Digital Dystopia: Egyptian Civil Society At Risk

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https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/06/digital-dystopia-egyptian-civil-society-risk

>On June 23, Amnesty International—along with IFEX, Human Rights Watch, FIDH, and seven other organizations—issued a joint statement on the “existential threat” faced by Egyptian civil society. In recent months, the statement reads:

>Many people working with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been detained and ill-treated, charged with offences under the draconian Counter-terrorism law, or subject to a judicial request to ban them from travel and freeze their assets.

>Digital rights defenders are amongst those who have been targeted. In March’s Digital Citizen, a monthly review published by EFF and five other organizations, we’ve covered the judicial harassment of and travel bans imposed on Gamal Eid and Hossam Baghat, two prominent advocates whose organizations—ANHRI and EIPR—have been instrumental in the fight for human rights in Egypt. More recently, OTF fellow Wafa Ben Hassine published a paper that demonstrates how four Arab countries—including Egypt—use legal means to silence freedom of expression and its advocates online.

>It is not just the defenders of free speech, but free speech itself being attacked. In February, three young Coptic students were sentenced to five years in prison, and another to five years in juvenile custody, for a video in which they mocked members of the Islamic State.