Manal and Alaa's bit bucket

Journalists and "Leakers" in western countries are apparently feeling "the heat", the heat of prosecution that is. The reason? Well, the journalists say that they have the aboslute right to piublish newsstories from leakedrs even if they were on classified material, while the government says that leaking classified material reharding its military operations in a [...]

As I’m blogging now, 3alaa is speaking on MBC, about the bloggers community in Egypt, human rights abuses, prospects for activism in Egypt, and his encounter with the Muslim Brothers youth in detention.Two released detainees are also to appear on Dream2 TV, Saturday 8pm (Cairo time), together with two Mubrak’s National Democratic Party MPs. Kefaya [...]

The lawyer of the Yemen Observer was threatened by extremists while he defended his client for publishing the Danish cartoons of Prophet Muhammad:Two young bearded men threatened the defense lawyer of Yemen Observer in the court room that they would have killed him if they have power.Khalid Al-Anesi, who defends Mohammed Al-Asaadi, editor-in-chief of the [...]

The Committee to Protect Journalists has issued a rare report on the state of the Saudi press:Although newspapers are privately owned, the state exerts tremendous influence over what is reported. The government approves the appointments of editors-in-chief, a process that journalists say is done behind closed doors with the oversight of Prince Nayef bin Abdel [...]

Praktike points out that Rose Al Youssef, a recently started pro-government daily, is trying to tarnish Kifaya leader George Ishak’s reputation by alleging he met with Israelis during a conference last April.Al-Masry Al-Youm reported yesterday on Ishaq’s denial that he met with Israelis at the Fourth Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy in Istanbul [...]

Hugh Miles, who wrote a book on Al Jazeera, has a “Think Again” piece in Foreign Policy debunking various myths about the channel. Nothing much new in it, but it’s a good overview of the facts many get wrong.One interesting issue is about Al Jazeera International, the English-language channel that should launch later this year. [...]

I came across an interesting article on Al-Qa3da’s As-Sahab media productions. We can never know for sure if the interviewed cameraman indeed met Dr. Ayman el-Zawahiri, as he alleges. After all, you would think those guys are under constant monitoring, by Pakistani and US intelligence services, and Zawahiri’s hideout could have been found a long [...]

Ibrahim 3eissa, the liberal editor of Al-Dostour, has been sentenced today to one year in prison, for “slandering” the president.There will be a press conference in the evening at Al-Dostour’s office, 7pm, 29 Tanta St., 3agouza.

I saw in one of Angry Arab’s recent posts from Lebanon that he was given a tour — by Joseph Samaha no less — of the new Al Akhbar offices there. He said he was pleased by what he saw. Al Akhbar is a new project headed by Samaha — former editor of As Safir [...]

This is just pathetic…The best Karzai’s government could come up with–in response to Taliban’s mounting attacks on NATO, local government troops as well as civilians, since spring of this year–is sending Afghani intelligence agents to intimidate Kabul’s press corps into reporting “more good news.” Here are excerpts of Newsday report by James Rupert:Afghanistan orders journalists [...]

This is just pathetic…The best Karzai’s government could come up with–in response to Taliban’s mounting attacks on NATO, local government troops as well as civilians, since spring of this year–is sending Afghani intelligence agents to intimidate Kabul’s press corps into reporting “more good news.” Here are excerpts of Newsday report by James Rupert:Afghanistan orders journalists [...]

The Committee to Protect Journalists has issued a statement today expressing its concern over the new information–regarding the November 2001 bombing of Al-Jazeera office in Kabul– that accuses the US army of deliberately targeting the Arab satellite channel office. The information has come out in Ron Suskind’s new book, The One Percent Doctrine.“On November 13, [...]

I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS! Al Sharq Al Awsat fff… ffff… ffff… fakes its liberalism? So says Mona al Tahawy, who lost her column as house liberal there:The trouble with Asharq al-Awsat, beyond its disturbing acquiescence to Arab regimes, is that it claimed a liberalism that was patently false.Before my ban, Asharq al-Awsat launched a Web [...]

There’s a profile of Hisham Kassem, the CEO of the independent Egyptian daily al Masri al Youm, in Business Today this month. Unfortunately the article stays clear from politics and therefore fails to explain why al Masri is a critically important newspaper in Egypt’s current political environment. Without al Masri al Youm, chances are the [...]

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information has issued a new report today, documenting the abuses against journalists in Egypt during last May.The Arabic report could be found here, and there’s also an English translation.

على هامش إنطلاق برنامج تدريب الصحفيين العرب [1] الذي تنظمه منظمة (صوت حر) Free voice الهولندية بالتعاون مع عدد من الجمعيات الإعلامية العربية غير الحكومية أبرزها مركز الدفاع عن حريات الصحفيين في الأردن، شهدت العاصمة الهولندية لاهاي في الثامن من شهر حزيران/يونيو 2006 ندوة تناولت موضوع " قناة الجزيرة [...]

