Blogging for Human Rights
Just added the ubiquitous "I blog for human rights
" e-sticker. So, I thought to back up that claim, I'd start advocating some of the issues on the Amnesty International blog. They explicitly encourage bloggers to help them campaign.
So this brings me to the case of 23 year old Karim Amer. Around the same age as me, blogger, African and voices dissent against the government (which I do on and off line). Seems pretty normal, right, his crime? "Criticizing religious authorities, President Husni Mubarak and Islam." (amnesty international)
Yikes. Specifically, these accusations turned into these charges:
- "spreading information disruptive of public order and damaging to the
country's reputation" - "incitement to hate Islam"
- "defaming the
President of the Republic".
Karim Amer is the first Egyptian blogger to be tried for pretty much speaking out via his blog. His sentence is 4 years and he just finished a year on Friday. This is scary stuff and it lets me know that we in the "free world" so to speak, take a lot of our freedoms for granted. If Amnesty is doing a letter writing campaign on his behalf. There's more about his story and his treatment in prison here.