mercredi 29 septembre 2010

Are bloggers a Threat to Governments ?


   In recent years citizen journalism has flourished around the world.  Citizen  Journalism, which is sometimes labeled as  participatory, 'Guerilla', or 'Street' journalism  is springing up all over our TV's , newspapers, and especially the INTERNET. Indeed, the internet has been the biggest source of citizen journalism and has contributed to its huge rise in recent years. On the internet, citizen journalism is mainly  reflected by the huge number of blogs which were created during the past several years. Citizen journalism was started by people who have blogs  recording what they see daily, including news events. On their blogs, people are sharing videos, photographs, and are accompanying them with write-ups. 

  Later on,  traditional media started to rely and utilize bloggers and internauts ' informative pieces. In the beginning they were just sharing this information on their websites. Nevertheless, with the spread of this new trend, they have started to include citizen journalism in the mainstream media. Indeed, when big events happen,  citizen journalists who are often the first on the scene, are filming events in real time as they occur with digital cameras.

   Nevertheless, the appearance of this new trend of journalism was accompanied with the ascent of many problems. Indeed, this 'sector' is not "really" organized by law, which has led to the upsurge of several controversies. Generally, when untrained people are making footages and reporting big events, they are generally, not aware of the laws they are infringing if there are any at all. Oppressing governments, fearing the spread of news, and dictatorships concerned with muzzling  free speech are taking advantage of this gap in the law to oppress and punish citizen journalists.

  Recently, many cases of bloggers' arrests, imprisonments, and even deaths under torture have been reported. There are many ongoing  campaigns to support bloggers all over the world. In fact cases are abundant.

Tal Mallohi is one such a case : Tal is/was a Syrian blogger and student .She was born in Homs on November 4th, 1991. She was just 18 year old , when she was arrested by the Syrian State Security Apparatus   December 27th, 2009, after blogging about politics. Her family never succeeded to see her. Moreover  the Syrian government refused to reveal her fate. A few days ago, the news of her death under torture have spread on the internet. Mr Khaled Khalaf,  Chairman of the Regional Council against Torture and for the Support of Human Rights and Freedoms in the Middle East,  announced her death under torture in the Syrian prisons . He explained that, via a phone call he received from a judge, who refused to reveal his name. No one knows about Tal's burial place. 

  Another case is that of the Bharaini blogger and activist  Ali Abdulemam, the latter has been detained  since September,5th 2010. He was arrested by Bahraini authorities for allegedly spreading 'false news' on the  popular pro-democracy website BahrainOnline.org'. Authorities claimed that his arrest is "part of the investigations into a terrorist network accused of planning and executing a campaign of violence and subversion in Bahrain". It is worth noting that 23 other individuals were arrested  and charged with involvement in a terrorist plot. Until now, Ali family's couldn't meet him. He has also been  fired from his job. 

  These are just two  ongoing cases of bloggers' arrests , mistreatment, and even deaths under torture. But as it was mentioned before cases are abundant (to learn about other cases you can visit Global Voices Advocacy website and also Global Voices Threatened Voices ).

  The situation is becoming more and more alarming. It is necessary to establish an international institution to protect bloggers and citizen journalists. As well as to establish  international rules and laws to protect them. We urgently need to create a legal framework for citizen journalism.Cyber and human right  activists should unite to reflect and establish such  institutions , because more  and more governments are considering bloggers and citizen journalists as a threat to their countries 'safety and inflicting harsh punishments on them.


Useful Links:

Tal's story on Wikipedia: click here 
Tal's story on a blog (Arabic) click here
News about Tal's death ( Arabic): click here
Tal's Facebook support pages:click here , here, and here.

Ali Abdulemam support page on Facebook: click here
Ali Abdulemam support blog: click here 
Ali Abdulemam support hash-tag on Twitter: #abdulemam

mardi 21 septembre 2010

Personal Note



I am here in front of my computer . I can neither continue my work nor sleep. I am just thinking of you , thinking of me , thinking of us. I am remembering every single moment we have spent together. I am remembering  every single moment we were forced to be separated  from each other . Well , I just remembered Mariah Carry 's song 'My All' lyrics :

I 'm thinking of you in my sleepless solitude tonight . If it's wrong to love you . Then my heart just won't    let me be right . Cause I 'm drowned in you. And I won't pull through . Without you by my side .

Well,  you are so far right now. Four hundred kilometers separate us. And ' I'd give my All to have just one more night with you ' . May be in three days , we will be forced to be separated for 22 months , for about 2 years. 

These thoughts are just torturing me ,  killing me ...




dimanche 19 septembre 2010

Douleur !!!



