How Free Is Egyptian Freedom of Speech?

CAIRO, Egypt, March 27, 2007 — -- Police here have been busy for the past few days breaking up boisterous protests of constitutional referendums taking place today, but there is one group of protesters they've not been able to quiet down -- the bloggers.

Alaa Fattah, 26, is a political activist and government critic who can reach millions of people through his Web site. And bloggers like Fattah have the Egyptian government running scared.

Fattah has been using his laptop computer and the Web to directly challenge the Egyptian government and President Hosni Mubarak, known for violating human rights and silencing his political opponents.

Tucked away in the corner of an Internet café in Cairo, his computer open in front of him, Fattah insists this is about pushing for democratic reforms in Egypt.

"Today by living in Egypt, you are risking a lot. Police brutality has reached a level where it is not a normal pattern," he said. "It is completely random, and police officers [are] never questioned."

By using YouTube, Bluetooth and their blogs, bloggers send out videos they have obtained of Egyptian police torturing prisoners to an international -- and infinite -- audience. The bloggers are also exposing bribery, corruption and criticizing the human rights violations of President Mubarak's government. Hundreds of blogs are springing up in Egypt with the sole purpose of confronting the record of the Egyptian government.

Larry Pintak, a journalism professor at the American University in Cairo, says the bloggers are having a ripple effect, changing the rules for Egypt's state-controlled media.

"So if I am a journalist and I have an interesting story," he said, "and I cannot get it in my paper, I will get in trouble, I tip a blogger, he reports it then I can report that the blogger reported that this happened!"

Fattah admits all these blogs are having an effect.

"We are definitely affecting our generation's willingness to participate and get engaged and take the risks of these kinds of things," he said. "I think we have a very big impact."