Burmese blogger arrested

Over the last weeks, the indications for a rising monitoring of the internet by the Burmese government have grown stronger. Now, for the first time since the bloody crackdown on the Saffron Revolution a blogger got arrested.

Even before the failed uprising against the junta, in which they played a significant role by spreading news about the demonstrations, Burmese bloggers lived at risk. But since then, posting articles has gotten even harder for them – and in the last weeks, signs of a real chase on the bloggers had grown stronger and stronger. For instance, on January 20 popular blogger Niknayman ((Niknayman)) warned against a crackdown of the junta on the about 2000 bloggers of the southeast Asian dictatorship ((Committee to Protect Bloggers » Urgent message from Burmese blogger)). He informed us about the junta’s attempts to crack critical blogs or set up bogus blogs named nearly the same like popular critics. These fake blogs would, as he reported, lead to porn sites in order to discredit the original authors – the latter had happened with Niknayman’s own blog.
On the other site it has been reported that the junta has stepped up surveillance and monitoring of internet cafes, threatening the owners to maintain strict records of the users. Because many bloggers use internet cafes to publish their posts, this is very dangerous for the Burmese citizen journalists.

Now, Nay Phone Latt ((Nay Phone Latt)) was the first blogger in months to be taken into custody ((Mizzima News » Burmese bloggers hide from police)). He got arrested from an internet cafe in Burma’s former capital Rangoon. Meanwhile, two houses, were he used to live, got raided – as well as his aunt’s residence ((Burmanet News » Blogger arrested by police: friends)). The reasons for the blogger’s detention, who described himself as a “youth who is crazy about the arts” and blogged mainly about the expression of the Burmese youth, remain unclear. However, there is zero tolerance over any critical writings in Burma, victimizing some of the countries best known authors. Having said that, the detailed reasons for Nay Phone Latt’s arresting may not be known, but one can see it symbolicly for the situation of a couple of threatened bloggers.

No wonder it has been reported that parts of the Burmese blogosphere have gone underground. One blogger, who wanted to remain anonymous, has been cited with the words ((Mizzima News » Burmese bloggers hide from police)): “At the moment we [bloggers] are fleeing in the wake of the arrest of Ko Nay Phone Latt.” Angst spreads among the Burmese bloggers, who now fear a crackdown by the government, as the media’s attention has faded months after the days of the revolution. An awe, based on the fact that mainstream media does not report on the suffering country anymore. It’s time for the alternative media the keep an eye on this constant crisis.

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Blogger for Freedom is a member of the Blog4Burma Coalition, a group of European bloggers and a native Burmese who joined forces to connect their further writing and support one another in the common goal to keep the topic in the focus of the blogosphere.
Every BLOG4BURMA member sports a unique point of view of the Burma matter. Read their thoughts on their respective blogs or subscribe to our common feed. Anybody who wants to join the coalition feel free to apply at blog4burma [at] gmail [dot] com

Freedom for Burma? “long overdue.”

The foreign ministers of France, Great Britain and the U.S.A. – Bernard Kouchner, David Miliband and Condoleezza Rice – have issued a joint statement on Burmese politics. In an open letter to their colleagues attending the World Economic Forum at Davos they state ((Jotman » UK, US, and French foreign ministers’ joint statement on Burma at Davos)):

The Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum at Davos is a unique
event. No other occasion brings together so many of the world’s leaders
from all fields. For over three decades now, these meetings have
provided a global platform for collaboration and action to address
international priorities of concern to us all.

One such priority is the urgent need for progress towards a transition to
democracy and improved human rights in Burma. The fact that we have
chosen to write about this issue, with so many competing priorities,
should underline the strength of our governments’ determination to
support the people of Burma in their pursuit of a peaceful, prosperous
and democratic future. We have repeatedly made clear that the situation
in Burma cannot continue, and that we remain committed to helping the
people of Burma.

It is now more than four months since the world was horrified by the
violent repression of peaceful demonstrations in Burma. The dramatic
pictures seen around the world of the brutality directed against peaceful
protestors, including monks and nuns, were truly shocking. We cannot
afford to forget. We must convince the Burmese regime to meet the
demands of the international community and respect the basic rights of
Burma’s people.

