In autocratic counties such as Jordan with no system built to ensure accountability, models of control over internet access may range from legislative measures enforced by the government to informal techniques exercised by the private sector.

Formal censorship techniques are exercised through a legislated framework for law enforcement to block websites, and fine journalists, bloggers, editors-in-chief, and owners of online content. The design of the legal framework relieves Jordan from local and international pressure given that it is only applying the rule of law put forward by an elected parliament. In this blog Reem Almasri talks about the informal techniques the country have used, and still use, to control access to information in cooperation with the private sector, especially internet service providers.

Read more

On the 100th anniversary of the birth of the famed novelist Albert Camus, the Smithsonian reporter returns to his birthplace, Algeria, in search for signs of his legacy. In this well-written article, he shares his findings, among which is a striking forgetfulness of one of the greatest writers of his time.

“Camus is regarded as a giant of French literature, but it was his North African birthplace that most shaped his life and his art. In a 1936 essay, composed during a bout of homesickness in Prague, he wrote of pining for “my own town on the shores of the Mediterranean...the summer evenings that I love so much, so gentle in the green light and full of young and beautiful women.” Camus set his two most famous works, the novels The Stranger and The Plague, in Algeria, and his perception of existence, a joyful sensuality combined with a recognition of man’s loneliness in an indifferent universe, was formed here.”

Read more