Reposted from Blogger for Freedom

Tariq Baiasi¹, a Syrian blogger, has been in prison for more than half a year now. He has not been taken to court, no trial was held against him. Far too long, some of his fellow bloggers think - and have started the Free Tariq Campaign² to help him.

Tariq had to wait a long time till his case even got attention. It’s been more than seven months now that the young computer seller, a quiet 23 years old from the city of Banyas, was kidnapped by the Syrian police. His father had spent 20 years behind bars because security agents who mistook him for a Muslim Brotherhood member - Tariq was arrested for a simple comment on the internet. A comment left on a public forum, criticizing the Syrian security forces, caused the bloggers detention on July 7 last year. And since then, nobody has heard of him.

But unlike other arrests of bloggers - i.e. Kareem Amer³ or Fouad Al-Farhan⁴ - his detention did not cause an international outcry. Tariq did not have the luck to have highly committed friends, he was no leading blogger. And silence came over his case. It lasted for months, till a single Syrian blogger started to post articles on Tariq again⁵. And soon, only a month later, five bloggers founded the group “Free Tariq”⁶.

It’s another one in the long list of groups supporting arrested bloggers. I’ve cited the two most famous Mideastern campaigns, our list of arrested bloggers⁷ includes some more. One could argue, that all these campaigns, actions, rallies have not freed a single blogger. Kareem, Fouad are still in prison, Hu Jia has just been arrested after two years of house arrest - and Tariq will not get out of prison because of half a dozen concerned bloggers. But the initiators of Free Tariq know these questions. They have interviewed Syrian human rights activist Razan Zeituna about the importance of their campaign⁸:

Free Tariq: Are these campaigns important? If so, in what sense?

Razan Zeituna: These campaigns are very important, mostly for unleashing the freedom of speech causes from the dual relationship between the regime and human rights organizations, to make it a public affair that would interest wider circles of people and groups. And while these campaigns lobby for and defend people whose basic rights and freedoms are abused, they also raise awareness on the cause for free speech.
Furthermore, it has been a long time in the Arab region since human rights abuses been taken place without effectual attention from media and human rights agencies. This is changing now; these kinds of campaigns and as they put symbolic pressure on the government, it gives the individuals whose rights are invaded, part of what they deserve, and treat them as people with names and dreams…these kinds of campaigns personify and humanize the abstract causes and transfer them from generalizations frames into personal frames.

Freedom is nothing one can get over night. It’s a process - and human rights campaigns, especially if they focus on freedom of speech, are part of this process. Groups like Free Tariq may not free the blogger they focus on, but after all they attract attention on the importance of freedom of speech and create a public consciousness for human rights. As long as people don’t even know about their freedoms, they cannot demand for them. Activists such as the initiators of Free Tariq create the possibility for people to get informed about human rights, enable them to fight for their own freedom and the freedom of others.

Links:

1. Blogger for Freedom » Arrested bloggers: Tariq Baiasi [↩]
2. Free Tariq [↩]
3. Free Kareem [↩]
4. Free Fouad [↩]
5. Global Voices Advocacy » Syrian bloggers campaign to free fellow blogger Tariq Biasi [↩]
6. Free Tariq [↩]
7. Blogger for Freedom » Arrested Bloggers [↩]
8. Free Tariq » Syrian bloggers campaign to free fellow blogger Tariq Biasi [↩]