The UN Security Council in October spelled out its expectations and
reiterated those expectations on January 17. First, the early release of
all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and the creation of
conditions for a genuine dialogue between the Government and the
opposition. Second, full co-operation and constructive engagement with
the UN. Third, the need for the regime to address the economic,
humanitarian and human rights concerns of the Burmese people.
Several months on, however, we find the regime has met none of these
demands.

The regime claims to be moving ahead with its roadmap to civilian rule.
However the process, already 14 years old, is open-ended, and many
key political actors, not least Aung San Suu Kyi, are excluded. There
can be little doubt that only genuine and inclusive dialogue can deliver
national reconciliation and stability for Burma and its neighbours.
We call on all those attending the World Economic Forum to
demonstrate that, while the regime may be indifferent to the suffering of
the Burmese people, the world is not.

We ask you to support the return to Burma by UN Special Adviser
Gambari as soon as possible, and to urge the regime to cooperate fully
with him and the UN. We call on the regime to act on the
recommendations of UN Human Rights Envoy Pinheiro; to release all
political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi; and to launch a
substantive, time-bound dialogue with democratic leaders and ethnic
minority representatives, as called for in Aung San Suu Kyi’s statement
of November 8.

A unified call for genuine and peaceful political reconciliation and reform
will be heard in Burma. We would not live up to our values if we ignored
Burma’s plight.

DAVID MILIBAND CONDOLEEZZA RICE BERNARD KOUCHNER

Really? Would a unified call of the world’s leaders really be heard in Burma? Kyaw Zwa Moe of the news magazine The Irrawady draws another image in his last comment ((The Irrawady » Who can rescue Nilar Thein?)). Writing about the polical activist Nilar Thein having gone underground, he concludes that only “Rambo” could rescue the young mother.

Meanwhile, Kyaw Zwa Moe points out how powerless UN Special Envoy Gambari is in his Burmese mission:

The UN Special Envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, said in a recent interview with Newsweek magazine, “I don’t have the instruments to change the regime.”

Yes, true regime change is hard to imagine. “The UN is not in the business of changing regimes,” Gambari said. Yes that’s true.

So what about one, single issue: the release of political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi?

Gambari attempted that, but again, with no success.

“The release of Aung San Suu Kyi and the other political prisoners is long overdue,” the envoy said in the interview.

But the junta hasn’t budged, sticking closely to its “seven-step road map,” which is intended to install the military institution legally as the legitimate government of Burma.

Can you imagine political reconciliation? “It’s long overdue,” said Gambari. Opposition groups and the international community have called for reconciliation since the junta took power 20 years ago, especially after Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, won the 1990 election by a landslide.

Gambari again seems helpless – one of the highest ranking diplomats of the world, but rarely vested with powers and even less with political or economical threats to the junta. The U.S.A. as the world’s only superpower are one of the loudest critics of the Burmese regime, just lately the sanctions were again tightened. But these steps do not have any real importance.

The boastful call of Rice, Kouchner and Miliband with the orotund promise of a change in Burma in case the world’s leaders would unify for harsh words against the Burmese regime is nothing but a small light in the darkness of the Burmese people’s situation. It is fine to see that even the mighty leaders of the world sometimes show a feeling for injustice, but these words will result in nothing.
As long as the Burmese junta can count on the hunger of Russians, Indians and Chinese for gas, they wont have to fear the mighty giant U.S.A.; which would rather go to hell than create another focal point beneath the Middle East. In fact, the last decade’s politics show the opposite: It has gotten silent with Libya and North Korea, at least the last one a country where the people suffer even more than in Burma.
On the other site, Burma’s neighbors have a huge economical interest in the country, which works against a change of the situation: China, for example, profits from Burma’s isolation, exploiting its position as the Junta’s nearly sole trading partner to build itself a strong hold at the business with Burmese gas. An overthrow in Burmese politics would be a blow for them: With the opposition not being a friend of the junta’s partners, trade relations would suffer. All the more, as the U.S. or Europe would like to take the place of the People’s Republic…

Its natural gas inventories and the political charisma of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi will preserve Burma from disappearing off the international community’s eyes. On the one hand, the western countries are waiting for a revolution to make an economical profit from it; on the other hand, solidarity with arrested Aung San Suu Kyi makes always good on the media. Great words against an enemy do not cost much, if sentences form nothing but a Potemkin village – fine for the media, but meaningless on a political level.