Cette semaine , j 'ai eu la chance, et je dis bien j 'ai eu la chance  de rencontrer l 'un des étudiants libérés , suite à une longue détention dans l 'affaire des étudiants de la Manouba . Cette rencontre m 'a permis d 'apprendre beaucoup de choses . On a beaucoup discuter. On a parlé de philosophie, de linguistique, de poésie, de littérature, de cinéma, de musique etc... On a  aussi parlé de la vie incarcérale . J 'ai découvert quelqu'un de très cultivé et intelligent. Je ne vous raconterai pas ma grande surprise en découvrant sa bibliothèque personnelle: Chomsky côtoie Marx, les poèmes de Mahmoud Darwish racontent les douleurs d 'un peuple, Hobbes explique sa théorie du contrat social et... 
Mon hôte m 'a expliquée que ses livres étaient sa vie et qu'il tombait malade chaque fois qu'il perdait un livre.  

J'ai pris le livre Les Mots et les Choses de Foucault, et en le feuilletant je suis tombée sur le nom de son propriétaire et la date de l 'achat du livre . Sur la première page du livre 2tait écrit en lettres arabes le nom Dhamir Ben Alaya 2006. Pour vous le rappeler  parce qu'il me semble que vous l 'avez oublié ou vous faites semblant de l 'oublier : Dhamir ben Alaya croupit dans une cellule depuis Octobre 2009. Dhamir a réussi les épreuves écrites du concours du CAPES mais a été privé de passer les autres épreuves à cause de son arrestation suite à sa participation à un sit-in réclamant le droit des étudiantes au logement.Le livre de Dhamir et là , Dhamir est enfermé. Mais Dhamir doit retourner , Dhamir doit retrouver sa liberté.

Dhamir est un exemple de plusieurs autres étudiants qui sont derrière les barreaux parce qu'ils sont conscients et soucieux de leurs droits et des droits de tous les étudiants tunisiens. Zouhair , Anis, Abdelwahab, Tarek ,Sahbi , Abdelkader  Omar sont encore derrière les barreaux. Ramzi , Mohamed, Jawaher , Aymen , et Hassen risquent de se retrouver derrière les barreaux.

jeudi 9 septembre 2010

كلّ عيد و نحن في غيبوبة

ستتصدّر بطاقات التهنئة بالعيد الصفحات الأولى للجرائد , ستتعدّد  عبارات الشكر و التمجيد و الاطراء و المناشدة و الترجي و المديح
سنفرح و نسعد و نحتفل سنأكل الحلويات و نشرب الأنخاب
ناسين أنّنا نرقص على جثثنا 
ناسين أنّنا نحتفل بنهايتنا
لقد نسينا أنّ السلاسل تكبّلنا نسينا و أنّ الظلم يحيط بنا و أنّ الألم صار خبزنا اليومي
نسينا أنّ الزنازين ملأى  بمن قمعوا و من ظلموا و مناتهموا زورا بما لم يقترفوه من جرم
نسينا أنّ شبابنا في السجون نسينا أنّ ضمير و انيس و عبد الوهاب و نبيل و غيرهم قابعين في الزنازين لو ما الجرم ال\ي اقترفوه الا| المطالبة بحق غيرهم في المأوى
نسينا أنّ شبابنا يلقي بنفسه في أعماق البحار بحفا عن لقمة يسدّ بها رمقه
نسينا أنّ الفاهم بوكدّوس و حسن بن عبد الله  يحرمان من أحضان عائلتيهما و كل| ما فعلاه هو الكشف عن الحقيقة 
نسينا أنّنا من أبسط حقوفنا محرومين

فكلّ عيد و نحن ناسون
كلّ عيد و نحن في غيبوبة عن الحقيقة ساهون
   
 

dimanche 5 septembre 2010

Blogger = Criminal


In the developing countries , being a blogger has become synonymous of being a criminal.  Hardly does the sun rises without learning about the arrest of a blogger or online journalist . Examples are abundant Fatma Arabicca , Zouhair Makhlouf , Abdulsalam El Baroudi , etc 

The last in date case is that of Ali Abdulimam , A Bahraini blogger and a contributor for Global Voices Online. Indeed, Ali was arrested today by the Bahraini authorities. He was accused of spreading "false news" on
BahrainOnline. portal. A website that is, "of course"  censored in Bahrain. 

I hope that Ali will be released soon . I also hope that he will be in a good health . To read more click here 


 

مجرد رأي

نحن شعب لا يتعظّ من ماضيه و لا يحفظ دروس التاريخ و كأنّني بنا شعب قصير الذاكرة أو دعوني أقول معدوم الذاكرة. تستهوينا بعض عروض التهريج في مج...