Web communities influence Saudi Gov’t to release Blogger Fouad sooner?
When you get to hear about a such blogger getting arrested in Middle East, you really shouldn’t be that surprised since it is almost a such common thing to happen “i.e. Blogger Alaa in Jail” in a such region. Well, this has been emphasized today with the confirmed detention of outspoken Saudi blogger Fouad Al-Farhan by the Saudi Interior Ministry today.
While the reason for Mr. Al-Farhan’s arrest on December 10, 2007 has not been revealed, the officials have stated that he is not being jailed, only questioned, according to a report by the New York Times. After writing about political prisoners’ plight in Saudi Arabia and accusing the government of lying in regards to its accusation of certain political advocates as terrorists, the Saudi government is apparently seeking a signed apology from Fouad, which he is not ready to give up just yet. Friends of Mr. Fouad’s are still posting on his popular blog, while also promoting his release from custody.
Freedom of speech varies drastically from one country to another, and Australia has been moving towards web-regulation via censoring inappropriate web content. If we take a closer look at Middle East and its blogging sphere, we will notice that RO governments are increasingly trying to crackdown on such bloggers in a hope to stop this domino effect.
Now the question is, with the protest of Saudi Arabia’s community of over 200 bloggers, web communities, major press (NYTimes, Washington Post, VOA, etc), will Saudia be influenced enough to release Fouad sooner? Well, so far, the minister of interior has just told Washington Post that it is “only interrogation and not an actual arrest”… Interrogation for 10 days? And asking for a signed apology statement? Interesting… but it seems from his statement that there is influence… Right?
What do you think?
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Comments
Rana, I could not agree more of how information-technology age is playing a big role in influence. But in reality, things are different when it comes to Saudia.
What I know of Saudia is that they could careless of what the rest of the world thinks. What matters is to keep the awareness of the fundamental issues away from the public as much as possible. But the blogging sphere is ignoring that fact and it is actually seeking to dig up those fundamental things (i.e. terrorism, homosexuals, raped victims) which is totally not welcomed by the government.
And so, you can see how the government is trying to stop the bloggers from digging those up by scare-tactics, which I think are working so far.
But you might be right, with the increase of stubborn (patriots?) bloggers in the country, that might cause a change of course in the government’s policies… maybe?!
Morad Rayyan is IT professional specialized in New Media development and has special interest in networking "routing" as well as programming.
The “Hell No. They are thick!” is what has always been the case. But I feel as we enter an information age, it does not give one the chance to sweep anything under the rug. We all know that there are some truths that the society and/or religious authorities, etc want to hide. The series of events in the past few months is enough of an indication that they choose to keep our mind-boggling stories and laws from being out in the open. More than doubling a raped victim’s sentence was a direct punishment for that. To arrest a blogger is not only sad, it’s actually funny that they believe “bloggers” are a threat. People chase terrorists and criminals, but in the Kingdom, we chase bloggers and raped victims. Instead of concerning ourselves with big issues like our social infrastructure (education, healthcare, etc) and human rights, we are more concerned about chasing any male and female in the same vicinity. We are concerned about the truth.
I knew that we would be at a crossroads a couple of years ago when I noticed how we have an abundance of contradictions and inconsistencies. It’s just normal, with the forces of nature (contradictions), that change was inevitable. The information age (and technology) is our friend. It’s also Fouad’s friend. The few brave youth are using it to their benefit to express themselves and for conscientious reasons as citizens of their country.
And this is why I believe we are entering into a new era of “Yep. No Choice”. I think things are just not going to slide by anymore. It’s time!