The amount of news items on torture and maltreatment of Egyptians by police apparatus within the past two weeks mean , to my mind, one important thing: Given the right conditions, a small number of individuals can drag the public opinion's attention towards a particular issue. What bloggers such as Mac, Wael Abbas, Mohammad ashSharqawi, Hosam elHamalawy, Omar alHadi, Malek Mostafa, and Alaa Abdelfattah; then AbdolMonem Mahmoud, Nawwara Nigm, Egyptian Watchman and others such as the editor of Torture, is that, they have simply altered the consciousness of many thousands of Egyptians so much that they could not stop pushing torture, because, as an issue, it has gained itsown momentum to an extent.

The news about the most recent victim of torture-to-death, as well as the photographs Wael Abbas' blog--I do not know if thing have always been this bad, or if we have been too blind and deaf to see--brought back what occured to me while the video of Emad alKabir was being published on the blogs for the first time: Every now and then we get a call toban or marginalise certain dicourse, even particular vocabulary in the blogsphere--or the press or cinema or even living rooms and coffeeshops--. However, rarely does one find concerned about what is being published on victims of torture and maltreatment. In addition to the effort they have to exert attempting to bring some balance back to their lives and to the lives of their dear ones, those victims have to deal with a media machine and a public opinion that puts them under very big pressures.

I remember wathcing the video of Emad alKabir's sodomisation before it was published on the blogs and YouTube. I asked that the face of the then-unidentified victim be covered as a minumum procedure, trying to save what is left of the young man's pride, and despite my total ignorance of video-editing tools, I volunteered to do the job, before I unfortunately got distracted until the video appeared online.

We, bloggers--and even the supposedly-proffesional journalists--have given little consideration of how ethical is it to publish images and sounds of a man being humuliated--in his own mind before he is humiliated in ours. The newspapers I respect would not usually publish the photographs recently published on Wael Abbas' blog for Mohammad Mamdouh Abdolaziz because he is:

• a child, or "15 years old - unemployed" if you want the ministry of interior's statement
• wounded
• naked
• and recently deceased

And to make a point, it is not about protecting the shock of such an exposure. It is about the rights of the victim himself. I would like to live in a world where such tragedies should happen, none of the victims would feel to discuss in details, and therefore I would not mind publishing my own photographs, nor would I mind asking my friend and fellow blogger Mohamed ashSharkawy if he would mind publishing his images. Sharkawy has been through an experience similar to that of Emad alKabir, and realising that he had nothing to do with all that happened, faced it and spoke about it showing a position and a state of mind not everyone is capable of reaching.

The world I would like to live in has no restrictions on expression whatsoever, including the shortcomings of international law in this regard. However, I realise that other people want totally different worlds, and that I have no right to force mine on them. There must be many who would not want their images or the images of their children published if they are victims in accidents or crimes.

Some may argue that without showing Emad's face, Kamal Mourad of alFagr newspaper would not have found him--what happend after Emad was identified is a totally different issue. Did he approve linking his name to his face on newspapers? Did he have a choice?--Others may not care very much considering that the end, omelete, in our case exposing police bruitality, justifies breaking some eggs, or claiming that it was bound to happen in the networked world of today, given that the video shot by police officers while sodomising Emad has been circulating via bluetooth from one mobile phone to the next for sometime before it appeared online. This is a decision we all have to make. What are our version of journalism ethics? When are the images of details too much to publish? Have we really helped the police to break his pride?

Regardless of what is done. I believe that now, since the our unerstanding of torture has reached this stage, activists could focus on faces other than the victims'.