Blogging Can Kill You
Joel Simon of the Committee to Protect Journalists rightly says that bloggers are in the vanguard of the information revolution we're going through thanks to the Internet. The impact on things like political freedom and social tolerance is hard to measure, but it's safe to say that whether through websites, blogs, emails, Facebook or Twitter, more people are transmitting information and venting views than ever before. Authoritarian regimes have been unable to stop the march of media freedom, but they continue to try. And bloggers are in the crosshairs--sometimes literally. CPJ has just come out with a report called "The 10 Worst Countries to be a Blogger"--no surprise that the Middle East features prominently. Here's CPJ's thumbnails:
No. 2 IRAN
Authorities regularly detain or harass bloggers who write critically about religious or political figures, the Islamic revolution, and its symbols. The government requires all bloggers to register their Web sites with the Ministry of Art and Culture. Government officials claim to have blocked millions of Web sites, according to news reports. A newly created special prosecutor's office specializes in Internet issues and works directly with intelligence services. Pending legislation would make the creation of blogs promoting “corruption, prostitution, and apostasy” punishable by death.
Lowlight: Blogger Omidreza Mirsayafi, jailed for insulting the country's religious leaders, died in Evin Prison in March under circumstances that have not been fully explained.
No 3. SYRIA
The government uses filtering methods to block politically sensitive sites. Authorities detain bloggers for posting content, even third-party material, deemed to be “false” or detrimental to “national unity.” Self-censorship is pervasive. In 2008, the Ministry of Communications ordered Internet café owners to get identification from all patrons, to record customer names and times of use, and to submit the documentation regularly to authorities. Human rights groups note that authorities harass and detain bloggers perceived as antigovernment.
Lowlight: Waed al-Mhana, an advocate for endangered archaeological sites, is on trial for a posting that criticized the demolition of a market in Old Damascus.
No. 5 SAUDI ARABIA
An estimated 400,000 sites are blocked inside the kingdom, including those that tackle political, social, or religious issues. Self-censorship is widespread. Aside from “indecent” material, Saudi Arabia blocks “anything contrary to the state or its system,” a standard that has been interpreted liberally. In 2008, influential clerics called for harsh punishment, including flogging and death, for online writers guilty of posting material deemed heretical.
Lowlight: Blogger Fouad Ahmed al-Farhan was jailed without charge for several months in 2007 and 2008 for promoting reform and the release of political prisoners.
No. 7 TUNISIA
Internet service providers are required to submit IP addresses and other identifying information to the government on a regular basis. All Internet traffic flows through a central network, allowing the government to filter content and monitor e-mails. The government employs an array of techniques to harass bloggers: conducting surveillance, restricting bloggers' movements, and undertaking electronic sabotage. Online writers Slim Boukhdhir and Mohamed Abbou have served jail time for their work.
Lowlight: In a March address, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali warned writers against examining government “mistakes and violations,” saying it was “an activity that is unbecoming of our society and is not an expression of freedom or democracy.”
No. 10 EGYPT
Authorities block only a small number of Web sites, but they monitor Internet activity on a regular basis. Traffic from all Internet service providers passes through the state-run Egypt Telecom. Authorities regularly detain critical bloggers for open-ended periods. Local press freedom groups documented the detention of more than 100 bloggers in 2008 alone. Although most bloggers were released after short periods, some were held for months and many were kept without judicial order. Most detained bloggers report mistreatment, and a number have been tortured.
Lowlight: Blogger Abdel Karim Suleiman, known online as Karim Amer, is serving a four-year prison term on charges of insulting Islam and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
--By Scott MacLeod/Cairo
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1
I live in Italy, a country just defined partly free by Freedom House but I'm really happy to be an italian blogger.
