Arab Countries top list of 'worst countries for bloggers'

Once again the Arab world, known for its general ineptitude in anything involving competition on an international level (The Olympics, The World Cup, The Nobel Prize...among others), has topped the charts in the field of human rights deprivation and abuse.

This time we should be grateful to the authorities of Syria (3), Saudi Arabia (5), Tunisia (7) and Egypt (10) for flying the flag in the category of 'Worst Countries for Bloggers'. Tough competitions came from the likes of Burma (1) and Turkmenistan (9). Our Iranian brothers (2), with whom we seem to share so much these days despite centuries of enmity, narrowly missed the top spot but have promised to keep trying for next year. Same goes for the Egyptians who escaped relegation this time round. It is noteworthy that a number of these Arab countries are considered moderate and pro-Western. This fact will obviously not come as a surprise to our informed readers.

The Report was released yesterday 30th April in New York by the 'Committee to protect journalists' based on nominations followed by a poll of its staff and outside experts.

For the full report visit:

http://cpj.org/reports/2009/04/10-worst-countries-to-be-a-blogger.php

Arabdemocracy

Bloggers Bearing Witness in Gaza: Bias or Added Value to Media Coverage?

By Najate Zouggari *

Source: BBC Website/Middle East

The relationship between ‘warbloggers’ and journalists is precisely not a peaceful one. It is often caricatured - with some reason - as the encounter of frustrated failed journalists with professional ones jealous of their privileges. Donald Matheson and Stuart Allan** in a chapter entitled ‘War Zone: The Role of Warblogs in Iraq’ are thinking about the collaboration between what they call mediasphere and blogosphere. They say that blogs cannot be separated from the mediasphere to which they respond. In the case of the recent war on Gaza, it seems on the contrary, that the blogosphere was an impulse of news and the main source of information. Matheson and Allan’s model, which was applied to the 2003 invasion of Irak, could clearly be inverted as far as the 2008 Gaza offensive is considered.

Their main conclusion is still valid though:
‘the dominant model of the foreign war correspondent, developed during the relatively information-scarce nineteenth-century, relied upon the correspondent having a monopoly of information and the status of an expert by dint of being present on foreign soil and having general journalistic skills. Such a model becomes less tenable when news editors and readers have instant access to multiple voices, both journalist and lay, experiencing the news event in question from an array of perspectives in multiple locations.’ Matheson, Allan (2007, p.87)

Some of these multiple voices are put together on Global Voices, a platform started by the Berkman Centre for Internet and Society at the Harvard Law School. Ethan Zuckerman and Rebecca MacKinnon founded this valuable meeting point in 2004. Four years later, it became a central independent resource for anyone interested in listening others’ voices. MacKinnon told the BBC: ‘If bloggers are out there creating media and talking about things that the mainstream media isn't covering, that may also help push the mainstream media to recognise that there are a lot of things out there that people care about that they've simply failed to cover.’***

From Gaza, with Love is a blog - created on Blogspot - by Mona Al-Farrah, a physician and human rights activist who actually was in Egypt while the bombings started. Her messages revealed though an authentic voice, transmitting directly in the blogosphere the news she received from her friends, before they got into the mediasphere. At least, when they eventually reached it. She was giving her phone number in case someone - journalists? - would like to speak with her. Mohammed Fares Al Majdalawi, film maker and social worker in Gaza strip, published a post on Mona’s blog (4/01/2008): ‘There is a horror in every minute (...) I have two message to the world, (...) to the lovers of peace and freedom in the world. First message: Imagine your life with no electricity, destroyed homes, missiles night and day, no food. Imagine your children and your family telling you they are afraid of the missiles (...) My second message: End the siege and stop the killings, stop the demolitions of our houses.’ ****

The lack of professional mediacy might be considered as an evidence of bias. Technically, however, the blogger is making himself available by putting his mobile phone number online, at the end of his post. Any journalist or any simple reader is invited to check the facts. Many bloggers like Mohammed kept writing, as far as they got an internet access. Hopefully, the mediasphere - not entirely - echoed the cries and stories of the blogosphere. Al Jazeera English, from Gaza, had a Twitter feed which gave the general public an opportunity to follow - and check - the news almost at the same time as a new post was published.

