CAIRO: For the past four years, bloggers in Egypt were competing, if not outdoing, mainstream media by broadcasting video scoops and spreading professional coverage of the latest events in Egypt.
Bloggers offer something different from the stereotypical media in Egypt.
They have been writing about their dissenting views and making use of the absolute freedom of cyberspace, without any kind of censorship.
For decades, Mideast governments have dominated the media, trying to keep a monopoly on information and deter criticism of authorities, a journalist who preferred to remain anonymous told Daily News Egypt.
But bloggers are chipping away, writing about everything from opinions and diaries to news coverage. They have also ventured into taboo topics rarely broached by the state-controlled media such as Islam, which tops the list, the region’s rulers and human rights.
Although some believe that blogging is a bubble bound to burst, bloggers are proving to be a powerful source of information, capable of rallying international attention to a cherished cause.
Most bloggers, who are believed to be mainly men under the age of 30, exchange posts, contacts and liaise with each other. And as soon as the authorities detain one of them they publicize what has happened, calling for his or her release. The picture of Abdel Kareem Amer, a blogger who was sentenced to four years in prison for his writings, appears on the cover of most political blogs.
The Egyptian Blog Ring lists 1,481 Egyptian blogs, 874 of which are in Arabic, 590 in English and eight in French. Of these blogs, 703 (47.5 percent) are mere recordings of personal affairs, while 320 (21.6 percent) are politically oriented. Other figures put Egyptian blogs at 6,000.
Bloggers have also evolved, moving from traditional reporting techniques to a more integrated form of news coverage. Apart from uploading text and pictures, many bloggers also post videos of events, providing internet users with a thorough look at events.
Activists now rely on blogs to find out the time and place of future demonstrations, to learn who has been arrested and where they have been taken, and to debate the effectiveness of opposition strategies. In short, Egypt’s bloggers have become a political force, capable of more than merely commenting from the sidelines.
“Activists who have worked to end torture have told me: ‘You’ve done more in a few days than what we were able to do in 10 years, said Wael Abbas, a 32-year-old blogger, who recently received the 2007 Knight International Journalism Award by the International Center for Journalists in Washington for posting police torture videos on his website.
With frizzy black hair and a laptop tucked under his arm, Abbas has a voice that carries more than those of other antigovernment activists.
Abbas is one of many Egyptian bloggers who gained an international reputation for breaking stories on subjects generally avoided by local media, such as corruption, poverty, police brutality, sexual harassment, demonstrations, strikes and violation of human rights.
Armed with a video camera, Abbas sees video blogging as a way to silence skeptics of his reporting. “I focused on real-life photos and video footage so that no one could discredit my work, or sue me, he said.
According to Abbas, his blog appeared with the 2005 presidential elections, as new political movements, such as Kefaya started to call for reform, holding demonstrations and chanting for the first time anti-Mubarak slogans. Abbas was on the scene recording election violations on his digital video camera. He hastily went home and uploaded them on his blog.
Abbas then sparked a firestorm in November 2006 when he became the first to post the video of a bus driver, Emad Al-Kabir, being sodomized with a stick in a police station in Giza. Al-Kabir’s anguished face has become an iconic symbol of police brutality.
According to Abbas most images depicting torture are recorded by police officers, saying they are sometimes leaked to intimidate the public.
Almost all the opposition and independent newspapers used Abbas’ photos. “I was annoyed at first when some of them stole the material from my blog without crediting me, but after a while I felt it’s okay, as long as the message was conveyed to the people, said Abbas.
Abbas’ blog “misrdigital.blogspirit.com (Egyptian Awareness), aims to inform the public about what is really happening on the ground, and advocate democracy.
The Egyptian Awareness blog gets around 30,000 hits each day. “This is when the political atmosphere is calm. It gets more than 500,000 a day when running a scoop, “and this is what really happened when I ran my scoop video on sexual harassment Downtown, and when a torture video was posted on my website, explained Abbas.
The number of blogs has been on the rise since 2006, marking a trend of active bloggers unafraid to criticize the ruling regime.
“In response, authorities fought back, and broadly tightened their grip on all scathing bloggers and activists, said Sally Abdel Samad, a blogger.
Abbas has been detained several times, though never for more than a few hours. “The pressure that is being brought on me is through other means, said Abbas. “They spread rumors about me, claiming that I changed my religion, converted to Catholicism … that I am a homosexual.
But the government’s attempts to curb the blogging movement which, according to pro-government commentators, tarnishes the image of Egypt, are not only restricted to bloggers, but also include internet users in public places like internet cafes.
“Netizens going to cyber cafes are required to show their ID before using the internet. “Such new measures imposed by the authorities aim to protect citizens from ‘immoral’ and ‘defamatory’ content including pornography and anti-Mubarak blogs, said a cyber cafe owner.
Nonetheless, blogging in Egypt is highly respected by international human rights organizations and high-profile institutions that advocate press freedom such as Reporters Without Borders.
Abbas was the first blogger to receive the Washington DC-based International Center for Journalists’ (ICFJ) journalism award. He shared it with a reporter from Burma.
“I do my best to post true material on my blog in a bid to leave no excuse for the authorities to arrest me, said Abbas.
Other bloggers choose to post their contributions in English with foreign media and audiences in mind. Hossam El Hamalawy’s 3arabawy blog has already garnered much attention.
Hamalawy is a freelance journalist who writes in English.
He has posted eyewitness accounts, videos and photographs of the Ghazl El Mahalla strike and Ibrahim Eissa s trial.
But in spite of the effect blogs have left on the public, some people described blogging as a bubble which is gradually bursting.
“Blogs don’t have the same major impact they had in the past, said 18-year-old Ashraf Mohamed.
This view was supported by Ahmad Al-Ashkar, a student at the faculty of law. He said many popular bloggers such as Wael Abbas are not powerful anymore, especially after they rose to fame and became regular guests on TV screens.
“The last time Wael posted valuable footage on his blog was the sexual harassment video in 2006. Since then we ve seen nothing of the same value. His enthusiasm started dropping, Al Ashkar said.
In a commentary published by Al-Masry Al-Youm daily, Dr Amany Kandeel said the blogging experience started and peeked during the past couple of years amidst stagnant political and social life.
The youth movement came as a sign of frustration from the rampant corruption that existed, and a rebellion against the deeply-rooted sense of negligence and restlessness.
Dr Laila Abdel Majeed, a media professor, thinks that the blogging trend is responsible for “spreading immorality. She said the blog posts are inappropriate in an Eastern community like Egypt.
Others think that blogging isn’t that bad, if certain restrictions are imposed.
An opinion poll conducted by Masrawy website showed that 35.6 percent are
for censoring internet and blogs, while 58.8 percent are against this type of censorship.
According to the Egyptian Blog Ring website, of the 1,481 Egyptian blogs:
Personal affairs recordings: 703 (47.5%)Political news and commentary: 320 (21.6 %) Arts & Culture: 207 (14%) Photologs: 35 (2.4%) Entertainment: 24 (1.6%) Society: 109 (7.4%) Technology: 77 (5.2%)
Popular Egyptian blogs include:http://misrdigital.blogspirit.comhttp://baheyya.blogspot.comhttp://www.manalaa.nethttp://journal.gharbeia.nethttp://garad.blogspot.comhttp://gazma7arimi.blogspot.comhttp://alrahma.blogspot.comhttp://www.speaksfreely.net
