Beth's Blog: Nonprofits and Social Media

Mary Joyce: Global Social Change Blogher - Her Latest: Free Monem Campaign

Mary Joyce in front of her campaign posts during a recent trip to Lagos to set up computer equipment for the OpenNet Initiative in April, 2007  (Photo from her Flickr stream)

My colleague Mary Joyce who writes a blog called "ZapBoom: The Sound That Change Makes" that focuses on the question, "Under what conditions does citizen activism occur and how can it be supported and encouraged?" 

She has is supporting a campaign to Free Monem, a blogger arrested by Egyptians security forces on April 15th.  He was charged with several crimes, including "belonging to an illegal organization" and "organizing secret meetings with the aim of disturbing public order."    According to Mary, his real crime was challenging the dictatorial regime of Hosni Mubarak by telling the truth about the torture he underwent and condemning the country's unjust military tribunals.

In an email, Mary suggests taking these actions:

As the world celebrates World Press Freedom Day an Egyptian blogger,  Abdel Monem  Mahmoud, sits in jail, his only crime his desire for a more open Egyptian  society.  We cannot let the regime succeed in silencing him.  We have to show  the Egyptian regime that when you imprison a blogger, you don't silence his  , you AMPLIFY it!  How?  By taking action!  Here's what you can do: 

1.  Watch the protest video.  Share it with your friends.

Global s Advocacy  Director Sami Ben Gharbia has created a video which powerfully explains the  reasons for the detention of Monem and demands his freedom.  View it. Share it.  Post it on your blog: http://www.YouTube.com/watch?v  =-017xCZEXFU&eurl=

2. Add the Free Monem quote randomizer badge to your  blog's sidebar.

Yeah, we think it's  pretty cool.  Activist tech guru Astrubal has created a sidebar badge which  cycles through a stream of Monem's blog quotes (à la Amnesty's Irrepressible campaign).   Fortunately for us, Monem is an eloquent writer.  Here's a taste: 

"We [Egyptians] claimed freedom for others and forget our own  freedom"

"If I taught a woman to wear a veil, I should teach her to claim  her right to enter the university wearing the veil."

"Freedom is now an  obligation and should be implemented before Sharia'a"

 

Yeah, we think he's pretty inspiring too.  The symbol of a brighter future  for the Middle East, in fact.  So let's make sure he  gets his freedom, not just by posting his words on World Press Freedom Day, but  by broadcasting his words every day.  You can get the badge here on our  "banner and badges" page or you can just insert the following embed code into  your blog:

<iframe name="monem" src="  http://freemonem.cybversion.org/monemphrases/monem_phrase.php"  frameborder="0"  marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" height="200"  width="150"></iframe>

Eventually, quotes from other imprisoned bloggers will  also be added to the quote feed.  Just sit back and let the free speech  flow. 

3.  Re-publish Monem's posts on your own blog. 

For the last few days a crack team of volunteers  from around the world has been translating Monem's posts so millions of new  readers can read his censored speech.  Let's show Mubarak that his attempt to  silence this blogger has been completely counterproductive.  Instead of reducing  the number of people who read Monem's words, let's make sure that the number of  readers increases... exponentially!

It's easy to take part!  Just pick a post by Monem from the list below and copy and paste the whole thing  (or an excerpt) into your own blog.  It would also be great if you could tag  your post (using Technorati or deli.cio.us) with the words  "FreeMonem" to help us keep track of how many people take part in this action.   

----MONEM'S POSTS... for you to republish on your  blog----

Free the Brothers...Free Abdel Kareem... Free Egypt 3/7/07  (one of our favorites - Monem calls for jailed blogger Kareem's release and  points out how secularists and Islamists face the same oppression by the  Mubarak's regime)

The Fourth Anniversary of the Torture of Detainee #25 4/14/07  (essential reading - moving account of torture by Egyptian security forces  during his imprisonment in 2003 )

Alexandria University Detour 11/1/06 (frustration with the  Muslim Brotherhood at his university and a call for Egyptians to demand their  freedom... excerpt)

Birds' s 2/12/07 (how blogging is changing the Muslim  Brotherhood... excerpt)

Don't Block the Blog: Pakistani Bloggers Freedom of Speech Threatened

Omer Alvie  and Awab Alvi are associated with the Help-Pakistan.com web site which was launched as part of the ongoing relief effort for the October, 2005 massive earthquake in Pakistan. Omer Alive, who covers the local blogosphere in Pakistan for Global s, recently launched an online campaign called "Don't Block the Blog" condemning censorship of bloggers in their country.  They write:

Over the past few days, The Freedom of Expression of Pakistani Bloggers has been under attack by some, if not all, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who has chosen to block all blogs hosted on the blogspot.com domain. Political pressure groups have protested to the government to block those web sites displaying the controversial cartoon images of Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) that were hosted on the net. But instead of blocking specific sites, ISPs have simply blacklisted the entire domain, causing thousands of blogs to be inaccessible for viewing or authoring in Pakistan.

They've launched an online campaign to support free speech of Pakistani bloggers and internet free speech in general.  You can support their cause by copying the banner code  to your web site or blog.  You can find the code here.

Reporters Without Borders urges Internet users and bloggers to support its recommendations on freedom of expression

On 6 January, Reporters Without Borders issued six concrete proposals aimed at ensuring that Internet-sector companies respect free expression when operating in repressive countries. The organisation calls on bloggers and Internet user to sign an online petition in support of this initiative.

These recommendations will be addressed to the US government and US legislators because all the companies named in this document are based in the United States. Nonetheless, they concern all democratic countries and have therefore will be sent to European Union officials and to the Secretary General of the OECD as well.

Technorati Tags: net2, nptech, freedomofexpression