project freedom: social media's role in the release of tarek shalaby from military prison
TRANSCRIPT
Project Freedom:
Getting Tarek Shalaby out of
Military Prison using Social Media
as a catalyst
Presentation Agenda
The Back Story:
• Who the hell is Tarek Shalaby?
• Why the hell was he in Jail?
The Campaign to get Shalaby out of Prison:
• Strategy
• Vehicles
• Results
• Takeaways
The Back Story
Who the hell is Tarek
Shalaby?
- Tarek Shalaby is a Political Activist / Citizen
Journalist who participated in the 18 day sit in that
led to the toppling of Egyptian Dictator Hosni
Mubarak
- In his spare time he is Creative Director / Partner @
planet360
- He often speaks out about issues related to the
Israeli occupation of Palestine
- He is serious, passionate and dedicated to helping
liberate Egypt
Sometimes…
Why the hell was he in
Military Prison?
- Shortly after the toppling of Dictator Hosni Mubarak
Palestine was slated to undertake its “3rd “Intifada”
- Thousands of Egyptians had planned to mark the
occasion and show their support by heading out to
the Egyptian – Palestinian borders as a show of
support and solidarity
- Buses were rented to drive everyone out to the
borders and a meeting point; Tahrir square was
chosen
- However the Military Rulers of the “New Egypt”
which is still very much like “Old Egypt” had other
plans……
They banned all private and
public transportation from
heading to the borders
And actually blocked all the
roads heading towards Sinai
Several people attempted
to go anyway….
Including Tarek Shalaby
And wound up…
Nowhere
For those a bit more
practical; including myself
We organized a
demonstration in front of the
Israeli Embassy in Cairo
Shalaby fed up with the army
and his trip to the middle of
nowhere
Arrived at the demonstration
as the demonstration was
decreasing in numbers
And the Israeli, sorry Egyptian Army
was increasing
At 4am on that fateful night I
received the following text
message from a mutual friend….
“I can’t reach Shalaby and
looking at his tweets I think
he’s been arrested”
I got up in a state of panic and
looked at his twitter timeline clearly
describing an ambush by the army
and his subsequent arrest
“I can’t reach Shalaby and
looking at his tweets I think
he’s been arrested”
As well as watched a video he took and
uploaded from his cellphone of his arrest
And started a little campaign….
The Campaign
Step One – Get All the Details
I contacted an eye-witness and got the exact story
and then cross-checked it with his twitter timeline
Step Two – Spread the Info
I then wrote up a quick blog post detailing everything that happened and tweeted out the link as
well as giving out my cell phone number inviting anyone with information to contact me
Blog Post Snapshot: 4,000 Hits / One Day
Step Two – Spread the Info
As we visited military prison and pressed the army
for more information I continued tweeting all vital
information received to keep people in the loop
Step Two – Spread the Info
Furthermore many media outlets including Huffington Post, Al Jazeera & NY Times viewed the blog post and started spreading the story to a wider
audience than I could ever reach on my own
Step Three – Keep the Pressure
Along with several close friends we then started a
Facebook page calling for the immediate release of
Tarek Shalaby and started a hashtag #FreeShalaby
Step Three – Keep the Pressure
We called for a demonstration which was posted on the
facebook page as well as in many blogs (including
mine)stating the specific rules of the demonstration & the
inviting all Egyptians as well as members of the press
My blog post giving specific details and
instructions as related to the demonstration
The demonstration filled the square and tens of
media outlets covered the protest
Step Four – Tie into a Wider Cause
In Parallel with Step Three we actually tied in the cause of getting Tarek Shalaby out of jail; which may be relevant
to those that know him to a greater concern of Egyptians; Military trials for civilians which led to tremendous support and interest from a wide base of Egyptians
Step Five – Breakthrough
We finally started getting concrete information on
Shalaby’s trial date and after continued pressing
Shalaby along with over 100 prisoners were set free
In 4 Days…..
Takeaways - Speed
Getting the information out there in a short period of time is essential; the news cycle; particularly in
Egypt is rapid and yesterday’s news is… yesterday’s news
Takeaways - Persistence
Continual pushing of updates and information with regards to the cause is essential to keep people
interested and in the loop; Social Media (particularly twitter) is vital
Takeaways – Attention Span
Working really hard in terms of mobilizing people with regards to the cause quickly is essential
because if this isn’t achieved quickly people will move onto something else
Takeaways – Social Media the Mobilizer
In our case Social Media was the catalyst in terms of
getting the information out there however without
constant on the ground pressure nothing is achieved
The next day Shalaby was back to
demonstrating….
After a little fun