A change in Burmese politics has to come from the country itself. Twice, the Burmese ventured the revolution, twice they failed. Maybe the end of October’s uprising cannot be compared in its brutality with the massacres of the year 1988, when more than 3000 dissidents were murdered by the junta. But this time, again the protests ended up in blood – and failed.

Two generations have failed at overthrowing the junta – and it will need a third, the current has worn out its powers. Especially, as one cannot expect the junta to demolish itself. Maybe the leadership is old now – General Than Shwe will be 75 by next weeks time – but that does not make it shaky. However, a change of generations in the junta could lead to conflicts, destabilizing the government. But even if Than Shwe would be brought down or simply die, just another dictator would take his place.

Having said that, the Burmese people are in duty to fight for their freedom themselves. Freedom, as Franklin D. Roosevelt said, can never be bestowed, but has to be achieved. The Burmese people can neither hope to be freed through foreign efforts nor will the dictatorship vanish voluntarily. In fact, there may be better and worse times for a revolution, but the decision will be made through the efforts of the Burmese people themselves. To achieve the freedom costs – and that has definitely been shown in the past uprisings – great powers. It is just a question of time, that the Burmese people will stand up against their oppressors again – when they have built up their strength again. But if this third try will be successful and also, if Aung San Suu Kyi will live to see this, is more than doubtful.

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Blogger for Freedom is a member of the Blog4Burma Coalition, a group of European bloggers and a native Burmese who joined forces to connect their further writing and support one another in the common goal to keep the topic in the focus of the blogosphere.
Every BLOG4BURMA member sports a unique point of view of the Burma matter. Read their thoughts on their respective blogs or subscribe to our common feed. Anybody who wants to join the coalition feel free to apply at blog4burma [at] gmail [dot] com

Bloggers in solidarity with imprisoned Iranian students

A group of Iranian bloggers calls for participation in a blog action to support their imprisoned compatriots on January 30. By changing their blogs’ names to “Solidarity of Bloggers with the Imprisoned Iranian Students”, the participants will protest against Iran’s oppression of freedom of expression.

Iran is home to one of the biggest and most influential blogospheres in the world, with Farsi being one of the five most used languages in blogs at all. Back in 2005, about 100.000 bloggers were counted there, nearly as much as today in Germany – with far less inhabitants connected to the internet.

From the beginning, blogs were the media of the oppressed anti-governmental youth. A great influence on popularizing blogs came from Hossein Derakhshan, an Iranian-born journalist living in Canada ((Wikipedia | Hossein Derakhshan)), who teached his compatriots to use this medium. In an interview with the German “Electrical Reporter” ((Elektrischer Reporter | Hossein Derakhshan über Blogkultur im Iran)), Derakhshan spoke about the Iranian blog culture, which does not just include young students. The religious elite uses blogs as well – with special blogging courses for clerics being invented in 2005. Even many politicians have and write their own blogs, like president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ((Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Personal memos)).

Though young, anti-governmental students keep being the majority in “Blogistan”, the Iranian blogosphere. Many of them are also members of oppositional student organizations, which are frequently organizing rallies against the political elite and are a serious threat to the conservative government. They are regularly attacked and arrested by the Iranian security forces, with many of them getting tortured in prison.

In the last few month, there was a crackdown on Iranian students after the celebrations of the National Day for Students on November 7. On December 17, when the Iranian government shut down two dozen cyber cafes in a large-scale operation, even more people got arrested ((Committee to Protect Bloggers | Iran shuts down two dozen cyber cafes)). Some of the dozens of students who are still imprisoned are bloggers. Nothing unusual in Iran, which is, together with China and Egypt, one of the most dangerous countries for bloggers, having arrested dozens of cyber dissidents since blogs have been widespread in the last five years – and there is no end in sight.

