Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas has certainly faced more intimidating opponents — his Arabic-language blog Egyptian Awareness has made him a target in his country. However, no confrontation has likely gained him more notoriety outside his home country than his recent one with the U.S. video site YouTube.
Last week, the Google-owned outfit shut down Abbas’ account and removed videos he’d posted of alleged state-sponsored torture by Eypptian security forces, citing its violent content.
Keep in mind, Abbas isn’t just any blogger. On Nov. 13, the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) named him the first-ever blogger to win the Knight International Journalism Award. Here’s the tribute video.
After widespread press coverage of Abbas’ pulled videos, and pressure from leading international journalism groups, YouTube relented. It now has agreed to let Abbas repost the videos on his page. Abbas learned of this change of heart late Friday when he arrived at ICFJ’s journalism conference on digital convergence in Guadalajara, Mexico.
In an email to ICFJ, YouTube representatives wrote: “We are committed to preserving YouTube as an important platform for expression of all kinds, while also ensuring that the site remains a safe environment for our users. Balancing these interests raises very tough issues. In this case, our general policy against graphic violence led to the removal of videos documenting alleged human rights abuses because the context was not apparent. Having reviewed the case, we have restored the account of Egyptian Blogger Wael Abbas and if he chooses to upload the video again with sufficient context so that users can understand his important message we will of course leave it on the site.”
It was not clear whether YouTube considered directly restoring the videos, which Abbas said had already gathered many comments and tens of thousands of hits — rather than simply suggesting he restore them himself.
During a dinner with fellow journalists in Guadalajara, Abbas was frank about the dangers he faces, and stark about the challenges of continuing his project under heavy pressure and with little income.
On Saturday, Abbas told a larger gathering of journalists at the conference that media censorship is widespread in Egypt, despite the presence of opposition press there. He also said that self-censorship is practiced in the shadow of past disruption of printing and distribution, the confiscation of publications or videotapes, and other forms of intimidation involving advertisers and funders.
According to Abbas, Egyptian bloggers have now taken on the responsibility to serve as alternative media, especially to cover grassroots protests such as those that emerged at the end of 2004, which they felt were being underreported by mainstream media.
He acknowledges that under such circumstances the “fine line between being a journalist and being an activist disappear.” But outside observers note the high journalistic quality of his blog, including his attention to careful documentation of the abuses he cites.
Egyptians seem to be embracing the approach. Abbas says shortly after he launched, viewers started commenting, and then began sending their own stories and videos — including exclusive, first-hand material, such as the police station torture videos which he believes no newspaper or TV outlet would dare tackle. It is bloggers’ responsibility “to be in the face of the cannon,” said Abbas.
Abbas acknowledged that he and other citizen journalists now suffer retaliation by state security forces. In February, a fellow blogger was jailed for four years, while lesser-known blogs have been forced shut down or intimidated into retracting posts. Abbas says that he has personally faced a campaign of rumors that he had converted from Islam, that he is gay, and that he has a criminal record. He has been accused of assaulting officials, destroying public property, inciting demonstrations, and even stopping traffic — though none of these charges has been pursued by authorities.
Still, Abbas remains an optimist. “The picture is not that dark,” he told an audience of several hundred journalists and others here. “Bloggers have helped raise the mood for freedom of expression, freedom of press, of freedom generally.” He added that civil rights groups have even attributed the bloggers with helping the human rights situation in Egypt — doing more in a few days of blogging that they have been able to do in years.
