I don't know if I've officially mentioned it before, but about a month ago I and a friend launched DigiActive.org, a site which aggregates the most innovative digital activism techniques from around the world. We are really excited because our coverage of the release of Fouad Mourtada was mentioned in the New York Times‘ blog, The Lede. (According to them, we’re a “rights group”.) Click the image to read their full post on Fouad.
cross-posted from DigiActive.org: This is a huge victory for digital activism. Thank you to all the people who supported the campaign, both online and offline! CASABLANCA, March 18 - Fouad Mourtada was released from Oukacha Prison at approximately 8:00pm local time today, having received a royal pardon. Mr. Mourtada, a 26-year old IT engineer, was taken into custody on February 5th, 2008, and was questioned regarding a fake Facebook profile of King Mohammed VI’s younger brother, Prince Moulay Rachid, which
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I've been blogging a lot recently about Fouad Mourtada, the young Moroccan man sentenced to three years in jail for posting a joke profile of the King's brother on Facebook. Yet there is another Fouad - Fouad Alfarhan - who has been in jail for three months with no release imminent. Fouad, who is a politically vocal blogger, was arrested on December 10th, and an online campaign to free him started soon after. However, when President Bush visited Saudi Arabia
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If this had happened 5 years ago, who knows what would have happened. Fouad Mourtada, a young Moroccan posts a joke profile of the King's brother, Moulay Rachid, on Facebook and a few days later the profile is removed from the site. Then, two weeks later, two officials show up at his home, blinfold him, and take him to a secret location where he is interrogated, beaten, and spat upon. Two weeks after his arrest, on February 22, Fouad was
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Last Friday, Fouad Mourtada was sentenced to 3 years in jail for posting a joke profile of the Moroccan King's brother on Facebook. But it's not too late to reduce or reverse this ridiculous sentence. Please take a photo of yourself with a message to Free Fouad. (Please also write where you are from in the message) then send the photo to helpfouad@gmail.comHere are some I took here at Harvard:
Last Friday, Moroccan computer engineer Fouad Mourtada was sentenced to 3 years in jail for posting a fake profile of Prince Rachid (the King of Morocco's brother).His sister Amina has set up a web page www.helpfouad.com to push for the decision to be reversed. Part of this effort (more actions to come) is a petition to free Fouad. Please click the image below to sign the petition:
On February 5, computer engineer Fouad Mourtada was blindfolded and taken from his house in Casablanca, Morocco. He was taken to a police station where he was harassed and spat on by local police. Two weeks later, on February 22, he was sentence to three years in prison and a $1350 fine. His crime was creating a fake profile of Prince Moulay Rachid, the King's brother on Facebook. As Laila Lalami comments on The Nation's web site, "there are fake
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This report was written before I got into digital activism, but it might still be of interest. This is my final report from my year as a Fulbright scholar in Morocco from 2004-2005. It was through the researching this report that I fell in love with grassroots activism, which eventually lead me to my current profession of digital activism consulting. In this report I analyze the new Moroccan political NGO sector, made possible through liberalization in the late nineties under
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In 2006, I founded ZapBoom Consulting, a firm which looks at how digital tools like cell phones and the Internet can be used in campaigns for social change, particularly in developing countries. I have researched and written reports on topics ranging from online citizen journalism to blog advocacy and internet censorship. I have also performed in-country Internet monitoring and international conference organizing. I first became interested in digital activism in 2004-2005 while living in Morocco. It was the fall after
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I said a few days ago that Moroccan democracy is near and dear to my heart and that while the government is shameful, the activists are inspiring. Well, I'd like to be more specific: these activists are inspiring. These three friends (two of then expats) created a photoblog site to record photos related to the upcoming election. You can read Jen Brea's interview with them here at Global Voices. Here are some examples of the photos on their site: "no
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