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Syria Cracks Down on Internet Use

Posted on: Thursday, 27 March 2008, 09:15 CDT

As Syrian officials take pride in a new press center with fast Internet access and wireless technology for journalists, the government is maintaining stricter regulation of public Internet use.

These regulations, conveyed orally by security agents, extend the arm of the Syrian government by requiring Internet cafes to maintain detailed logs of their customers Web usage. This involves recording the customer’s name, ID or passport number, and the length of time spent on the computer.

"It's a new form of psychological pressure and part of the state's systematic intimidation of Internet users," said Mazen Darwish, a journalist who heads the independent Syrian Media Center.

"It works to a certain extent in the sense that it creates a kind of self-censorship among users," he said.

Darwish was arrested in January for reporting over turmoil in Adra, near Damascus . He faces up to a year in prison for allegedly defaming state institutions.

Syria has made some progress in the past. In 2000, President Bashar Assad succeeded his father Hafez Assad and began to usher in the age of Internet and mobile use in Syria. Meanwhile, almost all print and broadcast media remain under the firm grip of the state, a notion Assad has displayed by sending writers and democracy activists to jail.

Syria ranked among 12 “enemies of the Internet,” according to the group Reporters Without Borders. The group added that Syria was "biggest prison for cyber-dissidents” in the Middle East.

The Syrian Media Center acknowledges at least 153 Web sites blocked by Syrian authorities. Noteworthy sites to be banned include Facebook, which was blocked in late December, YouTube, Skype and Google's blogging engine.

Syrian officials do not comment on the Internet blocks, but media sources in the region said that Facebook was blocked to prevent Israeli users from infiltrating Syrian social networks.

"They made life impossible and I decided to leave the country," said Ahed al-Hindi, an economics student now living in Lebanon.

In 2006, al-Hindi was arrested at age 23 for criticizing the regime on an online forum. He was released after one month, but said he continued to be pressured by "nonstop harassment and intimidation" by security agents.

"There is progress in the sense that it's become easier to be online," said Rasha Ibrahim, 24, a psychology graduate.

"Everything forbidden becomes more tempting," she said of the government regulations.

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On the Net:

Reporters Without Borders

Source: redOrbit Staff and Wire Reports

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