Egyptian bloggers: a civilian voice against torture Most famous among those stories is that of Emad El Kabir. Emad El Kabir is a minibus driver from Cairo, who was sodomised with a wooden pole by a police sergeant acting on orders from an officer who filmed the assault on his mobile phone and promised to distribute the film to humiliate the victim. The video came into the possession of one of Egypt’s most famous bloggers, Wael Abbas, who made it available to a global audience (online at http://misrdigital.blogspirit.com), which created public outrage. The case of Emad El Kabir is one of very few cases of torture which found its way to the courts, bypassing the impunity filter provided by the Egyptian public prosecutor. Such an outcome would have been highly unlikely in the absence of the wide coverage initiated by that blog. Several such videos have followed this and other blogs, some of which focus specifically on the issue of torture (e.g., http:// www.tortureinegypt.net). Many of those blogs post their material both in Arabic and English and have thereby become a precious source of information for international media and human rights organisations, as well as local ones. Their impact is so strong that lawyers and human rights activists paying visits to inmates in police stations and prisons are stripped of their mobile phones for fear of using them to film abuses and publish them on the internet. The government has openly expressed its concern regarding the uncensored “abuse of free media” by bloggers on several occasions, especially those involving public protests and demonstrations. Egyptian bloggers have been subject to threats and harassment in addition to actual arrest, detention and torture. People using internet cafes are routinely asked for their IDs and several internet cafes have suffered police raids and arrests of some of their known users. Despite all restrictions and newly suggested legislation to curb freedom of internet use and dissemination of information, a trend has begun and continues to gain in size, skill and innovation. Egyptian bloggers are fulfilling a real need and, among other roles, constitute a credible bridge between various social sectors and organisations, which could use an inspiring channel of communication. Their activism has raised the fight against torture to a more visible level. 45