The 80 people living at the St Paul’s site and the 40-50 living at an abandoned school building near Old Street were greeted in the small hours of the morning with police vans, bailiffs, riot cops and a gaggle of press photographers. Supporters received text messages and tweets from people on site and those who could make the post-midnight journey came down to stand in support or rubberneck over the police lines set up around it. Occupy’s tech team began a long night of tweeting and livestream broadcasts. As the sun rose over a hazy London, the bulldozers arrived at the School of Ideas and before most people had finished their breakfasts and set off on their morning commutes, the abandoned Islington school was no more. And St Paul’s was, for the first time since 15 October 2011, clear of tents and banners.
After a decision from the Court of Appeal was passed to prevent an appeal for protesters to remain encamped on the St Paul’s site, life there began to show signs of strain. The weekend before the eviction, most of the residential tents were still in place but some of the larger structures at the side of the cathedral were taken down or relocated. People were pre-empting a “dawn raid” — as in the way the Parliament Square anti-war encampments were evicted. It was no longer a case of if, but when.
So when the floodlights arrived just after midnight with its chorus of riot police and neon-vested bailiffs, they were expected. Some people chose to wear their tents instead of have them destroyed, and others built a structure out of pallets and stood on it in token resistance to the eviction. Police arrested 23 protesters but for the most part, people decamped to the remaining Occupy site at Finsbury Square and began the process of asking “what now?”
The High Court’s decision in favour of the City of London Corporation was an attempt to put the nail in the coffin of the Occupy movement’s protest and dissent. The swathe of evictions across all Occupy sites is the state’s way of trying to bury it. Ahead of the London 2012 Olympic Games, the erection of tents and the possession of sleeping equipment on Olympic sites were declared unlawful. Reports that government ministers are drafting legislation loosely based on part 3 of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 and that they will invoke the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006 to protect Olympic branding and sponsors make this government’s position on what matters crystal clear. This is legislation for the short term that will carry the weight of precedent against your human right to protest in the long term. Do not mess with the money machine. You can have “peaceful protest” but the minute you start cutting near the bone, you will be stopped. Your free speech ends where the profit margin begins.
The bleary eyes of the occupiers are dead today. Their bodies are slumped in exhaustion on a muddy plot of land next to a car park and the Bloomberg building. But their heels are digging into the soil as they vow to carry on.
It matters little what you personally feel about the global Occupy Movement and London’s part in it. You could be devoted to it as a zeitgeist, you can maintain that occupation should be a political tactic used to achieve tangible change or you could say that the sight of riot police on the steps of St Paul’s cathedral at 2am was the most radical thing to come out of that plot of land. The truth is this — gambling by financial institutions around the world has crippled the many for the benefit of the few. The blind eye turned by governments to this wanton destruction of lives shows that our will as the people to form the basis of authority of government has been raped. We are no longer equal before the law.
UPDATE 15:37 28/02/11: France’s President Sarkozy has said that Le Figaro correspondent Edith Bouvier has escaped Homs and is in Lebanon. This has not been fully confirmed.
The Sunday Times has confirmed that British photographer Paul Conroy has escaped from the besieged city of Homs in Syria. Conroy, who was injured in the attack that killed war Sunday Times war correspondent Marie Colvin and French journalist Remi Ochlik was smuggled out of the city by anti-government accidents and is now in Lebanon. There have been reports that several activists were killed by government forces during the escape. Several media workers remain trapped in Homs. The Syrian army’s elite 4th armoured division is reported to have been deployed to Homs, prompting fears of a further escalation of the government assault on the city.
Egypt’s secretary of education has instructed educational institutions to prohibit students from engaging in political activities.
The prohibition is understood to include taking part in political debates, writing articles, joining demonstrations, and setting up blogs. The Education Secretary’s announcement comes on the heels of escalating legal and electronic assaults that target Egyptian children who show an interest in future reforms to the political system of their country.
The case of Ayaa and friends
Ayaa is a 14 year old student. With other Egyptian youngsters she set up online activist group Revolution Under Age or “Thawra mama’hash bitaqa”. Their ages range from 14-16 and their backgrounds represent the range of religious and social groups of their country. Revolution Under Age has one purpose: to champion civil freedoms. Through art and words, these youngsters express their views on what they believe to be the threat of a return to the oppressive political culture that existed in Egypt before the Revolution un Tahrir Square. Although most have never met, these internet friends all want a civil democratic government that represents an egalitarian society.
In mid February, Ayaa and Ali Hisham, another 14-year old founder of the blog, appeared in a popular TV programme, Children of the Arab Spring. Also appearing in the programme were 9-year old Ali Hani and 17-year Mazen Hilmy. The four urged continued activism, saying this alone could prevent a return to the corruption of the past. Ayaa, whose parents both have a military background admitted that she was never allowed to join demonstrations. However, Ayaa and her fellow young guests of the programme rejected the continued rule of their country by the Military Council SCAF.
The youngsters also discussed the contents and approaches of Egyptian education. They noted that in their schools history, religion, and other subjects central to Egyptian identity were all geared to glorifying the rulers. They felt that questions were often discouraged, that school officials did not approve of dialogues. The TV series alarmed military rulers and those who defend the political culture that these young people hoped to change.
