p2pnet - rss feed: Syrian blogger Biassi jailed for 3 years
p2pnet news | Freedom:- Syrian blogger Tariq Biassi has been jailed for three years for allegedly criticising the Syrian secret services in an article posted on an online forum.
Biassi, 23, originally arrested in July, 2007, was found guilty of “publishing false news” and “weakening national sentiment” under the Syrian criminal code, says Reporters Without Borders, going on:
“The offending article referred to the advantages and disadvantages of the actions of the Syrian secret services. The authorities in Tartus, 120 kilometres north of the capital Damascus, arrested Biasi without telling him what charges he faced.”
Biassi, however, says he wasn’t responsible; that he shared a telephone line with six other subscribers, including a cybercafé.
Syrian police identified Biassi by tracing the origin of the Net connection, says the story, continuing >>>
Telecommunications minister, Amr Salem on 25 July 2007, ordered owners of websites to keep personal details on authors of articles and columns.
The country’s two biggest access providers, Syria Telecommunication Establishment (STE) and Aloola, belong to the state.
Three cyber-dissidents are now behind bars in Syria for, “exercising their right to free expression online,” says RWB, adding:
“Syrian government security agents on 6 May 2008 arrested writer and cyber-dissident Habib Saleh, who was already known to their services, but without giving any explanation.
“Writer and poet Firas Saad was sentenced to four years in prison on 9 April on the same charges as Tariq Biassi.”
Says an online petition for Tariq Biassi’s release >>>
Recently, the new-formed ‘Ministry of Telecommunications and Technology’ issued a new circular asking the owners of the Syrian websites ‘to exercise accuracy and objectivity (…) and to post the name of the writer of an article and the one who comments on it in a clear and detailed manner.’
The Ministry added that ‘the failure to do so would result in warning the website owner and rendering his website temporarily inaccessible. In case the violation is repeated, the website will become permanently inaccessible.’
Click here to sign the petition.
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Reporters Without Borders - Blogger gets three-year prison sentence for posting article critical of secret services, May 14, 2008
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May 15th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
guilty of “publishing false news” and “weakening national sentiment”
When governments make arrests like this due to reports, I think it adds credibility to their report, rather than the opposite.
Seems like the government is trying to force Patriotism on the people. Any government that does this is highly suspect.
In America, if a blogger publishes a report about the CIA or FBI that is not true, most of the nation just writes them off as a whack job. National Sentiment is not “weakened”. It sounds to me as if Syrian National Sentiment is already having problems, they should do more to earn the trust of the people, not oppress them.
A copy of his “false news” included with this article would be a spicy bonus. I’m interested in what that blog entry said.
May 15th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
We’re all interested now