a Facebook group to express solidarity with and in support of formerly jailed blogger, Mohammed Adel. Sad thing is that Facebook deemed it as against it Terms of Use and took it down.

Wael has termed the take down ‘racist’ and wants it to be rescinded forthwith.¬† Abbas had created the group ‘Operation General Meit‘ a few months ago in support of the then incarcerated blogger, Adel.¬† Abbas says the action is a blatant example of double standards as Facebook is full of profile photos and other photos showing guns, while those that were posted on the group’s page were symbolic as they called for the authorities to arrest them as they had they had done to Adel.¬† The group had photos of various Egyptian bloggers hold fake guns saying that if indeed Adel was a terrorist then they also should be arrested as they were also terrorists.

Menassat quotes Abbas.

I consider what Facebook did racist and dealing with middle-easterners with double standards because Facebook is full of groups about guns. Facebook is full of groups for movie posters, gangster rap pages and pages dedicated to pistols and machine guns, Real ones. None were deleted. Only Egyptians when they pose with toy guns are hateful, threatening and obscene.¬† Please type “guns” in the Facebook search bar and tell me what you see.

We feel that in doing this Facebook is continuing with what we are seeing as an emerging trend where companies and corporates take actions to censor speech on the platforms and then blame them on their TOS’s.

Shame on you Facebook.

The sad story of online repression in Egypt continues with blogger and journalist Ahmed Seif al-Nasr being arrested.  Al-Nasr was arrested in Fayoum in Egypt days after covering the many arrests of Fayoum University students and was taken to Qohafa Police Station in Fayoum.

Al-Nasr who writes for the website, Fayoum Window also publishes a personal blog is currently being held in Bandar police Station where he has gone on hunger strike to protest his arrest.

I am trying to get more information on this matter and I will update you as soon as possible.

The Egyptian blogger, Mos’ad Suleiman (Mos’ad Abu Fagr) was arrested on 26th December 2007 after the government’s take over of houses in Rafah and the clampdown on demonstrations that followed it.¬† Mos’ad is a novelist and blogs on the Bedouin life in Sinai and the citizenship rights they seek.

Since his arrest there have been eight release orders issued by the courts but after each one is issued the Egyptian Public Prosecutors Office would dream up another charge to ensure that he remains in custody.

His blog continues to be updated by his wife and has details of her and her daughter’s visits to his prison cell.¬† There was a campaign for his release a while ago and it is still ongoing.

solidarity with Ranad

CPB is appalled by these goings on and we call for his immediate release.