There are more and more young people like Ayaa and her friends in Egypt. In order to quash the example that their voices may set, the state apparatus went on an all fronts offensive against Egypt’s young people who dare to express political views. To further sustain its assault against adolescents, the state seeks to intimidate their parents and any media outlet that associates itself with young voices. Two lawyers with close ties to SCAF and former President Mubarak filed a complaint against the presenter of the programme to the Public Prosecutor. The complaint accuse him of abusing children by engaging them in political debates. Mubarak’s lawyers described the programme as the devil’s idea aimed at instilling novel standards in future generations. Children’s exposure must be restricted to children’s topics, the complainants noted. Other SCAF/Mubarak voices in the media repeated similar accusations in condemnation of the programme’s makers.
Yet more worrying, however, is the daily war of intimidation on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blog sphere, and email accounts directed at young Egyptians who campaign for civil freedoms and against the continued rule of the Military Council SCAF. The State’s electronic militias target their websites and use fake accounts to bombard the children’s Twitter and Facebook pages with abusive messages. The electronic militias, or electronic committees, as Egyptians now call them, were first set up by the party of the ousted President Mubarak. The ruling party’s Media and Youth officials ran their operations. Their official purpose was to reach younger Egyptians. In the case of Ayaa and her friends, they receive messages describing them as traitors soiled by Western ideas, and with a barrage of obscene insults. In the past week, young activists received a threat from an email account named “mubaraksons”.
In late 2010 younger Egyptians used the electronic media to organise themselves into what became the Tahrir Square Revolution. Now these electronic state-sponsored militias appear to be a key player in the struggle between two political cultures competing to decide the shape of Egypt. The keenness with which SCAF is using the might of the state apparatus to pursue the children of its country is cause for concern, and not only to groups that defend freedom of speech.
Haifaa G Khalafallah is a former Middle East Editor for Index on Censorship
Recognising investigative journalism of dogged determination across a range of media including print, online, radio and television, taking into consideration impact, originality and revelation
Han Han, blogger, China
The author of China’s most widely read blog, 29-year-old Han Han has been called “the world’s most popular blogger”. He is also famed for being a cultural critic, race-car driver, actor and novelist. But despite his rock star status he has long been considered a thorn in the side of the Chinese government.
Though he has avoided ideological allegiances, Han Han recently sparked controversy with his essays, “On Democracy”, “On Revolution” and “Wanting Freedom”, which questioned where democracy really equals freedom and whether China will ever be capable of genuine reform.
Han Han has talked about suffering censorship: “Each time I do finish writing something and then can’t see it [after I post it, because it has been censored], I get despondent. And there are just so many government departments [to get past]. Even if the propaganda department and the General Administration of Press and Publications are fine with something, any department issued can wipe your essay away with a simple phone call.”
Lucía Escobar, journalist, Guatemala
Lucía Escobar’s story highlights the state of press freedom in Guatemala, where journalists are regularly intimidated by paramilitary groups. Escobar is a freelance columnist for El Periódico, a publication based in Guatemala City, and also operates an online radio station, Radio Ati.
On 19 October 2011, Escobar published a column alleging that a local mayor had turned a citizens’ group into a death squad that was socially cleansing “undesirables”, such as beggars and homeless people, and committed crimes including lynchings, torture, beatings and a kidnapping. In her column, Escobar blamed local government figures for being indifferent to the group’s activities.
Subsequent death threats forced Escobar to flee her home with her family and she has said she will remain in exile until the situation improves. No action has been taken by Guatemalan authorities, pointing to a worrying trend in Central America where those in power ignore attacks on journalists.
Kayvan Samimi, journalist, Iran
Iranian journalist Kayvan Samimi has been instrumental in keeping dissent alive in the Islamic Republic.
Despite being imprisoned since 2009, Samimi has played a significant role in highlighting the attacks against those who attempt criticise the Iranian administration. In May 2011 Samimi co-authored a letter condemning the Iranian administration for its treatment of prisoners. The letter recorded the methods of torture used against the signatories.
He is serving a six-year prison sentence on charges of “propagating against the regime” and “assembly and collusion to disrupt national security” and has been banned from “political, social, and cultural activities” for 15 years, having been detained in the immediate aftermath of the 2009 presidential election.
Idrak Abbasov, journalist, Azerbaijan
Idrak Abbasov is an Azerbaijani journalist whose investigative work has put his life in danger. Abbasov reports for newspaper Ayna-Zerkalo, contributes to the Institute for War & Peace Reporting website, and he is one of the founding members of Azerbaijan’s Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS) .
On 9 September 2011, after Abbasov investigated the activities of a local oil company, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) sent bulldozers to his family’s home. SOCAR claimed ownership of the site as part of a project to develop local oil resources with Global Energy Azerbaijan Ltd. His parents and brother were hospitalised after being attacked by the company’s security service during the incident.
It is believed that bulldozers targeted the journalist’s home because of his work monitoring human rights. The violence, threats and harassment of Abbasov and his family continued when his parents were again attacked at their home. One assailant reportedly said: “Tell Idrak to get smarter, or we will cut off his ears.”
