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Big BrothersIn Egypt, blogging can get you arrested—or worse.

By Wael Abbas
Posted Monday, May 14, 2007, at 1:45 PM ET

(Continued from page 1)

There is also the case of a documentary filmmaker, Howayda Taha, who has included in her work videos of torture supplied by bloggers—and was then arrested for reconstructing scenes of police torture on her own. The police claimed Taha's torture scenes were faked and were intended to damage Egypt's reputation, though they had given her permission to shoot them. In other words, they set her up. And the effect, of course, is to silence anyone who has new videos and wants to participate in the campaign against torture. Several policemen are on trial on torture-related charges as a result of the videos that the bloggers have published. One has already been sentenced to a year in prison. The government is desperate to put an end to this embarrassment.

The government is also forcing lesser-known young bloggers to shut down their blogs. One incident involved a Christian woman from Upper Egypt who criticized the government's treatment of Christians. The police detained her for a while and forced her to shut down her blog. The police also shut down the blog of a woman in her early 20s who criticized the policies of Libya. These detentions show how the government uses fear to stymie bloggers whose arrests go relatively unnoticed.

Sometimes, I wish that I were among the bloggers who have been arrested. What can make a person in his right senses wish to go to jail? The alternative techniques that Egyptian security used on me. When I managed to evade arrest several times, the police started making threatening phone calls, saying that if I did not cooperate, they would arrest me. You're a good guy, they told me. You are new. Your name came up in the investigations, but we don't want to arrest you. If you cooperate, we will be like your older brothers. If you don't, it will create scandal for your family. They gave me a phone number so I could think over their offer and use it when I was ready to talk. Instead, I published the conversations on my blog. They never called me again.

But when I continued blogging, gaining attention and stirring public opinion in Egypt and internationally, the government tried another technique: character assassination. The assistant of the Egyptian interior minister for legal affairs appeared on television to say that I had a criminal record. He did this three times on different stations and different talk shows; luckily, I have videos of that, as well, here and here. I had to respond by publishing my criminal record on my blog. It has a stamp saying "no criminal charges."

Meanwhile, journalists at official newspapers have continued to tarnish my reputation. Their latest tactic is to spread rumors via the Internet that are calculated to diminish my credibility. They say that I converted to Christianity or that I'm a homosexual, neither of which can be tolerated in the Egyptian culture (and neither of which are true).

Now I'm getting information that the government's next step will be to send me to jail on charges of espionage and homosexuality. I'm told they will use the fact that I'm spending this month in the United States as part of a Freedom House fellowship program—and as an intern at Slate—to back up those charges.

So, what would you prefer? To go to jail with honor as a political dissident? Or to have your reputation tarnished with charges like these? The bloggers in Egypt are the last independent voice. If we are silenced, no protests will be heard in Egypt, not only now, but for the coming quarter- or even half-century. And so the choice to blog is not only serious, but necessary.

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Wael Abbas, who is interning at Slate this month, blogs at misrdigital.blogspirit.com.
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