Blogger arrested, Egypt named to list of world’s worst suppressors of free expression online

Prominent Egyptian blogger, Abdel Kareem Nabil was arrested on November 6th in Alexandria, purportedly for a recent article on Islam, the International Herald Tribune reported. The arrest comes in the wake of the recent addition of Egypt to Reporters Without Borders’ list of the 13 worst perpetrators of online censorship. Nabil is a former law student who has been punished for speaking out in the past.

Nabil’s arrest is the latest example of the government’s heightened efforts to suppress free speech online, in light of a recent court decision allowing internet sites to be shut down if they are considered a national security threat. Several pro-democracy bloggers were detained for two months this past summer, and in October the government leveled charges of defamation at a group of bloggers for reporting an incident where Cairo police failed to come to the aid of a group of nearby women who were being sexually harassed.


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