Reasoned by the above mentioned detention of dozens of their fellow students and bloggers, Iranian bloggers are calling for a protest action on January 30 ((Mideast Youth | January 30, Solidarity of Bloggers with the Imprisoned Iranian Students)). On this day, all participants are urged to rename their blogs for 24 hours. A kind of protest which is not new to the Iranian blogosphere: This action is a remake of former campaigns which also tried to shed a light on the situation of political prisoners in Iran. A large participation in the highly political Iranian blogosphere can be foreseen…

What can I do?

• Rename your blog for 24 hours on January 30 in “Solidarity of Bloggers with the Imprisoned Iranian Students”.

• Write an article about this campaign to inform your readers about it.

Free Fouad!

Blog silence to support imprisoned Fouad Al-Farhan

Fouad Al-Farhan is being held in prison since weeks, without any reason being given to the public. But the causes seem to be clear: Critical articles on politics and society threatened conservative circles – and may have made him enemies. An international coalition works on his release – and calls for blog silence on January 6.

Fouad Al-Farhan had been warned: Not just, that Saudi government silenced his blog from February to July 2007 ((Mahmood’s Den | Saudi Blogger Fouad Al-Farhan arrested)) – a few days before his detention he announced it in a letter to his friends ((Saudi Jeans | Fouad’s letter)):

“I was told that there is an official order from a high-ranking official in the Ministry of the Interior to investigate me. They will pick me up anytime in the next 2 weeks.”

Before, he had been “asked” to sign an apology – without being told for what. Soon after this, the “Godfather” of the Saudi blogosphere has been arrested at his office and was brought to an unidentified location by security forces. It is the first time a Saudi blogger is taken into custody for his writing.

On January 1, three weeks after the detention on December 10, a statement was given by the ministry of the interior. It says, Al-Farhan was being held for “interrogation for violating non-security regulations”. ((Arab News | Blogger does not face security charges)).

The detailed backgrounds of the detention are still in the dark. Fouad Al-Farhan himself suggested in his letter – before being arrested – his postings on a group of political prisoners had led to accusation ((Saudi Jeans | Fouad’s letter)):

“The issue that caused all of this is because I wrote about the political prisoners here in Saudi Arabia and they think I’m running a online campaign promoting their issue. All what I did is wrote some pieces and put side banners and asked other bloggers to do the same.”

These political prisoners are a group of businessmen from Jeddah, who are accused to have supported terrorism, even though their lawyer claims, their plan to found a human rights group had really caused their detention ((Washington Post | Dissident Saudi blogger is arrested)).

Another prominent Saudi blogger, Ahmad Al-Omran, suggests on his blog Saudi Jeans, that the real backgrounds for Al-Farhan being arrested can be found in the conflict between King Abdullah and parts of the government ((Saudi Jeans | You got the wrong guy)):

“I have no doubt that King Abdullah is pushing for a reformist agenda. However, it is very unfortunate that some elements in the government are not happy with this agenda because it could curb their powers and change their status. That’s why these elements are so threatened by freedom of expression and therefore try to stifle this freedom even if that means violating basic human rights, national law and international accords.”

Al-Omran refers to the lately case of the “Qatif Girl”, a young woman, who first got sentenced to prison by fundamentalist judges, but then was pardoned by King Abdullah. The case can be seen as a sign of the power struggle in Saudi Arabia ((Saudi Jeans | Following the pardon)).

As seen in the “Qatif Girl” case, there is a high international media interest on the detention of Fouad Al-Farhan – detailed coverage can be found from the BBC, CNN, New York Times or Washington Post ((Free Fouad | Fouad arrest all over the mainstream media)), but the Saudi media is silent ((Mideast Youth | Who’s Fouad again?)).
No one can seriously suppose the government will yield due to the media coverage. In fact, a general may have stated Al-Farhan will not be held in prison for a long time, but if the backgrounds suggested by Al-Omran prove to be true, this seems more than unlikely.

