Egypt’s bloggers rule
p2pnet.net News:- “A few days from now … Egypt’s entire political class, untold numbers of ordinary people, and foreign parties invested in Egyptian affairs will be watching closely.”
The subject? The forthcoming presidential campaign. But the source isn’t one of Egypt’s major newspapers.
Instead, “Baheyya is Egyptian, pillories President Hosni Mubarak and heaps scorn on his regime daily,” says Agence Presse France. “But this fiery dissident who says aloud what others don’t dare to think has no face: Baheyya is a blog.”
The identity of its creator is, “shrouded in mystery and the subject of much speculation among the blogging community but her diatribes have earned a cult albeit restricted following”.
Another Egyptian blogger explains he’s posting, "so that future generations cannot accuse us of having remained silent when there was a need to speak out," AFP goes on.
“Accustomed to an autocratic regime that has severely restricted freedom of expression in the past, many Egyptians in the street are still keeping a lid on their exasperation, but bloggers are now letting off steam on the Internet.”
Manal Hassan, 23, and Alaa Abdel Fattah, 24, are among the few bloggers who reveal their identity, says the story. Their blog serves a bulletin board for announcing rallies and protests.
"we’ve been using our blogs to announce and promote events for a while now, each blogger pics and chooses events at random. and so far it worked out fine," posts Alaa. "but some of us think we need a better solution, a centralized event calender. anyone can submit an event. you can keep track of upcoming events through rss and through ical."
So is this the beginning of a new wave of outspoken dissent in Egypt?
“We are not players, AFP has Alaa saying. “We are observers.”
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See:-
Agence Presse France – Egypt bloggers spearhead anti-Mubarak dissent, August 29, 2005
