BLOGGERS MOVING FROM ACTIVISM TO BROADENING DISCOURSE AND SELF-EXPRESSION

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 CAIRO 000544



SIPDIS



FOR NEA/ELA AND DRL/NESCA

NSC FOR PASCUAL AND KUCHTA-HELBLING

LONDON FOR SREEBNY



E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/29/2029

TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, KDEM, KIRF, KWMN, SOCI, EG

SUBJECT: BLOGGERS MOVING FROM ACTIVISM TO BROADENING

DISCOURSE AND SELF-EXPRESSION



REF: A. CAIRO 468

B. CAIRO 243

C. CAIRO 229

D. CAIRO 152

E. 08 CAIRO 2403

F. 08 CAIRO 1973

G. 08 CAIRO 783

H. 07 CAIRO 3214

I. 06 CAIRO 3161



Classified By: DCM Matt Tueller for reason 1.4 (d).



1. KEY POINTS



-- (C) Egypt's bloggers are playing an increasingly important

role in broadening the scope of acceptable political and

social discourse, and self-expression.



-- (C) Bloggers' discussions of sensitive issues, such as

sexual harassment, sectarian tension and the military,

represent a significant change from five years ago, and have

influenced society and the media.



-- (C) The role of bloggers as a cohesive activist movement

has largely disappeared, due to a more restrictive political

climate, GOE counter-measures, and tensions among bloggers.



-- (C) However, individual bloggers have continued to work to

expose problems such as police brutality and corporate

malfeasance.



2. (C) Comment: The government generally allows bloggers

wide latitude in posting material critical of the GOE.

Exceptions to this policy are bloggers who directly insult

President Mubarak or Islam, and the government has arrested

and jailed bloggers who have crossed these red-lines. The

GOE has also arrested activists, such as Philip Rizk and

Mohammed Adel, who have used blogging to organize and support

protests (refs A and C). Activists are increasingly writing

blogs to advance their political aims. Contacts accurately

point out that bloggers have ceased to function as a cohesive

activist movement. It is noteworthy that bloggers did not

play a significant role in the most recent example of mass

cyber-activism -- the April 6, 2008 strike orchestrated

through Facebook (ref G).



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The Current State of Blogging

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3. (C) Egypt has an estimated 160,000 bloggers who write in

Arabic, and sometimes in English, about a wide variety of

topics, from social life to politics to literature. One can

view posts ranging from videos of alleged police brutality

(ref B),to comments about the GOE's foreign policy, to

complaints about separate lines for men and women in

government offices distributing drivers' licenses. One NGO

contact estimated for us that a solid majority of bloggers

are between 20 and 35 years old, and that about 30 percent of

blogs focus on politics. Blogs have spread throughout the

population to become vehicles for a wide range of activists,

students, journalists and ordinary citizens to express their

views on almost any issue they choose. As such, the blogs

have significantly broadened the range of topics that

Egyptians are able to discuss publicly.



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Expanding Discourse and Personal Expression

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4. (C) Hossam Bahgat of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal

Rights told us that blogging allows Egyptian youth to air

their views about social and political issues in ways that

were "unimaginable five years ago." He said that blog

debates currently cover formerly "taboo" topics, such as

Christian-Muslim tensions and the military's potential role

in succession. Nora Younis, a blogger who now concentrates

on journalism and film-making, described how bloggers began

public discussions of issues, such as sexual harassment and

the legal status of Bahai'is, that were previously too

sensitive to discuss. Bahgat attributed the media's

sympathetic treatment of the Bahai'is' national

identification card case in January 2008, in comparison with

skeptical media coverage of the issue in 2004, to bloggers'

efforts.





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5. (C) Two young upper middle-class bloggers told us that

expressing themselves on their blogs is a "bright spot" for

them in the current atmosphere of political, economic and

social malaise. They noted that blogging provides them with

an outlet, which they perceive as relatively anonymous, to

disseminate criticism. One of them expressed satisfaction

over being able to attack the "religious hypocrisy" and the

"serious problems" in the society. A third blogger told us

that she uses her blog to discuss whatever issues may be

bothering her: her views on dysfunction in the Sinai, the

prime minister's latest speech, or the Obama administration's

Middle East diplomacy. She has written critically about

issues, such as the GOE's poor response to the Dweika rock

slide disaster in September 2008 (ref F),without any GOE

attempts to silence her.