To fulfill Fouad Al-Farhans wish not to be forgotten in jail, his friends have started the blog “Free Fouad” ((Free Fouad)). In English and Arabic, it covers the development of the case. Together with other platforms, they have started a petition to support the release of Al-Farhan ((Petition: Free Fouad Al-Farhan)).
Also, they call for a blog silence on January 6. All blogs may be silent for one day, only showing a banner to support Fouad’s case ((ZapBoom | Day of blog silence for Fouad)). Not, that the government will react on this action directly, but an intervention by a higher official could cause Fouad’s release.

What can I do?

• To support Fouad Al-Farhan, you may sign the petition.

• Also, you are called to silence your blog on January 6 and only post of these banners, together with a link to Free Fouad.

• Fouad’s supporters have created all kinds of banners, which you can use on your blog. The linked one shows an automatically rotated quote from one of Fouad’s blog posts, “Why do we blog?”

Funeral marches for privacy in Germany

On January 1, 2008 the new German telecommunications data retention act came into force. One day before, civil rights activists handed in the biggest complaint of unconstitutionality of all times to stop the law. At the same time, funeral marches are held all over Germany to remind of the “death of privacy”, the first in Hamburg on new year’s eve.

Let’s have a look on the lately published 2007 International Privacy Ranking ((2007 International Privacy Ranking)) to see how necessary these protests are. Germany fell from last year’s rank #1 to rank #7 in the EU – one of the reasons given is the newly introduced telecommunications data retention.

To prevent the law from being taken into action, the “Arbeitskreis Vorratsdatenspeicherung” has, together with dozens of civil rights groups, filed a class action at the federal constitutional court in Karlsruhe. With more than 30.000 having signed a mandate, this is by far the most successful action of this kind in Germany. On December 31, eight first complainants handed in the 150-pages notice of appeal written by a volunteering Berlin-based barrister Meinhard Starostik. Because the received mandates still have not been fully evaluated yet, the mass of complaints will be sent in later.
Together with the complaint of unconstitutionality, an immediate suspension of the law was requested on the grounds of “apparent unconstitutionality” ((Arbeitskreis Vorratsdatenspeicherung | Constitutional complaint filed against German Telecomms Data Retention Act)).

Furthermore, the Arbeitskreis Vorratsdatenspeicherung tries to make the new law’s dangers public. Therefore, it focuses on the “death of privacy” through the total surveillance of telecommunication.

In a nationwide protest action, funeral obsequies are held in several cities with a coffin touring the republic, “containing” the privacy. Following funeral marches in Hamburg ((Arbeitskreis Vorratsdatenspeicherung | Funeral March Through Hamburg Due To Lost Privacy)), Kassel and Frankfurt, further rallies will be held in Ulm (05. 01.) and Munich (06. 01.), with the latter being a bigger demonstration under the motto “Freedom is what counts”. This name reminds of an event with minister of the interior Wolfgang Schäuble, named “Security is what counts”. Last year, another rally by the Arbeitskreis Vorratsdatenspeicherung was held in Munich, with more than 2000 people demonstrating against the data retention act which was passed shortly after ((Arbeitskreis Vorratsdatenspeicherung | Thousands of people participated in nationwide protests against data retention)).

What can I do?

Two more demonstrations will be held as funeral marches with the “federal coffin”. You are invited to attend:

Ulm | January 5
What time? 15:00 Uhr
Where? Hirschstraße

Munich | January 6
What time? 12:30 Uhr
Where? Alte Kongresshalle, Theresienhöhe 15

The attendees are invited to be dressed in black clothes, as the rallies will be held as funeral marches.

Online petition against surveillance in Austria

On December 6, 2007 the Austrian national council has given its agreement to an amendment on the “security police law”. The decision is being criticized for its effects as well as for the controversial way it was passed. To get this bill taken back, the newly founded group “sos-überwachung” (sos surveillance) ((sos-überwachung)) has started a petition and an online demonstration.

The novella of the security police bill was brought up on December 6 as an amendment and was passed the same night. It was neither preceded by a conference of the interior committee nor by a hearing of the ministry of justice or the commission for data privacy.

