Bad economies always drag repression in their wake and social media is no exception to this rule. One of the worst instances is the recent arrest of Ali Abdulemam, a blogger and the editor of the long-running forum Bahrainonline.org (now shut down).
Abdulemam was arrested for the same reason before – he had acted as a midwife to discussion on democracy among other things. This time, he was arrested on September 5 for “publishing false news.” Soon came speculation that he’d been tortured.
A group I was involved with, the Committee to Protect Bloggers, was one of many groups agitating for his release in 2005 during his first arrest. It worked. He was freed. Let’s join together and make sure the same thing happens this time.
Ali’s a reasonable, engaged person, a reporter for Global Voices, a father and businessman. He seems to have made friends in half the countries on earth. No one deserves illegitimate imprisonment and torture.
ReadWriteWeb is not a partisan outfit. There’s plenty of discussion and disagreement (on our own time) about political issues. (One of us even has the temerity to be from New Zealand, if you can believe it.) But some issues are human more than political and this is one of them. Although on a practical level, if everyone like Ali gets sent up the river, who will we write for?
Whoever you are reading this, Ali’s one of you. So here’s what you can do if you want to try to help. Please keep in mind, no matter what you do and who you connect with, don’t be a tool. Ali’s safety is the issue here, not your outrage.
- Tweet Bahrain’s foreign minister, Khalid Alkhalifa
- Write the Bahraini ambassador in your country
- Write one of the Bahraini officials listed here
- Join the Free Ali campaign.
- “Like” the Free Ali Facebook page
- Use your social media accounts to talk about it
- Post a link to your own discussion of Ali on the Free Ali Facebook page
- Leave a comment of support below.
