Thursday
08Mar2007
Crackdown on Egyptian blogosphere continues
Thursday, March 8, 2007 at 9:40PM
I received the following message from blogger and friend ِAmr Gharbeia...
Click on Amr Gharbeia's photo below to read the posting in Arabic...
UPDATE: More details from Amr...
Rumors have been reaching me for days now, and I received confirmation only today from lawyer Gamal Eid, executive manager of Arabic Network for Human Rights Information.
It seems that Judge Abdel Fattah Morad, head of Alexandria Appeal Court, has started a lawsuit against the government in Egypt's Administrative Courts in order to block a number of Egyptian websites. The list, 21-websites-long, includes the blogs and sites that took part in the discussion around the book the Judge has written, and the wide plagiarism evident in the book copying HRInfo's report on Internet Freedoms in the Arab World, and a how-to-blog guide written by blogger Bent Masreya.
Of the 21 blogs and website, I was able so far to confirm Kifaya's and HRInfo's websites, in addition to the blogs of Bent Masreya, Yehia Megahed, and my own.
Click on Amr Gharbeia's photo below to read the posting in Arabic...
UPDATE: More details from Amr...
The lawsuit is started by Abdel Fattah Mourad, one of Egypt's most senior judges--and head of the Alexandria Appeal Court, where imprisoned blogger Abdul Kareem Nabil Soliman's case is heard next week.
The judge is a self-claimed authority in internet issues. I was excited by the fact that he started a blog a while ago, and wrote him asking if he would mind me writing a review for a book he published recently on "the scientific and legal foundations of blogs". He did not mind, until I published the thing. He obviously has copied tens of pages from the recent report by the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information on Internet freedoms in the Arab world. I noticed this only because some of the figures and estimations were taken from an interview with me. He did this without citation, except for one link to http://openarab.net in the endnotes, while putting footnotes to other books he wrote on text that he has not written.
Three things prove it is not a mistake: 1) he copied at least two other bloggers with no referencing at all; 2) he changed parts in the text copied from the report to mean the opposite, for example to indicate that Tunisia is a nice, liberal and progressive country; and 3) he published at the front and back pages of his book several warnings against plagiarism, and referred to laws, religions and scientific research methods. He does not allow anyone to cite anything more than two lines from his writings, and in the book he warns against bloggers who violate copyrights, associates them with international terrorism and other things, and claims he has written a reference on scientific methodology. To top it all, he annexes ready-to-fill complaint forms against bloggers who publish pornography (fitting someone's head over a naked body, an imaginary case with no history in Egypt's blogs) and publicising news that could tarnish the country's reputation.
I do not really care much for copy rights, and think they are over-rated and keep knowledge, medicine, and soon genetically-engineered food from the world's poorest, and I would not have written anything if this was another blogger, or a journalist, or even a university professor. What worries me, however, is that this is a judge whose ruling cannot be appealed. He can silence, imprison or execute people, and he oversees our elections.
Once the blogs are found offensive by the court, then in light of the Egyptian's regime reputation, it is automatic to prosecute the bloggers. This is an early warning. We are still gathering information, and HRInfo should be making a release and starting procedure Saturaday next.





Reader Comments (9)
H, Please read this too http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78851.htm
[...] this story as it develops at Arabawy, where the full email is posted. This is the most serious development against bloggers to take [...]
This is becoming ridiculous. We have to start concerting a strong campaign to put an end to all those attempts to restrict freedom to expose the truth.
This judge is only proving that he wants these websites and blogs blocked because he is afraid that he will be exposed!!!
[...] alerted me to this story: a judge in Egypt, who is a self-declared expert on the Internet, is preparing an injunction to block access to 21 Web sites from within the country, including several blogs and the Web site of Kifaya, the opposition movement that has become [...]
I can hardly believe this! But then again what do we expect from Mubarak and his cronies? Hilarious and depressing all at once
حلوة ديه....
مفيش معلومات أكتر؟؟؟
[...] and websites for “defaming Egypt’s image and insulting the president.” Hossam el-Hamalawy republished on his blog the following message from blogger Amr Gharbeia: The list, 21-websites-long, includes the blogs and [...]
[...] and websites for “defaming Egypt’s image and insulting the president.” Hossam el-Hamalawy republished on his blog the following message from blogger Amr Gharbeia: The list, 21-websites-long, includes the blogs and [...]
[...] and websites for “defaming Egypt’s image and insulting the president.” Hossam el-Hamalawy republished on his blog the following message from blogger Amr Gharbeia: The list, 21-websites-long, includes the blogs and [...]