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Relationship with the Independent Media

--------------



6. (C) Hossam Bahgat noted that the open atmosphere created

by bloggers has positively influenced the independent media,

especially satellite television, to discuss sensitive issues

such as sexuality and abortion. Larry Pintak, Director of

the American University in Cairo's Adham Center for Media

Studies, explained that while bloggers originally pushed the

independent press to tackle new issues in 2006, the

independent press has now overtaken the blogs in breaking

important news. Pintak asserted that while bloggers did

ground-breaking reporting on sexual assaults in 2006 before

the independent press covered the issue, bloggers are now

recycling news stories that the independent press breaks.

According to Pintak, the relationship between bloggers and

the independent press has come full circle, as bloggers now

depend on the independent press for news.



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Originally an Activist Movement

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7. (C) While the voices of individual bloggers are currently

making their mark on expanding public discourse and personal

expression, bloggers originally saw themselves as a cohesive

movement of political activists. Wael Abbas, perhaps the

most prominent Egyptian blogger, said that in 2006, bloggers

with diverse orientations -- secular, Islamist, and leftist

-- worked together to organize events, such as a sit-in

protest at the Judges' Club (ref I) and demonstrations in

Tahrir Square. Abbas characterized bloggers during this

period as activists who worked closely with civil society

organizations to raise public awareness of issues, such as

sexual assault. Because of bloggers' independent, relatively

anonymous identities, Abbas continued, they were able to

engage on these issues more freely than NGOs. Abbas believes

that female bloggers' personal accounts of being harassed put

an important personal face on the problem.



8. (C) Since 2006, Abbas said, bloggers have not been able to

replicate the same kind of political activism for a number of

reasons. He cited growing tensions and divisions within the

blogger community, where Islamist bloggers are openly

critical of secular and Christian bloggers. As part of the

GOE's increasing crack-down on political reformers since

2005-6, Abbas said, State Security (SSIS) began to target

bloggers. He accused SSIS of orchestrating his ouster from a

job at the German News Agency, and of pressuring western news

organizations to dismiss other bloggers who challenged the

GOE. Abbas noted that many bloggers have abandoned their

blogs due to this pressure, and are focusing instead on

careers in journalism and civil society.



9. (C) Abbas explained that as political activism waned after

2006, bloggers lost their context for advocacy. He concluded

that there is currently no political opening for bloggers to

push for significant change, and predicted that the next

opportunities may be during the 2011 presidential election.

Human rights activist Engi Haddad separately echoed Abbas'

assessment, opining that there is a current "despondency"

among bloggers, whom she considers to be part of the broader

activist community. She asserted that in the current

"political stagnation," bloggers are bereft of compelling and

achievable political causes, but she predicted they would

play a crucial role "during the eventual succession."



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Bloggers as Human Rights Activists



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10. (C) While Abbas minimizes bloggers' current impact as

activists, veteran civil society advocates view bloggers'

contributions as significant. Bahey Al-Din Hassan, Director

of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, stressed the

importance of bloggers' concern with torture and press

freedom. At a public lecture in February following the

screening of a documentary film about blogging, human rights

lawyer Gamal Eid lauded Wael Abbas for posting an alleged

police sodomy video a few days earlier (ref B),and for

breaking the El-Kebir police brutality case. In November

2007, a court sentenced two polic officers to three years in

prison for assaultin and sodomizing bus driver Imad

El-Kebir. The cse gained notoriety after Abbas posted a

cell phoe video recording of the attack (ref H).



11. (C Eid cited the "3,000 hits per day" on Abbas' blogas

evidence of his influence, asserting that Abbs is more

widely read than "Rose Al Youssef," th SSIS-backed daily

newspaper. Separately, a human rights lawyer specializing in

torture at the Hisham Mubarak Law Center marveled at Abbas'

power to expose police brutality on his blog. Bloggers have

also been active on other issues. For example, Tamer

Mabrouk, who has blogged about corruption, gained attention

in January when a court fined him for accusing a chemical

company of dumping toxic waste into the Suez canal and a

nearby lake (ref D); his lawyers are appealing the fine.

SCOBEY