Passing through both mediasphere and blogosphere is a way for the audience to get really involved in the news process instead of absorbing passively the crumbs delivered by mainstream media. It is a chance for professional journalists to share a conversation with this sort of active public, as well as with non-professional writers and witnesses. It is worthwhile noticing how Al Jazeera English, at some point, realized the perfect combination between blogosphere and mediasphere through an experimental platform called ‘War On Gaza. Experimental Beta’. On this website, a map was available and accidents could be submitted through the site, Twitter and mobile phones (SMS). Then, they were checked and possibly validated.

In conclusion, ‘truth in a war zone’ does not depend anymore on the monopoly of information by foreign correspondents. It is more likely a dialogue between an active blogosphere and a open mediasphere that values the intelligence of its audience by putting it in the centre of the news process - in a shared rationality.

* French Journalist Living in London, Visit her Blog

** Maltby S., Keeble R. (2007) Communicating War. Memory, Media and Military. Bury St Edmunds: Arima Publishing
*** Boyd C., (2005). "Global voices speak through blogs," BBC NEWS Technology, April 6, 2005.
**** From Gaza, With Love (Mona El-Farra)

Related Links:
From Gaza, With Love
Gaza Today
Rafah Today
Diary of a Palestinian mother
Aljazeera Labs

February’s Blog of the Month: The Philistine

www.thephilistine.org

Israeli discrimination against its own Arab population is at the heart of the message delivered by "The Philistine". Whether in sports, in the media, trough legal or illegal means, his report on standard acts of oppression reveals a face of Israel that is little know in the West.
The Zionist dream is creating nightmares inside and outside its border and this blog aims to tell us of events and behaviors that could be easily go unnoticed while the world media focuses on Gaza and Hamas. His recent posts include the destruction of olive trees by Israel in the West Bank, the ban of Israeli Arab reporters from a Yisrael Beiteinu gathering and the truth on illegal settlements. Multimedia is used efficiently and the embedded videos, like the PBS 60 minutes exposing Israeli Apartheid, are to the point and acceptable to a Western audience.

Another appealing factor in this blog is that it is esthetically pleasing with its clear layout and sober colors. It inspires authority reinforcing the validity of the content. Its rich links sections reveals a good selection of respectable and original blogs and websites focused on Israel, Palestine and the diaspora.
The links maintained and developed with the Arab blogosphere are not surprising. The author provides insight and describes himself as a "disenfranchised American citizen of Arab heritage (…). Not being raised in communities with large Arab populations has left him feeling like an outsider in their own environment. Events as an undergraduate in a larger city with a significant Arab (mostly Lebanese and Yemeni) population brought to light the cultural differences between the assimilated and un-assimilated Arab youth".
He claims creating this blog as "a Testament to the Strength of Words (even those written with a keyboard) ".

However, the icing on the cake is his focus on a little explored area of Israeli legislation with serious consequences for the state’s Arab population. Under the section "The Absentee’s Property Laws and You", the Philistine exposes how the "Absentees" property laws "were several laws which were first introduced as emergency ordinances issued by the Jewish leadership but which after the war were incorporated into the laws of Israel. These laws were passed in an effort to gain as much land from the indigenous people as possible while circumventing International Law".

Beside linking the texts of laws, legislations and amendments of the "Absentee’s Property Laws", the Philistine draws a comprehensive list of the Palestinian villages taken over by the Israelis and demolished according the enforcement of these laws during The past 60 years.

We thank the author for shedding light on such a fundamental issue that is completely ignored by the mainstream media covering the Israeli Palestinian conflict. For the initiative, the research work and the presentation we name ‘the Phlilistine’ our blog of the month for February 2009.

