Online Social Networking Disruptions in Egypt, Morocco
March 17th, 2010 by Josh
Over at Global Voices Advocacy, Ramy Raoof draws attention to the recent disruption in Skype connectivity for Egyptians using USB modems. According to an exchange Raoof had with Vodaphone, a large internet service provider in Egypt, the government’s National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) decided to block Skype for USB modem users after three telecommunication companies complained about revenue losses incurred from customers using Skype’s free service. Egyptian law mandates that all international calls be filtered through majority state-owned Telecom Egypt — one of the companies reporting lower-then-anticipated earnings — and the NTRA noted that it is only targeting what it considers illegal voice traffic on mobile Internet, not fixed traffic. “This is due to the fact it is against the law since it bypasses the legal gateway,” said an NTRA official.
Elsewhere, a Moroccan Facebook group advocating for the separation of religion and education was administratively deleted from the website without warning. Official inquiries by Kacem El Ghazzali, a Moroccan activist and founder of the group, to ascertain the reason for the shut-down went unanswered. Alluding to previous examples of inconsistent, suspicious, and unexplained Terms of Service (TOS) enforcement by Facebook officials, Jillian York from Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society suspects the Moroccan government may have pressured Facebook into removing the group from its server. “It seems that Facebook is now policing speech, possibly at the behest of a foreign government.” York also penned a separate piece commenting on an Issandr El Amrani post last week exploring the role of Facebook in Middle Eastern politics (covered here). Though agreeing that Facebook is certainly being used for political purposes, she contends that “The downfall, of course, is Facebook itself, which has garnered a reputation for selectively enforcing its own TOS.”
Posted in Egypt, Morocco, Technology | Comment »
Morocco: Christian Aid Workers Expelled
March 15th, 2010 by Josh
In what many view as a sudden and unexpected change in policy, the Moroccan government announced the forthcoming deportation of dozens of Christian aid workers after accusing them of unlawful proselytizing. Although a Moroccan official rejected claims of discrimination and maintained that this was simply a “move against people who don’t respect the law of this country,” U.S. Ambassador to Morocco Samuel Kaplan was “discouraged and saddened” by what he views as the unnecessary expulsion of law-abiding foreign nationals. “We hope to see significant improvements in the application of due process in this sort of case,” he said.
Unsurprised by this rather arbitrary crackdown, even after years of relative tolerance under King Mohamed VI, one observer at the Moroccan Dispatches surmises that Morocco’s inconsistent enforcement of various laws — oftentimes subject to whether or not an offender can afford to pay off the authorities — makes it “hard to know what really is permissible and what is not…since a rule on the books does not necessarily mean anything.”
Posted in Freedom, Judiciary, Morocco | Comment »
The Possibilities — and Perils — of Facebook
March 9th, 2010 by Josh
Just last week, POMED co-sponsored an event to explore the implications of new media technologies for both ground-level reform movements as well as U.S. foreign policy. Featured panelist Jared Cohen insisted that the proliferation of “value-neutral” information and connection technologies (ICT) demands a restructuring of U.S. policy tools to help influence these forces and push back against extremist groups who exploit ICT for nefarious purposes.
Of course, one of the most ubiquitous emerging technologies is Facebook, and Issandr El Amrani has a post up highlighting recent intersections of the popular networking client with Middle Eastern politics. While Facebook has thus far been a boon for Mohamed ElBaradei during his recent political surge, it also led to the arrest of a Moroccan man who purported to be a member of the royal family on his Facebook profile. And although he was recently pardoned for his indiscretion, some believe his experience demonstrates how ICT provides authoritarian governments with yet another tool to monitor and disrupt dissent. El Amrani also draws attention to a slightly more innocuous case of social media savvy in Saudi Arabia, where the Minister of Culture used Facebook as a PR mechanism to deny rumors of banned books at the Riyadh Book Fair.
Despite these concerns, some still champion ICT as an invaluable mobilizing force for oppositionists. Over at Foreign Policy, Mohammad Sadeghi — head administrator of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard’s Supporters’ Network on Facebook — argues that the Green Movement “owes its greatest successes to the horizontal organization and innovative use of technology.” And yesterday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that it would ease web-related sanctions for Sudan, Iran, and Cuba, perhaps indicating that the Obama administration believes in the democratizing power of ICT as well.
