Government restrictions and censorship are among the leading reasons behind the slow growth of the Internet in the Middle East, according to a new survey released by the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRINFO).
“Arab governments perceived this newly emergent means of communication, with its promise of freedom from government dominion, as constituting a threat and, accordingly, began to do their best to control the Internet and its users,” Gamal Eid, HRINFO executive director, writes in “The Internet in the Arab World: A New Space of Repression.”
HRINFO launched the survey to determine the number of Internet users, the number of Arabic language Web sites, and the reasons why these numbers are typically low in comparison to other areas of the world. Their initial analysis – from media sources, foreign studies on the Internet use, and interviews – showed that government policies were largely to blame.
Of the 11 countries surveyed, HRINFO says that only Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar provide a relatively high degree of freedom online. The other countries – Bahrain, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Egypt and Yemen – impose heavy restrictions on Internet users, often charging them with defamation, harming the state’s reputation or violating the public morality.
“Arab governments typically use the protection of Islamic values and public morals to justify banning Web sites of human rights or political opposition groups that censure these governments,” Eid adds.
HRINFO is particularly critical of the Tunisian government, which will host the 2005 World Summit on Information Society despite its poor record on freedom of expression.
The survey is available online in English at http://www.hrinfo.net/en/reports/net2004/ and in Arabic at http://www.hrinfo.net/reports/net2004/.
