"Bloggers grow in Mideast; police watch" is the title of an article written by Associated Press journalist Anna Johnson, published yesterday, in which she reported the increasing bloggers phenomenon in Middle East and, on the other hand, the pressure governments place on them.

Here in Jordan , all we know the situation is much better than Egypt , Iran or Syria , there are not big threats to freedom of expression on the web here and I don't remember bloggers and cyber-dissidents who were victims of campaigns against them or even arrested. However all bloggers in the zone are in danger and governments' censorship of websites or weblogs is common; this is for protecting us from "immoral and defamatory contents" they told us...!

All my appreciation and respect to those courageous bloggers that were arrested or persecuted here in Middle East, the AP article cited Mahmood al-Yousif (Bahrain), Wael Abbas (Egypt) and Hamed Mottaghi (Iran), however many other should be included in the list, I can mention: Kareem Amer (Egypt), Arash Sigarchi (Iran), Idrees Mohamed Boufayed (Lybia), Habib Saleh (Syria) and Mohammed Abbou (Tunisia). All these were arrested for opinions expressed on the net.

AP also published a list of blogs in the Middle East, and woefully no Jordanian blogs were included, even if I think we have good bloggers that work hard for democracy and reform, we have a grown blogger community and some of these blogs are from the first and most popular in the zone.

Hoping that more and more people will express their opinions freely whether on the web, on newspapers or in the streets.

Labels: Politics