Posted in Egypt, Iran, Morocco, Reform, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Technology, US foreign policy, sanctions | 1 Comment »
Morocco: EU Presses Morocco on Human Rights Record
March 8th, 2010 by Chanan
European Union President Herman Van Rompuy chided Morocco for its human rights record at summit-level talks between the EU and Morocco, calling on the country to make progress particularly in the disputed Western Sahara region. “We also wish for improvements to the situation of human rights and their defenders on this issue,” he said referring to Aminatou Haidar, a Western Sahara activist who last year went on a 32-day hunger strike after Moroccan authorities denied her entry into the country.
The summit marked the first such talks between the EU bloc and an Arab nation. In October 2008, the EU granted Morocco ‘advanced status,’ an act that brings “the country closer to Europe than any other [country] from the Southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea” and “paves the way for Morocco to [integrate] into the EU market [similar] to Norway or Switzerland,” according to Joanna Sopinska of EuroPolitics.
Posted in Human Rights, Morocco, Uncategorized | Comment »
POMED Notes: “Promoting Security through Diplomacy and Development: The Fiscal Year 2011 International Affairs”
February 26th, 2010 by Josh
In a hearing on the administration’s recently released budget request, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs invited Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to give testimony on particular budgetary items relating to U.S. diplomatic and development efforts abroad. Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-CA) opened the hearing with an affirmation of the value of investing in international diplomacy; not only to promote American values, but also as a method of prevention in order to mitigate the forces that cause international instability. Berman pledged to work with his colleagues to maintain or even increase the overall level of funding – approximately 1 percent of the entire Fiscal Year 2011 federal budget request – but ranking Republican committee member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) disagreed, using the poor economic environment as the basis to call for “selective freezes.” In particular, she questioned the wisdom of unconditionally funding the Palestinian Authority and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), both of which she accuses of stealing hundreds of millions in foreign aid.
Click here for POMED’s notes in PDF, or continue reading below.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Afghanistan, Congressional Hearing Notes (House), Democracy Promotion, Diplomacy, Elections, Foreign Aid, Freedom, Hamas, Hezbollah, Human Rights, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Morocco, Multilateralism, Palestine, Protests, Sudan, Syria, US foreign policy, Western Sahara, Yemen, sanctions | 1 Comment »
Press Freedom: New Report on 2009 Violations in Middle East & North Africa
February 22nd, 2010 by Maria
The International Press Institute, an Austrian-based organization working to further freedom of expression around the world, released its World Press Freedom Review for 2009 earlier this month, focusing on the Middle East and North Africa. The report accounts for 110 journalists that were killed for their work in 2009, making it the most deadly year for journalists in the past decade, according to IPI.
This year’s report focuses on the Middle East and North Africa, including a section on the state of freedom of the press and expression for each country in the region; it also offers specific recommendations for each country in order to further its protection against free speech violations. Of the total 78 recommendations, 17 addressed governments’ need to protect independent reporting and seven more specifically addressed the need to protect bloggers and Internet freedoms.
The report calls on Tunisian authorities to “end persecution and harassment of journalists.” It states that “the systematic attacks meted out against the independent media in Tunisia over the past few months are an insult to press freedom.” It also claims journalists that offend authorities in Saudi Arabia are charged with fines, detention, interrogation, dismissal and harassment. “Criticism of the royal family or government policy is generally prohibited, and Saudi Arabia maintains tight control over media content.”
In January 2009, the Ministry of Information in Bahrain implemented a law that would give the ministry the ability to “block certain web sites without warning or referring the case to court,” said the report. It also describes the Egyptian government’s efforts to monitor Internet access through “real-world surveillance” and that “state security officers require owners of Internet cafes, which are used by a majority of users to access the Internet, to register the names and identity card numbers of users. Owners are also required to monitor which web sites are visited, and to report to the security forces on people who visit ‘political’ web sites.” The report also features an interview with Aboubakr Jamai, the editor of the Moroccan magazine Le Journal that was recently shut down.
A PDF of the full report can be accessed here.
Posted in Bahrain, Egypt, Freedom, Middle Eastern Media, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia | Comment »
Morocco: More Analysis on the Disruption of Free Speech
February 9th, 2010 by Maria
POMED’s Morocco page editor James Liddell has updated our Morocco country page with his latest analysis of the Le Journal closure and the arrest of a blogger who was organizing a blogger’s strike. Liddell believes we’re witnessing the daily “shrinking” of freedom of speech in Morocco. ”The fact that Moroccan officials do not recognize that safeguarding gains made in the most basic human rights — freedom of expression and organization — is in their national interest is testament to the growing insecurity and knee-jerk repressive comportment of the makhzen,” he writes. “A new and invigorated image management campaign should be predicated on a commitment to human rights, not constructing Potemkin villages.”