Freedom of speech and press are values taken for granted by all people, like us, who live in democratic countries (Europe, USA and so on…). But maybe our freedom should be treasured a little more for at least two interconnected reasons:
1)to use it in a better way
2)not to risk to loose itInternet can represent a new wave of freedom which can make the risk less dangerous. Indeed “Freedom House's recently released internet freedom index finds that new media outlets are often freer than traditional media and have the potential to open repressive media environments such as China and Iran. However, as new media gains influence, governments are beginning to crack down on internet users by employing traditional means of repression.” We can see a kind of phenomenon like this in these weeks in our country: we are free to use internet to find news of all kind from all over the world, to condivide and discuss them through free forums. So freedom seems to increase more and more. But maybe new kinds of hidden limits are now appearing or at least some attempts. I'm just reporting news I read and which make me think a little: on February the 5th 2009 Hon. Giampiero D'Alia (UDC) during session 143 of Senato della Repubblica proposed an amendment (Art. 50-bis) which ratifies “Repression for activities of apology and incitement to crime performed through the internet”. This would put at risk sites such as Youtube or Facebook. PDL's deputy Roberto Cassinelli, already author of different initiatives related to the web, obtained D'Alia's amendment to be repealed thanks to an amendment against the former one proposed at first on his blog. Another example can be found looking at the EU directive known as Telecoms Package which is defined by AssoProvider (Indipendent Provider Association) as a sort of electronic apartheid since “Amendments relating to traffic network discrimination will allow Internet providers to filter contents and applications and to give priority to certain services, whilst blocking others. The consequences will be catastrophic for citizens' freedom and for Internet based innovation. Any business operator on the Internet will have no longer the certainty of reaching all of the web surfers of Europe. Conversely, every Internet user will see only the portion of the Web which the provider will allow access to.” Is it just alarmism? I really hope so…
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Death of a blogger or any other person in jails are usually results of jailer and detainee attitude and interactions at time of death, which is basically a deadly disagreement between jailer obsession for total submission and detainee desire not to relinquish it, usually deaths are not premeditated murder and it's not a order from higher chain of command. While it's a cold way to brush away a death, nevertheless bloggers death are anomalies as are those guys who get electrocuted while assembling your computer hardware.
As far as detaining bloggers go, it depends on what you type and where you reside, but I can tell you, death threat or reveling state secrets can make your life miserable in any nation, even in the US, punishments are dished out in accordance with state's sense of treat emanating from inside and outside, and we from outside can help by toning down nations threat perceptions by not dehumanizing them in general but not necessarily in particular, it might save a life of next person! -
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[...] See the original post: Where Blogging Can Get You Killed (Time Magazine) [...]
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My parents currently live in Vietnam and only within the last two or three years have we been able to get broadband internet. Most everyone accesses the internet at Cafes and many restaurants now have free wireless available. Of course, most of the general population could never afford to eat at those restaurants, but I haven't noticed any significant censoring of the internet, certainly not to the same scale seen in China.
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Scott:
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Is there any more information on the Sheikh torture case? Do you think the international community has any means to pressure the UAE into prosecuting this guy? -
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[...] Blogging Can Kill You [...]
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RE: ISRAEL
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I have a link to my website that tells me what countries are hitting on WAWA. When I depart from Ben Gurion Airport I tell the truth:
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http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=594&Itemid=169
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I inform Security of all the places that I reported from in occupied territory and that they can also view video on my site with Mordechai Vanunu who is denied the RIGHT to speak to non-Israelis-in particular journalists.
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On the days I depart my link tells me that visits from Israel hover between 12-18 out of 70+ countries.
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By the time I return home, Israel consistently places in the top 3 of visitors and they remain there for many weeks thereafter.
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WAWA: http://www.wearewideawake.org/ -
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[...] Read more from the original source: Where Blogging Can Get You Killed ... [...]
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[...] the rest here: Where Blogging Can Get You Killed (Time ... Share and [...]
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Given that Time's Bloggers post in two out of the five countries, it raises the question to what extent we have seen "self-censorship" by them.
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Or perhaps given TIME's foreign backing (from the local countries' perspective), how that shields them from the risks run by the local bloggers.
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It would be interesting to get the perspective of the locals on this too. -
11
Whilst on the surface it may seem more likely that Iran is a horrible place to blog, you have to realize that the utility of blogging there may be far greater than that experienced in the US. Blogging in Iran actually counts for something -- whether its having your political voice heard or just getting out of the monotonous censorship/tight social rules you grew up with. In America, it's like a publicized diary, sometimes tailored towards a specific topic -- not usually much more than that. So, while you stand to be punished for any dissent that you are caught publishing in Iran (whether it be in a blog or on a piece of toilet paper), it does not necessarily follow that it's a horrible country to be blogging in. Look at the statistics, Iran has more bloggers per capita than a substantial majority of modernized countries.
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Nathan:
there have been rumblings almost since the story broke that the UAE authorities are reconsidering their initial handling of the case. abc news reported further along these lines on friday:
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=7538363&page=1
don't expect the sheikh to do any prison time, but ruling families in the gulf do police their own to some extent and this fellow has created a huge problem for abu dhabi that has severely embarrassed and harmed the al-Nahyan clan. the worst case scenario (for the rest of us) is that they'll pack him and his money off to some foreign country where he'll live lavishly and create endless hassles all around him. we had a black sheep saudi prince doing this for years while living in a hilton hotel here in cairo.
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"The Middle East features prominently"?! You mean the Muslim world, don't you?
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