(WiPC/IFEX) – The following is a WiPC press release: International PEN Writers in Prison Committee Women’s Day 8 March 2005 WOMEN AND “CYBERDISSENT” Tunisia, Iran and China In the past decade, the use of the Internet has risen to phenomenal proportions, transforming societies world wide. It enjoys huge popular support, with a growth in web […]
(WiPC/IFEX) – The following is a WiPC press release:
International PEN
Writers in Prison Committee
Women’s Day 8 March 2005
WOMEN AND “CYBERDISSENT”
Tunisia, Iran and China
In the past decade, the use of the Internet has risen to phenomenal proportions, transforming societies world wide. It enjoys huge popular support, with a growth in web sites, webzines and on-line chat-rooms in which individuals can swap information and ideas. In many countries around the world dissident communities have seized on the Internet with enthusiasm as a method of expressing their views about their governments and launching campaigns for political reform. Very often, traditional print-forms of communication, such as journals, have been banned. The Internet can then promise unfettered exchanges of opinions. ‘Cyberdissent’ has become the samizdat of the 21st century. The issue is especially pertinent in 2005 as preparations are under way for the World Summit on Information Society, to be held in November in Tunisia, a country not known for its tolerance of dissenting views.
Women who use the Internet to disseminate their ideas have found themselves caught up in some governments’ often harsh attempts to control information exchange on the world wide web. To mark this year’s Women’s Day on 8 March, and looking towards the Tunis Summit, PEN is focussing on three cases of women under attack for using new information technology to challenge their governments.
This year PEN is focussing on three women under attack for using the Internet to disseminate information and ideas
– In Tunisia, the editor of an online magazine and fearless defender of human rights, Sihem Bensedrine, has suffered years of harassment and attack
– Two women, Mahboudeh Abbasgholizadeh and Fershteh Ghazi, were caught up in a crackdown against Internet users in Iran, suffering torture and abuse
– In China, Ma Yalian has been in prison for over a year for articles posted on the Internet
(Further details of these cases follow below)
On 8 March, PEN members worldwide will commemorate the courage of these women, and all other women writers and journalists who are detained and under attack today for practising their right to freedom of expression. Writers worldwide will send protests to the Tunisian, Iranian and Chinese authorities to stop the attacks against women who speak out and to end suppression of cyberdissidents.
Tunisia
Sihem Bensedrine
Despite severe repression of freedom of expression over the decades, with writers and journalists who challenge the authorities regularly facing many forms of persecution, including imprisonment and torture, a few individuals are willing to take enormous risks to protect the right to speak out. One of the most remarkable is Sihem Bensedrine, editor of the on-line magazine Kalima.
Bensedrine, who is also a founding member and secretary general of the Observatory for Defence of Freedom of the Press, Publishing and Creation (OLPEC) and the head of the National Council for Freedom in Tunisia (CNLT), is a leading light in the movement for free expression in Tunisia. She has suffered constant persecution by the Tunisian authorities over many years for simply pursuing her right to freedom of expression. In addition to having been subjected to constant harassment and police surveillance, the journalist and human rights activist has suffered severe beatings at the hands of the police. Also, during June and August 2001 she was imprisoned for six weeks on charges of “defamation” and broadcasting “false news” for appearing on a London-based Arabic TV station in an interview in which she discussed corruption in Tunisia. More recently, on 5 January 2004, Sihem Bensedrine was attacked in Paris as she was going to an Internet café. She reports that she was approached by three men in the street, one of whom was known to her, who tripped her, beat her and insulted her. Bensedrine claimed that the Tunisian political police were behind the assault.
Sihem Bensedrine had initially intended to publish Kalima as an independent newspaper in Tunisia. However, as she was unable to obtain auhorisation to do so from the Tunisian government, she decided to publish Kalima as an on-line magazine with the first edition appearing in October 2004. The website is however blocked by the Tunisian authorities within Tunisia and so can only be accessed outside the country. Websites that offer any resistance whatsoever to the regime of President Ben Ali are frequently blocked within Tunisia. Such is the case with international organisations, such as Amnesty International and Reporters sans frontières (RSF), as well as with websites initiated within Tunisia itself.
In November this year, Tunis will host the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). Koffi Annan, the United Nations Secretary General, describes the WSIS as a “global gathering [which] will be a unique opportunity for all key players to develop a shared vision of ways to bridge the digital divide and create a truly global information society.” Tunisia’s poor record on freedom of expression and information makes it a controversial host for the summit. However it provides an opportunity to raise the problems that Tunisians face. As Bensedrine says, “It should be known that the Internet is the main window for Tunisians in this context of total lack of press freedom and communication. It is by the Web that Tunisians get information on what occurs in their country, it is there that they discover international solidarity or the fight of a handful of dissidents who dare to defy dictatorship.”
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Letters calling for an end to attacks against Sihem Bensedrine and other Internet writers should be sent (preferably in French) to:
Président Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
Président de la République
Palais Présidentiel
Tunis, Tunisie
Fax: + 216 71 744 721
Additional material on Tunisia
There are a number of photos of Sihem Bensedrine which can be easily accessed through search engines such as Google.