Posted in Freedom, Morocco | Comment »
Morocco: More Condemnations
February 5th, 2010 by Josh
In response to Le Journal’s shutdown as well as the recent arrest of Moroccan blogger Boubaker Al-Yadib, Freedom House released a statement strongly denouncing the government’s “use of exorbitant fines and libel cases to silence Morocco’s critics.” According to Freedom House advocacy directory Paula Schriefer, Al-Yadib’s arrest and subsequent six-month sentence was in response to his role in organizing a week-long blogging strike to protest restrictions on free expression. Courtney C. Radsch, Senior Program Officer for the Global Freedom of Expression campaign, sees this as an example of rank governmental hypocrisy: “Morocco retaliates against journalists for publishing,” she says, referring to Le Journal, “but then attacks bloggers for refusing to publish.”
Morocco is rated by Freedom House as “Partly Free” in its 2010 edition of “Freedom in the World,” a report that focuses on civil and political rights (coverage of its release found here). In the most recent edition of “Freedom of the Press,” however, Morocco earned a significantly lower score of “Not Free.”
Posted in Freedom, Human Rights, Journalism, Morocco, Publications | Comment »
Morocco: Life After Le Journal
February 4th, 2010 by Josh
In a fascinating piece at the Huffington Post, Aida Alami — a Moroccan journalist previously affiliated with Le Journal Hebdomadaire — details the circumstances surrounding the publication’s recent closure at the hands of Moroccan authorities. Corroborating Issandr El Amrani’s account at The Guardian, Alami describes a scene of Moroccan security agents taking control of Le Journal’s newsroom, sealing it off, and changing the locks. Although officials attribute the shut-down to Le Journal’s own financial failings, Alami, like others, views the action as an overt political decision to silence an “icon of the free press.”
She continued her commentary in an interview with the Herald de Paris, revealing that despite Le Journal’s courageous work, “the [Moroccan] public doesn’t want to hear the truth about issues.” Not only did the magazine have few friends, she said, but many Moroccans, even those within higher income brackets, saw it as anti-patriotic and overly critical. Regardless, she maintains that this does not detract from its invaluable service to Moroccan society.
Le Journal’s editor, Abou Bakr Jamai, continued to speak out against the government’s draconian behavior as well. Reuters quotes him as saying, “This is a clear case of financial asphyxiation.” The non-profit Reporters Without Borders added that “this judicial liquidation heralds the end of the first independent title in Morocco.”
Over at Morocco Board News Service, Hassan Masiky, former consultant for USAID and Amnesty International USA, writes that “the ramification of the closure of Le Journal Hebdomadaire will, without a doubt, have a lasting negative impact on the image of Morocco as a modern democracy.” In a diplomatic context, Masiky is convinced that these latest actions will make it difficult for the government “to push for its Advanced Status with the European Union or to convince the United Nation of its ability to establish a true regionalism system for the Western Sahara.”
Posted in Human Rights, Journalism, Morocco | Comment »
Morocco: Independent Publication Shut Down
February 1st, 2010 by Josh
Late last week, Le Journal Hebdomadaire, an independent Moroccan weekly with a long record of democratic and human rights advocacy, was forcibly shut down by five armed bailiffs wielding a Moroccan court-order. Issandr El Amrani mourns the loss of what he calls an “irreverent and audacious magazine,” one which he credits with giving him hope for a “gradual and peaceful transition to democracy.” Praising the magazine’s relentless campaign for constitutional reform, Amrani worries that its demise signals a “renewed authoritarianism.” The Committee to Protect Journalists chastised the Moroccan government as well, highlighting its proclivity for “using the courts to silence critical publications.”
For further background reading, check out The New Yorker’s 2006 profile of Le Journal and its embattled editor, Abou Bakr Jamai.
Posted in Human Rights, Journalism, Morocco | 2 Comments »
Democracy Promotion: Workshops Held Across the Middle East
January 26th, 2010 by Maria
The Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID) is organizing a “Training of Trainers” workshop for Jordan (end of January) and Bahrain (early February) for democracy education among local youth, women, lawyers, teachers and religious leaders. The organization is providing information and leading exercises on how Islam can be compatible with democratic principles and human rights in the Arab world.
