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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Syria: Soft on porn, hard on political censorship |
| 2007-07-09 |
| Syria has stepped up its widespread censorship of the Internet, blocking access to a string of websites critical of the regime, including some run by leading dailies, a human rights group said. Political and pornographic censorship is commonplace in most Arab countries, where ignorance is the perceived bliss. Many Syrians hoped that Bashar al-Asad, who succeeded his father as president in July 2000, would bring a new era of openness to Syria and to the Syrian Internet. In his inauguration speech, he spoke of the need for “creative thinking,” “the desperate need for constructive criticism,” “transparency,” and “democracy." Today, the Syrian government relies on a host of repressive laws and extralegal measures to suppress Syrians’ right to access and disseminate information freely online. It censors the Internet—as it does all media—with a free hand. It monitors and censors written and electronic correspondence. The government has detained people for expressing their opinions or reporting information online, and even for forwarding political jokes by email. Syrian bloggers and human rights activists told Human Rights Watch that plainclothes security officers maintain a close watch over Internet cafés. “The Internet is the only way for intellectuals to meet and share ideas in Syria today.” - Aktham Na`issa, president of the Committees for the Defense of Democratic Liberties and Human Rights in Syria In December 2000, not long after the Syrian government first allowed email, the wife of a prominent Syrian businessman received an email containing a cartoon showing a donkey with President Bashar al-Asad’s head mounting another donkey with Lebanese Prime Minister Emile Lahoud’s head. The woman, a resident of Damascus, forwarded the message to her friends. After one of the recipients informed on her, Syrian authorities arrested and detained her without charge for nine months in what one writer described as “deliberately humiliating conditions.” Sites blocked by firewalls within Syria include the Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat (The Middle East) and the Beirut newspaper Al-Mustaqbal (The Future) run by the family of slain Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, the National organization for Human Rights in Syria said. E-mail provider Hotmail has also been blocked since July 17 last year, the watchdog added. "Freedom of the Internet is regressing in Syria after the authorities blocked access to a string of independent websites," the group complained. |
| Posted by:Fred |