January Blog of the Month: The Female Hanthalah

http://www.meiroun.blogspot.com

‘Hanthalah and Meiroun are friends’... at least on Facebook. This Palestinian affair is only natural and the reunion inevitable, since Naji’s El-Ali’ caricature character, having melted our hearts for Palestine, was bound to engender friends and relatives. But caricatures have moved with the times. Meiroun is older, more sophisticated in her approach and comfortable at venturing into more global themes: Love, Hate, the Internet etc.

Amal Kaawash blogs since 2005 and uses cartoons and drawings as her main communication medium. Words rarely take centre stage in her posts except to illustrate images. Meiroun, her online alter-ego is named after her home village in Galilee, Northern Palestine (Now part of the State of Israel). A wavy dark figure against simple stylised backgrounds she screams her nostalgia for a nation’s past, her sorrow for its present and its hope for its future.

Amal, through her cartoons, does not shy away from firm political stances, whether on the Intra-Palestinian conflict or the Intra-Lebanese conflict of the last 3 years. This is nowhere less obvious than in her personal take on the ‘I Love Life’ poster campaign launched by the media machine of the March 14th coalition in 2006. But she does it subtly and without offending, triggering reflection and soul searching. There is a clear positive evolution over the years in style and content. Her talent was duly rewarded at the Hanzala Cartoon Contest in May 2008 in Egypt.

Naji El Ali, had he not been tragically assassinated in 1987, would be proud... Palestine should be proud!

November Blog of the Month: Neurotic Iraqi Wife

On Arabdemocracy, we will be featuring on a monthly basis a chosen blog from the Arab world that we believe has contributed to the promotion of debate and a democratic discourse in the region. The focus will be on overall quality, style, content and originality.

Watch this Space
The Editors @ Arabdemocracy

http://neurotic-iraqi-wife.blogspot.com/

Self confessed Neurotic Iraqi Wife (NIW) is Iraqi-British and in her thirties. She started blogging in August 2004 and her journey since then has taken us from London to Abu Dhabi through Baghdad. From her privileged position as the wife of an Iraqi expat involved with the American administration of Iraq, her story is also that of the country since the 2003 invasion. Her early posts are dedicated to and indeed dominated by HUBBY (husband). He remains anonymous to the readers, although the idiosyncrasies of Arab manhood are exposed with remarkable humour. A recent bride, NIW draws us into her world, comfortably sharing her anxieties over their young marriage with a wide and varied audience. The themes, taking into account the cultural context, are universal: The tension between career and family, the compromises to be made in a marriage and the stress of a long distance relationship. Mixing the personal with the mundane and the political, NIWs is observant and witty, commenting on everything from Iraqi elections to cosmetic surgery. We frequently accompany the couple on their R&Rs (Rest and Relaxation) around the world, from Amsterdam to Hong-Kong, as they do their best to defy the circumstances and strengthen their relationship. With the years NIW comes of age, in blogging terms and probably personally as well. She slowly redefines herself from a wife to a stand-alone commentator. This is very noticeable with her move to Baghdad in May 2005 after 15 years of exile. Her observations become more personal and she stops being the mouthpiece for her husband on Iraqi politics (Something that was unavoidable until then given the pressure from her readers for inside information).Despite the obvious relief of being with her husband, new tensions arise linked to the unique environment of the Restricted area at the heart of Baghdad known as the Green Zone (GZ). Judging from her writings, her mood states also closely mirror the ups and downs of the occupation, as experienced through the selective lens of the expats. From interaction with colleagues and fellow residents from all walks of life, all stuck in ‘EYERAK’, one cannot avoid connecting with the overwhelmingly claustrophobic atmosphere. She is not afraid to venture into other Middle Eastern issues, touching on the Israeli assault on Lebanon in July 2006, that she lives through the plight of her sister, trapped in Beirut under fire. She is also critical of prejudiced tendencies that she witnesses first hand within Emirati society. An unashamedly ardent Obama supporter over the past few weeks she makes a more tempered (and realistic?) assessment over his likely impact on the Iraqi situation. In a recent post she states her frank pessimism about Iraq in the short term, predicting an inevitable downturn of events that the US presence is only delaying

Enter the world of Neurotic wives...with a distinct Arab flavour