The tangled web we weave
By most accounts, 2007 marked a worldwide decline in information freedoms — and Egypt was no exception. Do two recent court decisions upholding freedom of expression signal change is in the air? Or will they be remembered as little more than ghostly blips a year from now?
Pundits have said for years that the internet is the new coffeehouse. An aspiring Omm Kolthoum or Naguib Mahfouz no longer needs to rely on a Café Riche to expose their work to the public —they can do it from practically anywhere with an internet connection, whether a high-speed wireless café in Cairo or bedroom in Upper Egypt. Budding creative and political movements take root in chat rooms and on social networking sites, while the revolutionary tenor of early twentieth-century parlors is echoed in grassroots email lists.
