Blogger jailed for insulting Egypt's military

Blogger jailed for insulting Egypt's military

A military court has sentenced blogger Maikel Nabil to three years in prison for criticizing the Egyptian army. On the 8th of March, this 26 year old activist posted an article online in which he accused the army of carrying out abuses before and after the Egyptian revolution.

Nabil is a controversial blogger. He has declared his pro-Israeli position on numerous occasions, and considers the neighbouring country an ally. He posted a video on YouTube at the beginning of February, calling upon the Jewish State to support the Square Tahrir protesters.

But although not everyone shares the same opinions as Nabil, far from it, he has gained the support of many Egyptian cyber activists who are currently campaigning for him on social networks. One Facebook group calling for his release drew near to 3 000 web users in a very short time.

And numerous bloggers like human rights activist Ramy Raoof, feel this sentence sets a dangerous precedent and threatens freedom of expression in the post Mubarak era.

The Egyptian army is also accused of slowing down the transition process towards democracy. Criticism has intensified following Saturday’s military intervention to evacuate Tahrir Square where protesters had gathered to demand the authorities speed up reforms.

The blogger Amin El Masry is asking his fellow citizens to remain vigilant and says the revolution needs to keep the pressure on the army to stop them taking control.

Ongoing protests in Yemen

Anti-government protests continue in Yemen. As we can see in these images which were filmed on Monday in Taiz in the south west of the country and have been doing the rounds on sharing sites ever since, tens of thousands of demonstrators took part in fresh rallies demanding political reform and calling for the resignation of Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has ruled the country for the past 32 years.

Protests against the Yemeni President have been underway for two months and ever since he announced he would not step down before the end of his term in 2013, the movement appears to have intensified. As we can see in these Facebook photos, a mass of protesters descended into Taiz, brandishing posters and banners attacking Saleh.

Other mass anti-government demonstrations have also taken place across the country. As we can see in this video filmed in Ibb, some protesters destroyed pictures of the President, and according to numerous online accounts, between 600 000 and 1 million people are thought to have taken part in rallies in the capital Sanaa.

The message conveyed by an activist who goes under the name of “Surgical X” is that the sole objective of the demonstrations is to put an end to Ali Abdullah Saleh’s time in power, the only way for Yemeni youth to hope for a better future. He also says here that the protest movement is driven by the people and is in no way masterminded by political parties or religious groups.

And although the President is still holding on to power, opposition members are already imagining what the future holds. In this video filmed in Sanaa, in opposition stronghold “Change Square”, 50 citizens explain what they will do the day Saleh steps down.

Ask President Obama a question on Facebook

On the 20th April, Barack Obama will reply to questions from web users on Facebook during a live session from the company’s headquarters in California. The American President will take part in the event alongside the company’s co-founder Mark Zuckerberg. The social network will select questions for Obama on the economy and innovation. To take part, you just have to visit the dedicated Facebook page or the White House website.

GeoCam.tv

GeoCam TV catalogues hundreds of active webcams across the globe and locates them on an interactive map so that web users can discover new places and travel the world from the comfort of their own home. Mobile phone videos, broadcast in real time on services like Qik are also accounted for.

Video of the day

One German web user decided to compose a piece of music with an old game boy as his only instrument. An unusual experiment, with pretty successful results, as you can see in this video.