The Center for Socialist Studies in Giza, whose director Kamal Khalil is currently detained in Tora Prison, will be hosting a talk, tomorrow Saturday, titled “Egyptian bloggers.. New Media.. New Policy,” featuring several Egyptian bloggers:Nora Younis, Wael Abbass, Malek Mustafa (one of the bloggers recently released from Tora), 3amr 3ezzat, Yehya Megahed, Shahinaz 3abdel Salam, and others.The lecture [...]

Around 30 protestors assembled yesterday in front of the BBC World Service building in London, to express their solidarity with their Cairo colleagues, Dina Samak and Dina Gameel, who were assaulted by security agents and plainclothes thugs, on 25 May, 2006. The demo was called for by the British National Union of Journalists, to which the [...]

Arabist reader SP emailed:I just watched a one hour Fox special on democracy in the Arab world with Brit Hume and Dennis Ross that had interviews with Rice as well as Albright and thought Egypt-watchers might be interested in knowing that they talked about Nour and made reference to Mubarak’s recent crackdowns, and showed scenes [...]

The recent arrests in the Greater Toronto Area have netted 17 accused person. Five of them are youth.

The Accused

The accused are a very diverse bunch. Two of them, troubled youth of Somali descent, were already in prison for pleading guilty for having guns when crossing the border from the USA. One of them told his mother that "they are changing my story around". One is a widower over 40. A recent graduate of health sciences and the son of a medical doctor. A really "calm and religious" good basketball shooter.

There is no common thread at all among the accused, whether it is ethnicity, education, work, citizenship, criminal background or lack of it. Some are professionals, others employed, some students, some unemployed.

Another event is planned in London for international solidarity with democracy activists in Egypt. I received a press release from the British National Union of Journalists, calling for a demo, outside the BBC World Service building, Bush House, Aldwych, London, from 12 noon to 1pm on Monday 5 June. The press release denounced the attacks [...]

A translated version of an interview with Walid Dessouki that appeared in the independent weekly Al Destour is over at The Skeptic:(Journalist) El Balshi - Let us go back to state security. Is it true that you have files for everybody?Dessouki - We have 70 million files. But it is not always the same. Even [...]

Daniel Williams of the Washington Post wrote a good article on the bloggers community in Egypt joining the ranks of dissent. He made special reference to our friends Alaa, Malek, and Sharqawi.  New Vehicle for Dissent Is a Fast Track to PrisonBloggers Held Under Egypt’s Emergency LawsWednesday, May 31, 2006CAIRO Just over a year ago, Alaa [...]

Oh, I am so gonna get in trouble over this!

Gamal Tag el-Din, Lawyers’ Syndicate council member, is holding tomorrow Wednesday 11am a press conference on the democracy detainees, at the syndicate’s conference hall.Tag is a Muslim Brotherhood activist, who played a major role in publicizing the infamous “Blacklist of Judges,” that included the names of pro-government judges accused of rigging the vote during last [...]

Fellow egyptian bloggers, I hate to inform you that our collective lies and deceit and defamation of Egypt's reputation on behalf of our zionist/american/MB/ satanic/Ricky-Martin-loving overlords has been exposed by the incomprable Dr. Mahmoud Al Saeed, Egypt's ambassador to Canada. This very honest and of course very impartial man has written a letter to the [...]

This is funny. I was interviewed in an AP story about Alaa, which is here , and it seems that some editor took the part where my blog is mentioned out, but didn't even do it gracefully. Here is the quote:Web banners of the couple emblazoned with the words "Let Alaa return toManal" get 150,000 [...]

Here’s what happens when you get a (presumably) Arab-American journalist to do a story about something to do with Islam: a balanced, nuanced story that shows the full complexity of the question at hand for an audience not familiar with the topic. And it reads well and has a saucy lead.Fatwas: Muslim religious edicts are [...]

Got this by email, so sorry no link. (Update: here’s the link.)Journalists face trial for denouncing Egypt vote-riggingWed May 24, 2:29 PM ETThree Egyptian journalists and a lawyer were charged by a criminal court for denouncing state-sponsored fraud in last year’s parliamentary elections, judicial sources told AFP.Wael al-Ibrashi and Hoda Abu Bakr, both journalists with [...]

Wael Abbas writes that Al Jazeera is airing a documentary on Egyptian bloggers on Thursday 25 May (rather appropriately considering all the blogactivism lately!). It’s on a 9pm GMT, and Wael is featured on it! Let’s hope they did it recently enough to also include some coverage of Alaa and the other bloggers who were [...]