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The Arabic Network Releases Katib Blogs to the Arab Audience
Cairo, February 14, 2008
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information released today Katib Blogs service providing the opportunity for writers, journalists, human rights activists and Arab young people, to get free blogs where they can record their experiences & publish their own news and their viewpoints, and to enable them to write what they see away from the usual restrictions on freedom of expression in the Arab world.
Katib Blogs Service, is the fruit of collaborative work of an entire team of technical experts and bloggers besides the staff of the Arabic Network. Katib Blogs is an Arabic blogging service free of charge, not dependent on advertisements, and available to all citizens and young Arabs with no exception, and is characterized by the absence of content control, censorship or interference from the service admins or from the Arabic Network concerning what the bloggers write & publish. Katib Blogs are available via simple domain title "yourname.katib.org" a title easy to write and remember even for non-English speakers.
Katib Blogs Service is the product of collaborative efforts of the working team for about twenty months, since the summer of 2005 until now, also several young men & women, as well as several activists from around ten Arab countries had contributed to testing, practicing on the use of Katib Blogs, and by now these volunteers had already started more than a hundred and thirty active blogs, with seventeen Arab countries represented.
Although the Katib Blogs Service starting from today is accepting requests from the Arab public who wish to get a blog, yet some blogs of the young activists who took part in the testing phase became well known & rich in topics such as:
Mohamed Al-Othman, from Bahrain: http://alothman.katib.org
Yemen today, Yemen: http://alhamdi.katib.org
What else o' my homeland!, Egypt: http://elsaeedi.katib.org
Towards renewal, Egypt http://moneep.katib.org
New Maan's blog, Jordan http://newmaan.katib.org
Darfur Youths, Sudan http://youtndarfour.katib.org
Wedna Neeish (We wanna live) about the Sinai Bedouins, Egypt http://wednane3ish.katib.org
As well as other blogs that gave a real indicator of the success of the project before its release to the public.
"We are sponsoring Katib Blogs, as a blog service made available to all young Arabs, and not only for activists," said Gamal Eid the Executive Director of The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information and he added, " Katib Blogs are available to all who wish to obtain an Arabic blog, easy to use, not imposing any restrictions on freedom of expression & not exercising content control or censorship. We are eager to provide a blog for each of those who believe that silence is not the best choice!"
The Home page of Katib Blogs, includes a user guide, registration form, FAQs, as well as a forum for technical support and technical assistance for users to overcome any problem or difficulty in the managing their blogs.
Katib Blogs also would help you, through its home page, to get an idea about the latest news & posts from significant blogs whether Katib Blogs or other blogs, in Arabic & also in English. This is achieved through a team of editors who are actively following Arab blogs updates, as a means to highlight the most important issues addressed by the bloggers as citizen journalism activists.
Katib Blogs also allows bloggers to add audio and video files for those who are interested, as well as providing the RSS service as well as the opportunity to choose among different designs & themes, other than many possibilities offered by the control panel of each blog.
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, while launching this service today, hopes that this project will help the Arab youths to join what has started by millions of bloggers in the world and complemented by the Arab Internet activists, whether those who are remaining in prison until now, or those who passed away, not forgetting on the top of the list, the Tunisian activist Zouhair Yahyaoui.
Among those who have contributed to the emergence of Katib Blogs was a great working team composed of:
- Alaa Abdul Fattah: programming and technical solutions.
- Manal Hassan, Zeinab Samir: artistic designs.
- Ahmed Gharbeia: Translating technical terms into Arabic, logo design, preparing theuser guide and training.
- Amr Gharbeia: Translating technical terms into Arabic .
- Mohammed Samir: programming.
- Elijah Zaroan: coordination.
- Abdou Abdel Aziz: testing and editing.
- Mohammed Ragab: testing and technical support.
- Ahmed Abu Seif: technical support.
- Sally Sami: testing and program coordination.
Important Links of Katib:
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