Sihem Bensedrine’s on-line magazine Kalima which is blocked within Tunisia http://www.kalimatunisie.com
International Freedom of Expression Exchange report on a mission to Tunisia in January 2005
http://ifex.org/en/content/view/full/64776/
WSIS site
http://www.itu.int/wsis/
Iran
Mahboudeh Abbasgholizadeh and Fershteh Ghazi
Use of the Internet has grown faster in the Islamic Republic of Iran than in any other place in the Middle East, with individuals expressing views they could not give vent to hitherto. Very often, traditional print-forms of communication, such as journals, have been closed down by the Iranian authorities: as many as 100 publications are believed to have been banned in the past five years. The Internet has therefore promised individuals an alternative means of unfettered exchanges of opinions. However, in September 2004, the Iranian government authorities began a clamp-down on this method of communication also, and around 25 cyberdissidents were arrested.
Of special concern to the Writers in Prison Committee, are the cases of seven on-line journalists who were arrested between September and November 2004 in Iran. Among them were two women, Mahboudeh Abbasgholizadeh, editor-in-chief of the women’s magazine Ferzaneh, and Fershteh Ghazi, correspondent for the daily Etemad.
Mahboudeh Abbasgholizadeh was arrested on 1 November 2004, on her return from the European Social Forum, which was held in London. She was reportedly charged with “acts against national security and spreading propaganda”, but was released on bail on 30 November 2004. On 25 December 2004, Abbasgholizadeh, along with other former detainees, testified before a Presidential Commission which was tasked with investigating the mistreatment of prisoners. Former detainees, including Abbasgholizadeh, told the Commission that they had suffered beatings and other physical and psychological pressures while being held in incommunicado detention.
Fershteh Ghazi is a correspondent for the daily Etemad. Like Abbasgholizadeh, Ghazi was detained as part of the general crackdown on online publications. She was arrested on 28 October by the Edarah Amaken, the morality police, and is said to have been accused of “immoral behaviour.” It was reported that a number of male journalists who were arrested in the crackdown were forced to sign confessions “admitting” to engaging in sexual relations with Ghazi. Ghazi was released on bail on 7 December 2004, and was admitted to hospital shortly after her release as she was said to be in poor physical and mental health.
These arrests are part of a long-standing and continuing trend of suppression of writers and journalists in Iran. PEN also has on its records 28 other writers and journalists who are in prison or on trial in Iran. PEN is calling on the Iranian authorities to desist from such harassment of on-line journalists, writers and activists in the future and to instead allow them unfettered access to the Internet and the freedom to express their views fully, in accordance with Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
For further details of this case, please see International PEN’s written submission to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights 61st Session, scheduled to sit in Geneva in March/April 2005
http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G05/110/63/PDF/G0511063.pdf?OpenElement (pdf file)
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Letters of appeal urging that Mahboudeh Abbasgholizadeh, Fershteh Ghazi and all writers and journalists be allowed to practice their profession without fear of persecution in accordance with Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights may be sent to:
His Excellency Hojjatoleslam Sayed Mohammad Khatami
The Presidency, Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
E-mail: Khatami@president.ir
People’s Republic of China
Ma Yalian
Ma Yalian was sentenced to 18 months’ “Re-education Through Labour (RTL)” in March 2004 for an article she wrote in which she criticised the Chinese Petitioning system. The article, entitled “A True Record of Being Turned Away from the National Petitions and Letters Office and the Petitions Bureau of the National Congress”, was posted on a Chinese law website, http://www.chineselawyer.com.cn, and on http://www.djiyun.com, a website run by the Falun Gong, a spiritual group proscribed by the Chinese authorities.
In her article, Ma provided an eyewitness account of the physical abuse meted out to petitioners by the police and officials outside Beijing’s petitions offices. As well as detailing her own physical abuse at the hands of the authorities, Ma’s article also included the personal experiences of other individuals who had been abused while attempting to file a petition. The article also included accounts about individuals who had committed suicide outside the said offices.
According to reports, Shanghai’s RTL Administrative Committee stated in its decision to send Ma to a re-education camp, “. . . from July 2003 until February 2004, Ma Yalian on numerous occasions posted on chineselawyer.com.cn, dajiyuan.com and other websites, articles falsely accusing the Shanghai authorities of causing her physical injury. . .” It added, irritably, that Ma Yalian had “turned petitioning into pestering. . .”
Ma Yalian was previously sentenced to a year’s “re-education” by the Shanghai Public Security Bureau in August 2001, after filing several complaints after being evicted from her Shanghai residence as a result of an urban re-development scheme. According to sources, Ma had both her legs broken while in detention, and has since been disabled.
In June 2004, the free expression group Reporters sans frontières (RSF) noted that China has bought technology from the US based Cisco systems for a comprehensive surveillance system. It reports that the authorities can now: “read data transmitted on the Internet and spot subversive key words. The police are able to identify who visits banned sites and who sends dangerous e-mail messages.” RSF also reported that, “To keep its foothold in this market, Yahoo! agreed to censor the Chinese version of its search engine and to control its discussion forums. So, if you enter ‘Taiwan independence’ into its search engine, you get no results. If you try to post a message on this subject in a discussion forum, it never appears online. The US giant is ready to do anything to conquer the Chinese Internet market.”
Ma Yalian is one of a growing number of Chinese cyberdissidents who have fallen victim not only to their own government’s traditional repression of their right to free speech, but also the new technology supplied by Western-based Internet service providers.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Letters may be sent to the Chinese authorities protesting the detention of Ma Yalian and calling for her release. Please address letters to:
His Excellency Hu Jintao
President of the People’s Republic of China
State Council
Beijing 100032
P.R. China
Additional material on Ma Yalian and China
Human Rights in China:
http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/press?revision%5fid=10593&item%5fid=9495
Epoch Times:
http://english.epochtimes.com/news/4-4-20/21001.html
Associated Press report
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/world/2004-04-01-china-net-jail_x.htm
