The news is all awash today with the story of Amina, writer of A Gay Girl in Damascus. It appears she may not be real.
But let’s not forget, amidst all this hoo-hah, that there are other journalists and bloggers – real others – being held in communicado by the Syrian authorities, where they are at risk of torture and ill-treatment.
It is believed that the following journalists are currently detained:
Dorothy Parvaz: Aljazeera.net correspondent, arrested on 29 April 2011.
Mahmoud Issa: Journalist and writer, arrested on 19 April 2011.
Khaled Sid Mohand, freelance journalist for a number of news outlets including Le Monde, arrested on 12 April 2011.
Zaid Mastu, Al-Arabiya net correspondent, arrested on 12 April 2011.
Mohamed Dibo: Journalist and writer, arrested on 12 April 2011.
More information, including what you can do, is available here.
Amnesty International has information about the ongoing situation in Syria here.
Dorothy Parvaz of Al Jazeera English has been free for more than three weeks. She arrived in Doha, Qatar, on 18 May.
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/spotlight/dorothyparvaz/
Ah – thank you very much! I couldn’t find any updates on their situations.
That was me, not logged in properly.
“Amina,” identified: http://ht.ly/5fXYM
So “Amina” was a straight American guy in Scotland. Here’s an arabic perspective on the matter http://www.kabobfest.com/2011/06/a-gay-girl-in-damascus.html
There is a lot wrong with this thing from many viewpoints, I think.