Over at the ConservativeHome blog, Big Brother Watch Campaign Director Daniel Hamilton has written a piece about the increasingly poor human rights situation in Syria.
In his piece, he looks at harsh treatment of bloggers and the steps being taken to increasingly stifle the freedom of the press in the country:
"My organisation Big Brother Watch is keen to draw urgent attention to the regime’s treatment of bloggers and journalists – the very people who are playing an increasingly important role in the struggle for freedom and democracy in the Arab world.
"In July of last year, Reporters Without Borders ranked Syria 165th out 175 countries in their Press Freedom Index, and they regard Syria as one of the world’s 40 worst “predators of press freedom” and as an “Enemy of the Internet.”
"As is de rigueur in undemocratic regimes, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are banned inside the country. Sensing that other news sources cannot be so easily suppressed, the Syrian government has sought to take further concrete steps to assert their control over the free press.
"The Committee to Protect Journalists recently marked 10 years of President Bashar’s rule with a report placing Syria in the top 10 worst countries in which to be online. Indeed, under the new internet law which is awaiting final assent from the Syrian Parliament, a new legal framework has been established which would require both ordinary bloggers and journalists to register as members of the country’s state-controlled journalism union – a move which would see their comments subjected to the veto-power of the government’s powerful media regulator"
Click here to read the full piece.
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