syriastew.com

In September 2007, I spent time in Damascus, Syria, and while there, I tried to keep a blog of my journey.  But many days, I would go to the internet cafe, only to find that several blog sites had seemingly been blocked.  It was just one occasion of several that reminded me–somebody in the government seemed to be watching.

It turns out that blogspot was blocked at the time I was there, an apparent crackdown on the activities of Syrian bloggers.  Global Voices online recently posted several comments of Syrian bloggers, responding to online censorship in their country.  Here’s an excerpt:

Following a report by Human Rights Watch, Sami ben Gharbia of Global Voices Advocacy wrote an article outlining Syria’s internet repression, which included the arrests of two citizens accused of making comments online considered insulting. Several Syrian bloggers demonstrated strong opinions about the situation, as well as the recent blocking of Blogspot.

Golaniya of Decentering Damascus wrote:

Last night I saw Ben Gharbia’s updated post on the Advocacy Global Voices’ site and this time it was about my country.

Two cyber activists were detained for posting online comments that were disfavored by our Syrian government. The report also talked about a case in which the government detained a third Syrian citizen for posting comments opposing KSA. the Syrian Military Intelligence detained him for “breaking ties” with an ally.

The blogger goes on to detail the situation, then says:

I have been living in Syria over a month now ever since I left Lebanon, and no one has mentioned these incidents. Unlike in Lebanon, Syrians know nothing about what’s happening in Syria, if it wasn’t for her blog, or international human rights, or opposition sites, no one would ever know about these violations of human rights. If I mentioned this in front of some friends they will probably not believe me for these things are abnormal to the Syrian consciousness and psyche. The Syrian government is not just detaining these amazing Syrian citizens in prison, but also detaining the “discussion” about them-the right to know, to think, and to wonder!