The new law allows the police to

* interrogate position data of mobile phones
* use IMSI-catchers
* force providers to give informations on dynamic IP addresses.

On the effects of this amendment the opponents state (translation):

“An IMSI-catcher is a device for forcing the transmission of the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) and intercepting GSM mobile phone calls.

The GSM specification requires the handset to authenticate to the network, but does NOT require the network to authenticate to the handset. This well-known security hole can be exploited by an IMSI-catcher.

The IMSI-catcher masquerades as a base station and logs the IMSI numbers of all the mobile stations in the area, as they attempt to attach to the IMSI-catcher. It allows forcing the mobile phone connected to it to use no call encryption (i.e., it is forced into A5/0 mode), making the call data easy to intercept and convert to audio.

Using IMSI-catchers means to dodge the providers. The first control falls.

The new law does no longer require a judicial decision to use IMSI-catchers. The second control falls.

The surveillance of talks is still illegal, but it is no longer possible to control this. The door to abuse is wide open.

The data privacy commission has stated that there is no legal basis for a intervention on IP addresses by the police, because these are no core data, but inventory data. Instead of clearing this situation, the new law allows the police to interrogate IP addresses – without judicial control and without the police having to give reasons for the measure.

The minister of the interior will appoint a legal protection commissioner who shall take place for the judge as control. For three reasons, he is not able to: He only has the right to inform. He has no veto against any measures. He cannot obtain any sanctions in case of abuse of the police’s powers. the minister replaces effective judicial control with a harmless commissioner.”

The amendment was explained with the need to introduce effective measures to find confused or kidnapped persons. This is already possible using allowed methods.

sos-überwachung is not a private, but a group initiated by the Austrian Greens ((Die Grünen (Austrian Greens / English page))). Beneath an intensive discussion about surveillance, especially of mobile phones and the internet, in the interior committee of the national council the goal is to reach the withdrawal of all surveillance measures which do not require judicial control. Therefore, the motto reads

“When one-sided security politics endanger freedom it is time to protect the freedom from the security politics.”

What can I do?

First you may sign the petition which intends to get the amendment back into the national council.

You can register as a potential participant in upcoming protests to stay tuned.

Supporters have designed an online demo after the example given by German Arbeitskreis Vorratsdatenspeicherung, you may find it here.

Mandela’s “Elders”: Human rights campaign online

While celebrating the UN Human Rights Day ((Human Rights Day)) on December 10 the July-founded ((Mahmood’s Den: “The Elders”)) “Elders” ((The Elders)) have announced ((Global Voices Online: Happy Human Rights Day)) a online campaign to support human rights ((Every Human Has Rights)).

The Elders are thought as a worldwide moral authority, as Nelson Mandela stated before ((International Herald Tribune: Richard Branson forms a band of ‘Elders’ with Mandela, Carter, Tutu and others)):

“This group can speak freely and boldly, working both publicly and behind the scenes on whatever actions need to be taken,” the remarks state. “Together we will work to support courage where there is fear, foster agreement where there is conflict, and inspire hope where there is despair.”

Together, the twelve Elders plus honorary member Aung San Suu Kyi have won six Nobel Peace Prizes and several other awards in appreciation of their work in favor of peace, freedom and human rights – more than enough to be accepted as moral authorities.

Starting the online campaign “Every Human Has Rights” ((Every Human Has Rights)) they want to remind of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ((Universal Declaration of Human Rights)). This declaration did never get ratified by the members of the UN, but is seen as accepted by these ((Wikipedia: Universal Declaration of Human Rights)).

Especially this value as a purely moral guideline is it, which raises the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to a question of honor. To emphasize its importance, the Elders call the world to sign the declaration. They hope to be able to present one billion signatures on December 10, 2008 – a highly ambitious goal, but still more than five billion signatures to few for these ground rules of human behavior. Would it be followed in its meaning this world would be happier. Therefore, Blogger for Freedom engages everybody to sign this petition.

What can I do?

• Sign the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – and acknowledge it.

• Subscribe to the project’s newsletter.

