Skip to main content

Home/ Media in Middle East & North Africa/ Contents contributed and discussions participated by Ed Webb

Contents contributed and discussions participated by Ed Webb

Simple Middle Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics
Ed Webb

Tunisian president criticizes rioters, urges calm - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...AR2010122803085.html

Tunisia riots

shared by Ed Webb on 29 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • image released by the Tunisian Presidency office
  • accusing rioters of hurting Tunisia's image
  • a minority of extremists and mercenaries
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • pledged to "respect freedom of opinion and expression." Human rights groups routinely criticize Tunisia for abuses including a lack of media freedom.
Ed Webb

How a man setting fire to himself sparked an uprising in Tunisia | Brian Whitaker | Com... - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...tunisia-ben-ali

Tunisia riots demonstration revolution dictatorship media censorship analysis opinion

shared by Ed Webb on 28 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • Reporting of these events has been sparse, to say the least. The Tunisian press, of course, is strictly controlled and international news organisations have shown little interest: the "not many dead" syndrome, perhaps. But in the context of Tunisia they are momentous events. It's a police state, after all, where riots and demonstrations don't normally happen – and certainly not simultaneously in towns and cities up and down the country.So, what we are seeing, firstly, is the failure of a system constructed by the regime over many years to prevent people from organising, communicating and agitating.Secondly, we are seeing relatively large numbers of people casting off their fear of the regime. Despite the very real risk of arrest and torture, they are refusing to be intimidated.
  • Ben Ali may try to cling on, but his regime now has a fin de siècle air about it. He came to power in 1987 by declaring President Bourguiba unfit for office. It's probably just a matter of time before someone else delivers that same message to Ben Ali.
  • international news organisations have shown little interest: the "not many dead" syndrome, No, that's not the reason. The reason is that this SOB is one of our SOBs. We must be absolutely sure that we don't risk letting let any nasty Islamists or not-compliant folk near the levers of power before we start to fan the flames of democracy.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Tunisia could be the most "laique" eligible country , more than many other arab and some european countries. Women emancipation and civil family laws are an example. Education rate is very high, and the gdp per capita is good.What's missing : transparency, freedom and real democraty.Please don't think that the regime of Ben Ali is the bastion againt extremists .. the unique bastion against all extremists are education , freedom , respect and well being. Fighting extremists by guns , fire and jail is a complete failure. Please note that the modern governments in maghreb countries have destroyed the islamic in-country traditional institutions known by their moderation and their knowledge of the religion whick maked the influence of "eastern islamic schools" like wahabism from saudi be predominant on the new era of staellite channels .. which is not very good news for all of us ..
Ed Webb

WikiLeaks hoax hits Pakistan media - Central & South Asia - Al Jazeera English - 0 views

english.aljazeera.net/...2010121014844808155.html

India Pakistan wikileaks propaganda

shared by Ed Webb on 11 Dec 10 - Cached
  • A couple Pakistani papers and TV networks were deceived by false US diplomatic cables [EPA] Several leading Pakistani newspapers have acknowledged that they were hoaxed, after publishing reports based on fake WikiLeaks cables that contained crude anti-India propaganda. The reports, which featured prominently in several papers on Thursday, cited alleged US diplomatic cables as confirming many right-wing Pakistani views and conspiracy theories about the country's arch enemy India and the disputed Kashmir region. Much of Pakistan's media toes a pro-military, anti-Indian line, which was reflected by the papers' extensive coverage of the fake memos. The instigators of the hoax remain unclear, though the material appeared to have originated on a news website that features anti-Indian and pro-Pakistani articles.
  • Ed Webb on 11 Dec 10
     
    Next phase: expect more attempts of this kind to capitalize on the wikileaks moment to spread propaganda.
Ed Webb

Egyptian election: Politicians don't realise they could be tweeted out | Amira Nowaira ... - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...tian-election-politics-twitter

Egypt elections opinion

shared by Ed Webb on 26 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • The ruling National Democratic party, however, seems hopelessly out of touch with the times. It doesn't realise that the day might come when it could be tweeted out of power. Nor is it able to understand that it won't be able to station the country's security forces on the information superhighway as it does on Cairo's ring-roads.
Ed Webb

Iraq | Press Freedom - 0 views

www.globalpost.com/...press-freedom-iraq

media censorship Iraq

shared by Ed Webb on 07 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • media watchdogs said the action was more likely taken in response to the station’s programming, which had at times been critical, or satirical, of the Iraqi government. The move by security forces is an ominous sign for the country’s press, which, for the first time in decades had been enjoying relative freedom.
  • Ziad al Jillily, head of Iraq’s Journalistic Freedom Observatory, said that freedom of speech and journalism were the sole benefit of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
  • The media here is now freer than Syria’s or Iran’s and less partisan than, say, Lebanon, where most of the media outlets are owned or controlled by politicians of various stripes. Basking in this freedom, both news and entertainment programs regularly push the boundaries. In an Iraqi version of "Punk’d," for example, which aired on Baghdadiya, actors played pranks on celebrities that often involved fake car bombs, checkpoint harassment and live bullets. As the celebrities screamed and fainted on screen, and readers complained, Punk’d Baghdad-style might not have been a good idea. But it did come from a lively, growing culture of media freedom.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Militia groups who ruled Iraq during the worst years of sectarian violence saw a free press as a Western imposition and targeted both Iraqi and foreign journalists
  • Reporters without Borders revealed that at least 230 media workers had been killed in Iraq since the American invasion
  • One Iraqi journalist, one among hundreds that worked with Western news agencies in Baghdad, has worked in media for years, but tells no one in his neighborhood about it. “If they knew, I would be a target for militias, for Al Qaeda, and even for Iraqi security forces,”
  • Jillily said that journalists have increasingly found their access curtailed by Saddam-era laws that remain on the books. A journalist was arrested in the southern city of Kut earlier this year, he said, for publishing an article criticizing the judicial system, and was only released after he denied that he had written it. “There are many people trying to bring back the times of dictatorship to Iraq,” he said, “…you can’t expect a government that has politicians who are deeply corrupted to give freedom for journalists.”
Ed Webb

Tracking Twitter Traffic About the 2010 Midterm Elections - Interactive Feature - NYTim... - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...2010-twitter-candidates.html

twitter visualization politics elections US USA

shared by Ed Webb on 29 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • Ed Webb on 29 Oct 10
     
    Interesting way to present massive, complex data visually.Is there a 'twitterization' of politics going on? Is it healthy?
« First ‹ Previous 2201 - 2220 of 2777 Next › Last »
Showing 20▼ items per page