CAIRO: The Cairo-based Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) said on Saturday that it was “seriously disturbed” by the blocking of the United Arab Emirate (UAE) forum, Montada AlHewar. According to the rights group – which documents media and blogging abuses across the Middle Eeast – UAE authorities have been blocking the site since February 7, in what the group said was a “clear revocation of the allegations that only pornographic sites are blocked in UAE.” In a letter to ANHRI, the forum's administration said that the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority in the Gulf country had informed the many users who reported not being able to access the site that the site is not blocked, but was in the midsts of undergoing technical difficulties. TRA requested that the forum technical support staff would contact them to fix the problem, ANHRI said they were told. When the forum support staff contacted the TRA, the authority denied responsibility and pointed out the ISPs, Itisalat and Du, as being in charge of the problem although TRA requested the forum to contact them in the first place. “It is also known the company, Proxy Emarat, is an affiliate of TRA and not to any ISP,” ANHRI said in its press release. In addition, the TRA did not provide any useful information to Itisalat or Du in order to fix the problem with the forum staff, the watchdog reported. ANHRI added that the UAE is “one of the examples of the barefaced inconsistencies between rhetoric and reality,” adding that the government “encourages people to use the Internet with one hand and blocks thousands of sites with the other for allegedly being unfavorable for religious, cultural or sometimes political reasons. “Yet, blocking internet sites is rather consistent with the prevailing climate of restriction that controls media work in UAE.” In its statement, the Cairo-based freedom advocate also called on the UAE to carry out its commitments and “respect freedom of expression.” ANHRI stressed that the current governmental attitude might lead to lifting the UAE name from the list of nations that are “consistent in defending freedom of expression and providing for citizens' right to Internet access. UAE practices are at odds with the reform rhetoric and the official promises made at international forums to respect these rights.” BM
