Arabisc: Arabic Bloggers Ken · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

From Egypt… Malek who was scheduled to be free few days ago is now officially free. He just made his first post, titled: Free Morning. Malek writes:
تم الافراج عني اليوم في حوالي الساعه الرابعه والنصف من قسم ترحيلات الخليفه
لحد دلؤتي مقريتش حاجه اتكتبت عني بس بجد شكرا جدا لكل واحد كتب عني حاجه او وقف معايا في اللي انا كنت فيه
حرجع اكتب بالتفصيل قريب
I was released today at around four thirty
Until now, I haven't read anything written about me, but seriously, thanks very much to all who wrote or stood by my side
I'll continue writing soon
Speaking of Egyptian bloggers and the recent reaction of mainstream media, Al Jazeera Network yesterday aired a documentary program about bloggers in the Arab world and focused on Egyptian bloggers. Malek, Alaa and many other bloggers stories were covered. Viewers of the documentary said it was great and will be aired again twice tomorrow.
Bent Mesreya asked her parents to watch the documentary. She wrote about their reaction. She said:
Along the same line of support for the detained bloggers, few Egyptian bloggers are organizing a live music concert; “Sing, Baheya”:
غنّى يا بهية.. حفل ينظمه عدد من المدونين المصريين
تضامنا مع زملائنا المدونين المعتقلين وتكريما لمن تم فك سراحهم
غنّى يا بهية.. حفل موسيقى، مسرحى سيقام فى نقابة الصحفيين
نعلن الآن.. عن مرحلة التنظيم للحفل.. شاركونا فى الإعداد.. على من يرغب فى المشاركة لتنظيم الحفل مراسلتنا على
eheaam@gmail.com
فى موعد أقصاه 10 مساءا – الجمعة 26 مايو 2006
The Ghanne Ya Baheya (Sing, Baheya), bloggers (organizers) are welcoming any help. Among these bloggers are, 30 February, Taranim, Seeking Freedom, Ayoub El Masry, Bent Masreya, Tagreba and Shaimaa.
In Kuwait… Following last couple of weeks parliamentary unrest and following the conflict between the Government and large portion of the parliament member regarding the “election zones” law; Kuwait Emir dissolved the Parliament and called for new parliamentary elections by end of June 2006.
The new elections campaign started immediately after the Emir announcement, so did the local newspapers start reporting events and public meetings around the Emirate. However, some bloggers are critical about what pro-government newspapers are showing on their pages.
Jandeef, cut and pasted and then abrogated some photos to prove them fake. The photos that were published by Al-Watan newspaper shows the “Blue-Ribbon” gathering. They are the supporters of the Government proposal for the new “election zones” law. The opponent group is the “Orange-Ribbon” group, which Jandeef seems to be supporting.
Jandeef then writes:
In Lebanon… It was the week of celebrating the anniversary of liberation from the Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon.
Watani, in support for the “resistance” (a term usually used to describe the Lebanese Hezbollah fighters) writes:
To Saudi Arabia… On reading and censorship… Tech2click asks, “With the internet betweens our hands, do we still don’t read?” While Saad writes about the brutality of the media censorship.
So, Tech2Click writes about reading online:
Saad has another type of problem with reading. He is complaining about the Media's official type of censorship. He goes far into calling them ignorant. He writes:
هذا بالضبط ما حدث معي قبل أيام عندما اشتريت مجلة “الإسلام اليوم” العدد رقم (18) حيث تم تمزيق بعض الصفحات الداخلية بشكل يدوي شوهـ المجلة ودل على أن من قام بهذا العمل لا يمت للعقل بصلة. كما ذكرت في بداية المقال بأنني لا أمانع حذف ما يخالف قوانين وزارة الإعلام ، لكن هذا الأسلوب لا يرضاه أحد ، بل أنه يدل على إستحقار وأستخفاف بعقل القاريء ، توجد طرق أخرى يمكن حذف الصفحات بها بدون أن يعرف القاريء عنها إما بقطعها بشكل جيد أو منظم على الأقل.
هذا الحدث ذكرني بما كان يحدث قديماً على القناة الثانية للتلفزيون السعودي ، حيث كان يعرض الفيلم وهو مليء بالمشاهد الغير لائقة والتي بالطبع يتم حذفها جميعاً وهذا الحذف يؤثر على قصة الفيلم حيث تفوتك أشياء كثيرة من أحداث الفيلم المترابطة وبالتالي تكون ضائع وسط الفيلم ولا تدري إلا والفلم قد انتهى ثم تتسائل مالذي حدث وماذا حدث لكذا وكذا .. السؤال الذي يطرح نفسه لماذا تم شراء الفيلم من الأساس ونصف الفيلم تقريباً غير صالح للعرض وسيتم حذفه! .. هذه الحادثة تكررت مع أكثر من فيلم ومسلسل لم أفهم بعضها حتى الآن.
That was exactly what happened to me a few days ago when I purchased “Islam Today” magazine, where some pages were torn by hand, which distorted the magazine and demonstrated that the work is far from rational mind. As I mentioned before, I do not mind deleting material that contravenes the laws of the Ministry of Information, but this methods are not a satisfactory one, rather, it mocks reader's mind. There are other ways to do this without readers can come to know about, or well structured methods at least.
This event reminded me of what used to happen at Saudi TV Channel 2, where a film with a lot indecent scene of course will be deleted, but the deletion affects the story of the film until the film's events become irrelevant and thus the film end while you wonder what happened to this in that part of the story … The question arises: why the film was purchased at first place if nearly half of the film is unsuitable and will be deleted? This incident repeated with in so many films and I still don't understand them.