My visit to Egypt last week reconfirmed my love for an incredible place and people. In Luxor muslim and christian weddings pour out on the street at the same time to join in celebration. Friendly locals became friends and guides out of the tourist traps and false economies. Visiting Queen Hatshepsut's temple brought back a grim reminder of the 1997 tourist massacre at that spot but the stern and focused faces of countless police and a general disdain for extremists, more vocal here even than in the west,  spoke to a determination to prevent violence of this kind again. Our cab driver had three horns: one for the desert, one for the police and one for women. So why amidst all this positive energy is Alaa Seif Al-Islam, winner of the Reporters Without Borders Special Prize in the 2005 Deutsche Welle International Weblog awards still being held in jail? It is a signifier of the underlying complexity and contradicitons of freedom, politics, culture and social life in Egypt. There is a wealth of material on this topic available on the Internet and some links are provided here to guide you through a romanticised story full of uncertainty but a genuine echo of cultural engagement with digital media and blogs.

Read the AP story, a statement of condemnation from APC.org, visit Alaa's blog (Manal and Alaa's bit bucket), their Weblog Award, and a very interesting attempt to "Google-bomb" for Alaa.