By FAHIMA HAQUE
Observer Contributor
Feb. 15, 2008

Middle Eastern bloggers express their personal views based on politically-allotted freedoms, according to three prominent bloggers from Iran, Iraq and Lebanon, who spoke on a recent panel held at the American Enterprise Institute.

Blogging in the Middle East is a fairly new phenomenon, but is gaining momentum among people interested in voicing their opinions, according to moderator Michael Rubin, resident scholar in foreign and defense policy studies at the Institute.

Early blogs in Iraq emerged post-U.S. invasion. Five years later, there are 100,000 blogs in Arab countries, according to Mohammed Ali, blogger for IraqtheModel.com, an online collection of blogs offering opinions on the future of Iraq. Ali was one of PC World’s 50 most important people on the Internet.

“Blogs are a new window for people to express themselves,” Ali said during the discussion.

Bloggers from the Middle East face government restrictions and intimidation, according to three writers who spoke at the American Enterprise Institute.

Secular blogs that criticize history and discuss new issues have led to dozens of conferences and non-governmental organizations submitting their suggestions to the Iraqi Parliament, according to Ali.

Not all of the nations represented are facing the same issues, however. Lebanon is different, according to Tony Badran, research fellow for the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. He said the blogging dynamic doesn’t revolve around dissidents throughout the regime, but instead presents a reflection on life in Lebanon.

Prior to 2005, there were no real political blogs in Lebanon. But the February 2005 assassination of the former prime minister sparked a greater political awareness among the Lebanese people, according to Badran. He said news sources in Lebanon are often biased and blogs serve as a correction for Western journalists.

“One of the values of blogs is to serve as a directive,” said Badran.

In other instances, blogging provides a useful alternative to the pressures facing journalists like Arash Sigarchi. Sigarchi is an Iranian freelance journalist, blogger and former editor of the Iranian daily “Gilan Emrooz,” and was briefly imprisoned for his journalistic endeavors. He was arrested in August 2004 and was sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment, but was released two months later when his newspaper paid the bail.

A new governmental program in Iran forced all newspaper journalists to cooperate with the regime. There is a clear economic and social advantage given to those who cooperated and a clear disadvantage for those who declined the offer, Sigarchi said.

Sigarchi said he turned to blogging when the external and internal mechanisms of censorship strained his ability to objectively report the news. These mechanisms include governmental pressure and intimidation tactics, according to Sigarchi.

Sigarchi also said the Iranian judiciary, under the supreme leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran, has shut down more than 200 newspapers over the past few years.

“The acquisition of drugs, narcotics in Iran is easier than the access of news,” Sigarchi said.

The American Islamic Congress encourages young journalists and activists in the Middle East to blog and assists those persecuted by the law, according to Executive Director Zainab Al-Suwajj in an interview with this publication. Al-Suwajj founded this civil rights organization six years ago to promote tolerance and the exchange of ideas between Muslims and people of other backgrounds, according to the organization’s Web site.

Iraqi blogger Ali pointed out that while all three bloggers discussed different media transparency obstacles facing their respective nations, they share one common characteristic.

“We met each other in our virtual land, which is the Web site,” Ali said.