[APCPress] STATEMENT: APC condemns imprisonment of pro-democracy bloggers by Egyptian authorities

[Karen Higgs]

STATEMENT: APC condemns imprisonment of pro-democracy bloggers by 
Egyptian authorities

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, June 1 2006– The Association for Progressive 
Communications (APC) condemns the unjust detention of free speech 
bloggers and journalists in Egypt.

Alaa Seif Al-Islam, a seasoned blogger and APC colleague, is one of four 
Egyptian online diarists being held in detention for criticising the 
current regime since May 7. In addition, APC has heard disturbing 
reports about violent actions taken by state security against several of 
the bloggers who were released from custody last week, only to be 
subsequently re-arrested. Authorities prevented human rights lawyers 
from visiting the bloggers -Mohamed el-Sharqawi and Kareem El Shaer– 
who, according to a local activist and blog posts, had been beaten and 
tortured on Thursday May 25.

“We were starting to be optimistic after the state security prosecutor 
ordered the release of 8 last Saturday and then a release of another 5 
last Tuesday, so we thought that they will release the rest in the next 
few days. but last Thursday they kidnapped two of the eight who have 
been released on Saturday (and actually got their freedom back on 
Monday). They were severely beaten, one of them was sexually abused and 
afterwards they were taken to the state security prosecutor who gave 
them 15 days and refused to transfer them to a hospital or even to let a 
doctor in to give them first aid, although one of them felt that he had 
a broken rib and had blood in his urine..” [Testimony from Mohamed 
el-Sharqawi on his arrest and torture at Tora Prison. 
http://arabist.net/archives/2006/05/28/a-letter-from-sharqawi/]

Alaa Seif Al-Islam advocates for freedom of speech in his on-line 
autonomous media ‘Manal and Alaa's bit bucket’ (http://www.manalaa.net) 
– a blog that was recently awarded the Reporters Without Borders Special 
Prize in the Deutsche Welle International Weblog awards 2005. The APC 
network has worked with Alaa who also teaches local school-children how 
to use free and open source software in his spare time.

Egyptian bloggers have been recognised internationally for their use of 
the medium to tell the stories of young people involved in cultural, 
social and 'free and open source' activities. They have created 
awareness of the remarkable creativity and innovation present in the 
Egyptian ICT sector. Stifling bloggers does not just reflect a 
fundamental lack of freedoms - it also limits the contribution that 
Egyptians can make to the global community.

VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

APC believes that the provisions of Article 19 of the Universal 
Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) have been violated by the Egyptian 
Government -  a government which in November 2005 became signatory to 
the World Summit on the Information Society 'Tunis commitment' - which 
both reaffirms the need for states to respect and fully uphold the UDHR 
and affirms the universality of all human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Article 19:  "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and 
expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without 
interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas 
through any media and regardless of frontiers"

APC opposes censorship on the internet and states in its Internet Rights 
Charter that “the internet is a medium for both public and private 
exchange of views and information. People must be able to express 
opinions and ideas, and share information freely when using the internet.”

APC NETWORK ON ALERT

The APC network is on alert. Our members are publicising the plight of 
Alaa and colleagues since the beginning of May 2006 in a number of 
national campaigns including in Spanish, Hungarian and Croatian.

The conduct of the Egyptian government throws into question their 
commitment to the Tunis Agenda (emerging from the United Nations’ World 
Summit on the Information Society held in November 2005) which states 
that a people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented information 
society has to respect and uphold the Universal Declaration of Human 
Rights. If their repression of bloggers continues, the Egyptian 
government is bound to be subjected to international pressure and 
criticism  at the first meeting of the Internet Governance Forum in 
Athens in October 2006.

We believe that the Egyptian government should immediately release all 
four bloggers currently detained, provide reasons for its actions and 
explain its violation of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of 
Human Rights.

BACKGROUND LINKS:

APC Internet Rights Charter: http://rights.apc.org/charter.shtml

World Summit on the Information Society Tunis commitment: 
http://www.itu.int/wsis/documents/doc_multi.asp?lang=en&id=2266|0

Manal and Alaa's bit bucket: http://www.manalaa.net

“Reporters Without Borders” Special Prize' in the Deutsche Welle 
International Weblog awards 2005 went to Manal and Alaa’s Bit Bucket: 
http://www.thebobs.de/thebobs05/bob.php?site=winner_kat&katid=18

The Guardian reports on the arrests (May 8): 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/egypt/story/0,,1770311,00.html

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ABOUT APC

The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is an international 
network of civil society organisations dedicated to empowering and 
supporting groups and individuals through the strategic use of 
information and communication technologies (ICTs), especially 
internet-related technologies. APC’s network of members and partners in 
Western, Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America and 
North America all support the use of internet and ICTs for social 
justice and sustainable development.

APC: http://www.apc.org
Email: communications at apc.org

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[This Statement will appear shortly in Spanish and French]