Here is the view of Reporters Without Borders, an international press freedom organization, commenting on the arrest of five Iranian bloggers in less than two months, the latest on November 28: “The government is now attacking blogs, the last bastion of freedom on a network that is experiencing ever tighter control. At the same time, an Iranian delegate is sitting on a UN-created working group on Internet governance. The international community should condemn this masquerade.”
The Iranian bloggers were arrested for criticizing their government, for speaking out against the arrests of other bloggers and, according to the authorities, for allegedly “publishing false information with the aim of disrupting public order.” Five other bloggers, arrested earlier, are also being detained for contributing to reformist websites.
However, Iran is not alone in its crackdown on the Internet. Governments throughout the Middle East and North Africa are taking similar actions. A study of 11 countries carried out by the Cairo-based Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRINFO), titled “The Internet in the Arab World: A New Space of Repression?” finds many of the area’s estimated 14 million Internet users facing shutdowns of Web sites, the closing of Internet cafes and prosecution for a variety of crimes, real or imagined.
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Arab Internet users are caught in a terrible web
[quote]commenting on the arrest of five Iranian bloggers in less than two months, the latest on November 28: “The government is now attacking blogs, the last bastion of freedom on a network that is experiencing ever tighter control. At the same time, an Iranian delegate is sitting on a UN-created working group on Internet governance. The international community should condemn this masquerade.”
Another fine expample of how the UN is FUBAR.(*u%ck&d up beyond repair) BYE BYE KOFI, your days seem numbered from where I sit.
[/quote]In Bahrain, the government justifies Internet bans on the grounds that the government is the defender of morality and by claiming that certain Web sites are responsible for creating “domestic turmoil.” It also bans the sites of political opposition groups.[quote]
It has yet to chase after bloggers and I doubt it will.Then again what the hell do I know? Regardless, like a good ex BOYSCOUT I have a plan. Operation “Shawarma Pickup” is ready if needed.
Arab Internet users are caught in a terrible web
Has the author of this Daily Star article ever been to Mahmood’s Den, Bahrania’s site or any of the fifty or so other blogs in Bahrain?
Re: Arab Internet users are caught in a terrible web
They couldn’t have, but then the two sites you mention, particularly this one, is not regarded as the zeitgeist of sites in Bahrain. A lot of people believe it just an anomaly, pandering to western thought, ideas and ideals rather than representative of moderate and modern thinkers in Bahrain. I shudder to think of the authors holding incendiary sites like montadayat, duraz.net and their ilk as the benchmark of Bahraini internet endeavours.
Regardless. The issue at hand is the essense of respectable human life and dignity: the freedom of speech. What do we have in Bahrain to protect us, bloggers, website owners and operators, against litigation and prison? Under what law do we fall under? What is our recourse to justice?
I don’t think that we have any written laws specific to websites (correct me if I’m wrong please) and this is something which I want to take up in cooperation with bahrainblogs.com and eventually promulgate a law that protects us, or at the very least show us where the red-lines are and what the punishments could be if crossed. If not a law, we should certainly consider a “code of conduct” which we should subscribe to as bloggers again to protect us. As a research point we should look at what is currently available in the international arena and customise it to our own situations here in Bahrain.
The end result must be the protection of freedoms of speech in any form, be that aural, printed or electronic.
Arab Internet users are caught in a terrible web
I read recently that the ISU is Saudi Arabia uses commercial filtering software. This would probably explain why a medical site is as likely to be blocked as is a porn site. Filtering software does a very poor job, and this is a reason why the US laws which sought to force public libraries etc to filter out certain web sites was dropped.
Ya’akov Yehudi