RSF: Egypt on internet blacklist

Who says things in Egypt aren't actually getting worse?

"(Egyptian) President Hosni Mubarak, in power since 1981, has shown a particularly worrying authoritarianism as concerns the Internet," RSF said in a statement.

Internet use is one of the freedoms monitored by the rights group surveying civil liberties around the world.

RSF said three bloggers were arrested in Egypt in June and detained for two months for saying they were in favour of democratic reform, while others had been harassed.

It also expressed concern at an Egyptian court ruling that said an Internet site could be shut down if it posed a threat to national security.

Aside from confusing bloggers who get arrested for taking part in protests with ones who get arrested for blogging, this part of a wider worrying trends -- as seen by the security interference in this month's student and labor elections, the revanchisme against the Judges' Club (more on that later), and dimming prospects of meaningful constitutional reform.