[APCPrensa] [APCPress] No embargo: Egyptian duo among bloggers shortlisted globally

[Karen Higgs]

We think you will find this article written for APCNews of interest. 
What strikes us here at APC are the many different extensions ("plug 
ins") that this team in Egypt is using for blogging-with-a-purpose.

Anyone interested in the issue could learn from their ideas of extending 
the potential of blogging.

Best,
APC editors

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Egyptian duo among bloggers shortlisted globally
===================================================

CAIRO, Egypt -- Manal and Alaa Bit Bucket -- http://www.manalaa.net -- 
an Egyptian blog set up on March 20, 2004, promoting free expression and 
human rights, was one of eight finalists chosen for a weblog
contest by the German radio station Deutsche Welle.

Announcing this, the global media-watchdog group Reporters Without 
Borders' internet freedom desk said some of the finalists had been 
chosen by the group for the "freedom of expression" category.

Manal and Alaa have been working with the APC in the field of FOSS (free 
and open source software).

Reporters Without Borders' Internet Freedom desk described 
www.manalaa.net as "an Egyptian blog promoting free expression and human 
rights. A forum for discussion, but also a resource centre for 
Arabic-speaking Internet users who would like to set up their own blog."

"From the more than 130 blogs proposed by Internet users, Reporters 
Without Borders and Deutsche Welle picked the shortlist of eight because 
of a particular passion they have displayed in their defence of free 
expression," RSF explained.

All eight blogs carry "news and information not found in the traditional 
media". Internet users can vote on www.thebobs.de to indicate who they 
prefer. But it will be up to the panel of judges to choose the final 
winners, explained the event organisers. The results will be announced 
on 21 November.

Other nominees in the RSF-sponsored category included a 
rich-in-current-affairs news blog about China published outside the 
country (China Digital Times: http://chinadigitaltimes.net), that of a 
French resident in Addis Ababa criticising repression in Ethiopia, 
including a lot of interviews with Ethiopian dissidents 
(http://www.addisferengi.net); and a Chinese intellectual "who uses his 
blog as a microphone to denounce the repressive system that rules his 
country" (Wang Yi's microphone, http://zhivago.tianyablog.com).

Then there's also an independent Iranian journalist's blog which led to 
its author spending a month in prison in September 2004 (Hanif 
Mazrooie's http://hanif.ir); one of the oldest Iranian blogs known for 
its open criticism (Parastood www.parastood.com); and Colombian 
realities (http://lacoctelera.com/realidades), a blog by a Colombian 
journalist who writes critically about a range of issues including his 
country's pervasive violence and corruption.

Yahyaoui (http://yahyaoui.blogspot.com) is a blog of former judge 
Mokhtar Yahyaoui, one of Tunisia's leading political dissidents and the 
uncle of cyber-dissident Zouhair Yahyaoui. His blog was recently pirated 
and rendered unavailable. But it can still be accessed by using Google's 
"cache" function (enter yahyaoui + blogspot in Google and then choose 
the "cached" option).

Mokhtar Yahyaoui is one of seven Tunisian civil society figures who are 
currently on a hunger strike in protest against the lack of freedom in 
Tunisia, where his blog is censored, along with dozens of others. 
"Nonetheless, Tunis is to host the World Summit on the Information 
Society on 16-18 November, which is being organised under the aegis of 
the United Nations," RSF noted.

On the Egyptian blogger's home, an announcement boldly says: "Welcome to 
Manal And Alaa's space, where we record our thoughts and feelings, keep 
in touch with friends and upload the occasional file. We also offer 
Drupal (an easy-to-use tool to create websites and blogs) based free 
hosting space and free aid in developing a website for any cause we find 
worthy or interesting and for any speech that is censored or prosecuted 
in Egypt."

Alaa told APC.org in an email interview that their site contains blog 
posts which they wrote "about our experience as part of the 
pro-democracy movement in Egypt". It also includes detailed accounts of 
street protest, political rallies, elections monitoring, police 
brutality, the picketing of court houses in order to get activists 
released, secret meetings and the like.

Although not the sole platform of convergence for dissent, resistance 
and criticism, manalaa.net has become increasingly popular among those 
wanting to understand and fight regime violence. Since May 2005, the 
site has started aggregating contributions from other Egyptian political 
blogs, thereby becoming one of the most important online references of 
the democratic movement in Egypt.

"We helped make the movement more transparent and we exposed incidence 
of abuse by the regime and security forces that where not covered by the 
media," the bloggers said.

Their blog was also used to help organise five innovative protests -- 
covering everything from discussion about how to hold it and where to 
publicise the event, as well as report on it and provide feedback.

It features guest writers too.

Said Alaa: "We used the blog to promote the building of a citizen 
journalism movement in Egypt. We managed to not only encourage citizen 
journalism but to also build ties with the traditional media, the 
opposition and independent newspapers (which) take leads, photos and 
material from the blogs now. The Al Jazeera satelite channel relies on 
bloggers as sources. It reuses video footage we published on the web."

[Al Jazeera, meaning "The Island" or "The (Arabian) Peninsula", is an 
Arabic-language television channel based in Qatar. In 2004, Al Jazeera 
was voted, by brandchannel.com, the fifth most influential global brand 
behind Apple computer, Google, Ikea and Starbucks.]

They also offer other services on the site, such as an events' calendar 
-- http://www.manalaa.net/event -- which is open to anyone to add, and 
lists independent culture and art events, as well as political ones.

"We also run the Egyptian blogs aggregator -- 
http://www.manalaa.net/egblogs -- which aggregates posts
from all known Egyptian blogs (400+) and is the primary way people read 
blogs in Egypt (that is by far the most popular thing in manalaa.net)," 
said Alaa. They run another aggregator for citizen and alternative 
journalism.

They also provide a free hosting platform, FOSS based and localized. 
Currently, they host a few blogs, non-profit organisations, various 
political groups, artists and researchers.

"We established a forum on manalaa.net to provide tech support for 
people interested in publishing on the web. It covers everything from 
html to a CMS (content management systems), to how to use encryption. We 
also hold workshops and training sessions for activists on the same 
topics," said Alaa.

[A content management system, or CMS, is a computer software system for 
organising and facilitating collaborative creation of documents and 
other content. It makes it easier to update and maintain fresh content 
on a website.]

Their website also hosts multimedia files -- everything from photos 
documenting police brutality to satirical anti-regime animation and 
video. "They are usually made by young people who send us the stuff 
because they have no place to publish on," said Alaa.

They collect some important documents that are not available on the web, 
listings of illegally detained people, tables of torture victims, 
reports on security interference in academia, and the like.

These resources are open to people of all political views, not just 
those they agree with. "So you'll find socialists, Islamist groups, 
liberals, Coptic church associations and undecided individuals," says Alaa.

Their blog posts are written in colloquial Arabic of the Egyptian 
variant. Usually, only songs are written in the language used for 
everyday speech, and for the written word the people adopt a classical 
language.

"We tend to use strong, provocative or even obscene language, this is 
specially shocking when it comes from manal, since women (specially 
married ones) are expected to 'behave themselves'. There is much 
controversy about that going on, specially on the comments section," 
said Alaa.

But that's not all: they have "more plans for the future".

Originator: --- (APCNews)
Date: 11/01/2005