Egypt

The Guardian's Jack Shenker writes about the use of online technologies in the struggle against Egypt's repressive regime.

In today's roundup: Zimbabwe, Egypt, Italy, Burma, Australia and China.

Photo of Pangsau, Burma, by Flickr user Artisteinconnu-back.

The much flaunted system of democracy has promised its recipients the chance to choose their leaders but has this promise always been fulfilled? The process of voting has been contentious and sometimes flawed to the degree that disillusioned citizens abstain from casting their vote. For democracy to advance the representative system it promotes, we have to look at the importance of the election process.

Today's movie, Egypt: We are watching you, probes the necessity of voting and whether casting your ballots actually makes a difference.

In Egypt (site of the Why Democracy? film Egypt: We Are Watching You), where 11 journalists were sentenced to prison terms last month, Ibrahim Issa, editor of Al-Dustour and a high-profile critic of President Hosni Mubarak, is now headed to trial.

Press freedom exists to about the same extent in Egypt as democracy, i.e., both flourish only in the propaganda of the government. Elsewhere, blogger and journalist Hossam al-Hamalawy reports that a cleric is backing a judge's attempt to have the government ban 51 blogs and websites (including al-Hamalawy's). And Nora Younis writes of another blogger, just released from prison, who has revealed the name of the security officer who he says tortured him.

Al-Hamalawy's blog gives a great inside view of Egypt's political turmoil and the struggle against the Mubarak regime. In other posts he details the ongoing government crackdown on student groups, the massive coordinated strikes now taking place and international solidarity movements.

A court in Egypt has sentenced three journalists and four editors to prison and forced labor.

Al Jazeera reports three journalists were sentenced to two years in jail while Reporters Without Borders speaks of four editors, who have to pay the highest possible fines and have to spend one year in forced labor. The journalists were punished for spreading "untrue information which damaged the reputation of the justice system and the justice ministry".

Find more sources on Google News and related articles in our archive.

Learn more about freedom in Egypt by watching our documentary Egypt: We Are Watching You! about the brave women from Shayfeen.com. Join the global debate in our forum: What would make you start a revolution?