CSID held similar workshops in Morocco and Tunisia last November, where Moroccan and Tunisian human rights activists presented a training manual: “Islam and Democracy - Toward Effective Citizenship.” The manual has been used to train more than 4,500 people from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen and Bahrain. CSID feels education on democracy “remains one of the best ways to build a culture of democracy, and human rights and to strengthen the pillars of future democratic states in the Arab world.”
Posted in Algeria, Bahrain, Democracy Promotion, Egypt, Human Rights, Islam and Democracy, Morocco, North Africa, Tunisia, Yemen | Comment »
Morocco: A Look at the Recent Cabinet Shakeup
January 12th, 2010 by Maria
POMED’s Morocco editor James Liddell has updated our Morocco country page with specifics on the cabinet reshuffle that we mentioned here last week. James includes the names of specific appointees to key cabinet posts and digs beneath the narrative of building momentum toward decentralization reforms to describe “a web of settled scores and political calculations below the surface.”
Posted in Morocco | Comment »
Constitutional Reform: Process and Momentum in the Arab World
January 7th, 2010 by Josh
A revealing report by the The Arab Reform Initiative highlights the previous two decades of constitutional reform in the Arab world, and examines both the underlying catalyst for “democratic shifts” and the future direction of these reforms within five countries: Morocco, Bahrain, Egypt, Algeria, and Mauritania.
Though the report, written by Amina El Messaoudi, recognizes the unique internal circumstance of each country’s process toward reformation, it uncovers several thematic similarities across the Arab community. More specifically, it points to constitutional reforms in five general areas: 1) State support of human rights law, 2) Gender equality and women’s representation, 3) Reinforcement of constitutional law, 4) Multi-party systems, and 5) Financial regulation.
However, the impetus for democratic progress often came from different sources. Messaoudi writes that the ruling power initiated reforms in places like Egypt, Algeria, and Tunisia, while opposition parties jump-started the process in Morocco. On a functional level, civil society and media helped to spur reformation in Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, and Mauritania, “whereas in [Algeria and Bahrain] national treaties served as the entry point for amendments.”
Parliamentary restructuring in favor of bicameral legislatures played a key role by slowly shifting power away from the executive, Messaoudi reports, however three roadblocks prevented widespread progress on that front: 1) The second legislative body is often significantly less democratic with many members appointed directly by the country’s executive, 2) most Arab constitutions impart similar powers and responsibilities to both parliamentary chambers, which “impedes a dynamic relationship from forming between them,” and 3) heads of state retain the sole authority to dissolve the parliament.
While acknowledging that these efforts “have not profoundly altered the political and constitutional arrangements in these countries,” the report attributes the “change in the relationship between the powers, and an increased role for political parties, as well as civil society” to the movement for constitutional reform throughout much of the region, and believes that civil society has been “empowered to undertake an effective role in future constitutional amendments.”
Posted in Algeria, Bahrain, Democracy Promotion, Egypt, Freedom, Human Rights, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Political Parties, Reform, Tunisia | 1 Comment »
Morocco: Reforming Through Decentralization?
January 5th, 2010 by Josh
On January 4, King Mohammed IV of Morocco announced his intention to establish an “Advisory Committee” which will be tasked with drafting legislation to “give regional authorities more power to determine their own paths to development based on local conditions.” Magharebia reports that the committee, led by Morocco’s Ambassador to Spain, Omar Azzamine, will “find ways to boost the power of regions so they can effectively contribute to Morocco’s socio-economic and cultural development.”
Supplementing this announcement is an Al-Arabiya report on a partial reshuffling of the Moroccan cabinet. In a statement to the media, the royal council linked the new appointments — the most significant of which are in the Ministries of Justice and Interior — to the aforementioned Advisory Committee initiative, claiming that the cabinet shake-up would “give greater momentum to major development projects and structural institutional reforms.”
Posted in Algeria, Democracy Promotion, Freedom, Human Rights, Middle Eastern Media, Morocco, North Africa, Reform | 1 Comment »
North Africa: Human Rights Abuses
December 23rd, 2009 by Jason
Human Rights Watch blasts the recent convictions of Tunisian journalists Taofik Ben Brik and Zouhair Makhlouf after unfair trials. Middle East director of HRW, Sarah Leah Whitson, laments that since his sham electoral victory, President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali has been “on a vengeful campaign to punish the few journalists and human rights activists who dared to question his record.”
Meanwhile, Middle East Online observes that the hunger strike by Western Sahara activist Aminatou Haidar has raised awareness of human rights abuses in Morocco.
Posted in Freedom, Human Rights, Journalism, Judiciary, Morocco, NGOs, Tunisia, Western Sahara | Comment »
