The abiding fear

Arab regimes, ALL of them, being used to control what, where, how and when thoughts are printed, have a total almost debilitating fear of the internet and how it freed their societies, and given them a voice unhindered by whatever draconian laws or technologies they throw at it. Megan Stack now looks at the blogging phenomenon effect on both sides in this article:

The Internet hasn’t dawned easily here — not in Syria and not across the Arab world, where a virtual war is raging in nearly every country. In Egypt, opposition movements have used the Internet against President Hosni Mubarak, posting street maps to guide people to anti-government demonstrations. Bahraini bloggers are battling the Information Ministry to keep their freewheeling debates alive, and to keep themselves out of prison. In Libya, Tunisia and Syria, too, online politicking has landed people in prison.

For autocrats such as Syrian President Bashar Assad, technology presents a troubling blend of possibility and danger. They eagerly court its economic and educational benefits but struggle, often with a Luddite’s bewilderment, to crack down on its use as a mighty political tool.

Arab governments appear determined to censor cyber-critics and silence unwelcome online voices. They’ve jailed bloggers, blocked websites and asked Internet cafe owners to spy on their customers.
Megan Stack, LA Times

But is it working?

John Bradley has also published an excellent article about bloggers in the Singapore Strait Times

HOT ON the heels of a recent call by Dubai’s Crown Prince for ’despotic regimes’ in the Middle East to ’stop censoring alternative views’ in the media, the Dubai authorities promptly blocked access to the Gulf emirate’s main satirical blog.

Local surfers have been unable to access Secret Dubai Diary, which examines life in the United Arab Emirates from an occasionally ironic perspective, since July.

Irony, indeed.
John R. Bradley, Strait Times