Author Archives: Ahmed

Responsibility and Consequences

I have been following with much concern what is going on with my Bahraini friend Mahmood Al-Yousef over the past few days. Mahmood was facing a libel case in connection with a blog post where he criticized a minister in the government. Mahmood said this morning that the case is “coming to an amicable conclusion due to sincere efforts of intermediaries,” which is a good thing, but what happened here should be a lesson for bloggers in the region on how they can practice their right to express their opinions without going to jail.

Like Mahmood, I believe in working within the system, but I’m afraid that things can be quite different on the other side of the causeway. Just last week, ten reform activists and academics were arrested for allegations that no one, except for some hypocrites in our mainstream media, believes. Of course it is always much easier and safer to go underground, but I for one can’t see myself doing that. I believe that being known and out the in the public is more effective when it comes to the cause I’m working in.

This case reminds me with a similar case that happened to a fellow blogger here in Saudi Arabia. The difference is, when our fellow blogger criticized some minister he did not face a lawsuit, but he was taken for a scary ride with some officials who told him to shut down his blog without giving much explanation, or else face the consequences. Since this blogger owned a business that dealt directly with the government and keeping the blog would directly affect his business negatively he stopped all activities related to blogging. It is a shame, because he was one of my favorite bloggers, and his blog was absolutely one of the best in the Saudi blogosphere.

I wonder what bloggers can do to avoid situations like these. Mahmood’s suggestion to arrange a workshop run by professional journalists to teach us how to criticize, but not get legally caught for their efforts is a good start, but I think there is more to do here, although I don’t know exactly what to do. More suggestions?

Human Rights Course

Shabab Forum in Qatif are organizing a 2-day course titled “Principles of Human Rights”. The intensive course will take place in Qatif on March 15-16, 2007. The registration fee is SR 700 (SR 500 for early registration). The course is the first of its kind here, and the seats are limited. For more information, please contact: info@shababforum.com

Arab News says that if all goes as planned, which …

Arab News says that if all goes as planned, which is unlikely imho, much of Riyadh will become the Kingdom’s first free-for-all WiFi Internet access point. The first phase of the project has brought Prince Muhammad ibn Abdul Aziz Street (aka Attahlia St.) online. What lacks this story is that the city officials don’t bother to tell us what is exactly next and when the rest of the city would be covered by this WiFi network.

Press Freedom in KSA

RSF has released their 2007 Press Freedom Survey, and it is very clear that we are not doing well at all. Of course this is not surprising in any way, but one was hoping that things could get better. Here is what they have to say about Saudi Arabia:

The country remains one of world’s biggest enemies of press freedom. Two journalists were dismissed in 2006 for going beyond the limits set by the dominant ultra-conservative religious authorities.

The Saudi regime maintains very tight control of all news and self-censorship is pervasive. Enterprising journalists pay dearly for the slightest criticism of the authorities or the policies of “brother Arab” countries. The tame local media content means most Saudis get their news and information from foreign TV stations and the Internet. But the Qatar-based satellite station Al-Jazeera, which is banned in Saudi Arabia, was not allowed to cover the annual pilgrimage to Mecca for the fourth year running in 2006.

Journalist Fawaz Turki, of the government daily Arab News, was dismissed in April for writing about the atrocities perpetrated by Indonesia, a Muslim country, during its 1975-99 occupation of East Timor. He had previously been warned for criticising Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in print.

The regime directly censored some journalists. The culture and information ministry told journalist Kinan ben Abdallah al-Ghamidi without explanation on 30 November that he could no longer write in the government daily Al Watan. He had already been forced to resign as the paper’s editor in 2002 after reporting that US troops were using the country’s military bases.

The privately-owned daily Shams was closed for a month on 16 February and its editor, Battal Alkus, dismissed for reprinting some of the cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed first carried by a Danish paper in September 2005.

Unlike in China, where a blocked website is passed off as a technical problem, Saudi filters say openly that certain pages on a site have been censored by the authorities. Targets are mostly pornography, but also political opposition, Israeli publications and homosexuality.

Blogs are a problem for the censors, who tried in 2005 to completely bar access to the country’s main blog-tool, blogger.com. They gave up after a few days and now just censure blogs they object to, such as “Saudi Eve,” the diary of a young woman who discusses her love life and criticises government censorship, which was added to the blacklist in June 2006.

I’m glad that “blogs are a problem for the censors,” though, and I’m sure they will still be for a long time. (via MD)