The Syrian blogger Razan Ghazzawi was arrested on December 4, 2011 as she was on her way to Amman to attend a workshop on press freedom in the Arab world. Somewhat ironically, Razan’s last blog post before her arrest was to celebrate the release of Syrian blogger Hussein Ghrer, who was held by the Syrian authorities for 37 days. She is also one of the few bloggers in Syria who writes using her real name, advocating for the rights of bloggers and activists arrested by the Syrian regime.
The Free Razan campaign was launched after her arrest calling for her release with a Facebook page that was launched on the same day of her arrest. After her release she was taken into custody again on February 16, 2012, then released three days later. This page is now dedicated to call for the release of her male colleagues at the human rights and press freedom organization SCM, who have been detained since February 16, 2012.
The campaign is an example of a number of similar campaigns that have sprung up in the past year across the Arab world calling for the release of bloggers and activists including Alaa Abdel-Fattah from Egypt and Ali Abdulemam from Bahrain and others.