Blog 4 Burma: Common Feed

Blog 4 Burma ((Blog 4 Burma)) is a community blog project featuring bloggers from several European countries. The goal is to keep the political situation in Burma in the focus of the blogosphere after the Free Burma! campaign ((Free Burma!)). Because all contributions are published on the participants’ own blogs, we now introduced a common feed to keep all readers up to date.

The Blog 4 Burma coalition is the try to bundle the single efforts on the topic and to attract more attention via joint appearance. The international idea of the project has led to a team of bloggers coming from Germany, Austria, France and Andorra – while Thomas ((Zogam nuam)) is a native Burmese.
All contributions are published on the authors own blog – currently there are participants writing in German, French and English. To keep a view of all them is not easy. Therefore now we have a common feed which will exclusively contain articles on Burma.

With this feed, our goal is to enable everybody who is interested in the Burmese situation to follow our writings. Even though, we still hope to attract not just visitors, but also new authors for the “Blog 4 Burma Coalition”. Everybody who is interested may feel invited.

What can I do?

• Subscribe to the Blog4Burma feed to stay tuned on the Burmese situation.

• Write a mail to blog4burma [at] gmail [dot] com and become a member of the Blog4Burma coalition.

• You do not own a blog, but still want to contribute? You may be the right to become an author for Blogger for Freedom. Please use our contact form.

RSF awards to Democratic Voice of Burma and Kareem Amer

Wednesday, Reporters without Borders presented the winners of their annual human rights awards ((rsf.org: The 16th Reporters Without Borders – Fondation de France prize awarded today in Paris)). Among those chosen by the jury were TV and radio station Democratic Voice of Burma and Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer.

Democratic Voice of Burma ((Democratic Voice of Burma: Official site)) was awarded the prize in the category “media” mainly for their role on the failed “saffron” revolution at the end of September. The station was founded in 1992 by democratically-minded Burmese students who escaped the massacres of 1988. With growing success and more professional structures the DVB – based in Norway’s capital Oslo – soon became known as one of the few independent news channels available in Burma. Since 2005, satellite television broadcasts are being aired regularly. Together, DVB TV and radio reach millions of listeners with their program, being transmitted in Burmese and several local languages. It is the first and only free station in Burmese language ((Wikipedia: Democratic Voice of Burma)).

During the demonstrations and the following crackdown Democratic Voice of Burma was one of the most reliable sources on the topic, transmitting uncensored recordings submitted by underground correspondents. Together with bloggers like ko htike ((ko htike’s prosaic collection)) it was instrumental in attracting attention on the revolution, something what did not occur in 1988, when thousands were murdered by the junta.
The DVB’s work was and is marked by four primary goals:

• the provision of “accurate and unbiased news to the people of Burma”

• to “promote understanding and cooperation” among Myanmar’s religious and ethnic populations

• to “encourage and sustain independent public opinion” and to provide for “social and political debate”

• to “impart the ideals of democracy and human rights” to the Burmese people

Ideals, which were honored by being awarded the Reporters without Borders’ prize.

Another prize winner is the Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer, who was awarded in the category “cyberdissident” ((FreeKareem!: Reporters Without Borders awards Kareem)). The 23 years old student, who was sentenced to prison because of insulting Islam and president Mubarak in February, mainly owes this to the “Free Kareem! Coalition” ((Free Kareem!)). Since Kareem became arrested in November 2006, they are working to attract international attention on his case.
As representative of Kareem, his lawyer traveled to Paris and got the prize, which includes 2500 €uros, in behalf of him. The money is a not to be underestimated help to the arrested, because he has been expelled from his family and depends on donations for his basic necessities.

The other prizewinners are Seyoum Tsehaye, an Eritrean journalist arrested since 2001, and the Journalistic Freedom Observatory from Iraq. Also, the Reporters without Borders awarded a special prize to husband-and-wife human rights team Hu Jia and Zeng Jinyan. Both are currently under house arrest, but still doing their best to inform the world on human rights abuse in China, especially when dealing with next years Olympic Games in Beijing ((T-Shirt showing the Olympic rings as handcuffs, stating “Beijing 2008″)).