In Recognition of Social Medias Role in Promoting Civic Rights and Freedom of Speech
Bahraini Authorities Attempt to Gag Cyber Activists
Some Arrested, some Threatened, others Voluntarily Disappeared
Manama, 11 April, 2011
The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) is disturbed at the current trend of harassment by the Bahraini authorities against cyber activists. On 30 March,2011 Mr. Mahmoud Alyousif ([1]), the Blog father of cyber activists was detained for two days followed by the arrest of Mr. Mohammed E. AlMaskati ([2]), better known as “Emoodz” on twitter for a period of one week (31 March,2011). At least 5 other tweeps have also stopped tweeting in the past period due apparently to safety fears.
In Recognition of Social Medias Role in Promoting Civic Rights and Freedom of Speech
Bahraini Authorities Attempt to Gag Cyber Activists
Some Arrested, some Threatened, others Voluntarily Disappeared
Manama, 11 April, 2011
The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) is disturbed at the current trend of harassment by the Bahraini authorities against cyber activists. On 30 March,2011 Mr. Mahmoud Alyousif ([1]), the Blog father of cyber activists was detained for two days followed by the arrest of Mr. Mohammed E. AlMaskati ([2]), better known as “Emoodz” on twitter for a period of one week (31 March,2011). At least 5 other tweeps have also stopped tweeting in the past period due apparently to safety fears. Due to safety considerations, the BYSHR will not be giving details about all the activists as it may compromise their safety. Other cyber activists have been subjected to threats and insults in an organized campaign that even reached death threats at times, one of those tweeps is Ms. Zaynab Alkhawaja (better known as Angryarabiya) ([3]), daughter of prominent human rights activist Mr. Abdulhadi Alkhawaja and Mr. Nicholas Kristoff ([4]), a journalist with the New York Times who had covered the Bahraini situation since the February 14th unrest.
In a related matter, the President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, Mr. Nabeel Rajab ([5]) was referred to the Military Court late last night as per a statement by the Ministry of Interior, due to distributing “fabricated images” on Twitter of deceased Ali Saqer (who died in custody) who, according to Rajab, has signs of torture on his body. The Associated Press had distributed similar images of the deceased. Mr. Rajab was previously detained briefly and beaten by security forces and has been subjected to a smear campaign on state television and newspapers.
In another related matter, the BYSHR has recently learned that Mr. Zakariya Rashid Alashiri ([6]), 42 years who had died in police custody on 9 April, 2011 was a cyber activist and was running the Aldair website ([7]). This website included forums that dealt with political discussion and developments.
Furthermore, the BYSHR has recognized a trend on Facebook (Social Network), whereby the authorities block access to pages calling for strikes and/or protests in Bahrain as well as sites that expose human rights violations. The BYSHR had previously documented more than 50 sites that were blocked for political reasons.
The BYSHR calls for:
An end to the harassment, arrest and threatening of cyber activists by the Bahraini authorities
2. The Bahraini authorities to respect blogger and cyber activists rights to freedom of speech
3. The dismissal of the case brought up against Mr. Nabeel Rajab and an end to the harassment he is being continuously subjected to due to his human rights work
[1] Mahmoud Alyousif’s blog: mahmood.tv
[2] Mohammed E. AlMaskati’s blog: emoodz.com , twitter.com/emoodz
[3] Angryarabiya : twitter.com/angryarabiya
[4] Nicholas Kristoff : twitter.com/NickKristof
[5] Nabeel Rajab : twitter.com/Nabeelrajab
[6] BYSHR Statement 10 March,2011 : http://byshr.org
[7] AlDair: aldair.net
