One-Month Holding in Prison Limit for Bloggers

The cases of bloggers being held for what they have written are too many to be looked over and, to be honest, are quite common in the countries where human rights are often breached. The latest case is that of Fouhad al-Fahran, held in the conservative Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia for over a month. As per usual, a rights group has began voicing and now all the dirt in the world is being gathered in case their demands are not met. Rightfully so, I might add.

The Interior Ministry Spokesman, Mansour al-Turki, confirmed that the blogger was being detained, but further information regarding the reasons that led to this decision was not made available, just that he wasn't being held over any security-related issues. The United States based Committee to Protect Journalists claim that Farhan was arrested because of some articles that he wrote on his website (www.alfarhan.org) about political prisoners in Saudi Arabia.

"Arbitrarily detaining a writer and holding him for weeks without saying why violates the most basic norms for free expression and serves as a chilling reminder to those seeking to express their opinions", the CPJ said in a letter to Reuters. "It also runs counter to official Saudi statements in support of reform and a more open press."

Farhan himself believes that the Saudi authorities probably think that he had been running "an online campaign promoting the political prisoners issue", as he said in an email sent to his friends, a copy of which was found by Reuters.

I wonder what the authorities thought, "as long as you're interested in the way they are treated, let us give you a closer look." Well, I think that's certainly not the way to go, if you care about your public image as a country and as a regime, but who am I to judge?