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Over the last year, the Bahraini government has been scaling up its information control apparatus and media access to the country is rigorously monitored and managed by the government and its team of Western PR advisors.

'Social media' conjures up thoughts of instant internet communication, global chatter over the web, computers, mobiles, tweets, posts etc. But there is a communication form that predates these modern tools - political street art. Street art can be dated back to ancient Egypt and throughout history it has been employed by those with a political point to make. From the outset of the Arab uprisings, people from Egypt to Libya have been enjoying their newfound freedom of expression, taking to the walls to say what they want to say. In this week's feature, Listening Post's Meenakshi Ravi looks at a communication form that is for the people, by the people.

In Iran it is rare to hear a woman sing in public. So rare, in fact, that when Shiva Soroush did so for all of three minutes last year the entire audience took to their feet. Grown men wept. With an aria in a performance of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Ms Soroush, 27, became the first woman since the 1979 Islamic Revolution to sing opera for a public audience.

“At first I thought it would be dangerous and I wouldn’t be able to perform... [but] I can feel there is more freedom in the theatres now,” she says, adding that hopefully other women may now be blessed with similar opportunities. Her troupe, the Tehran Opera Ensemble, is the brainchild of Hadi Rosat, who returned to Iran in 2012 after more than a decade studying in Austria and Italy. But Tehran music lovers seem to place particular hope in Ms Souroush, as if she were single-handedly serenading Iran out of what many recall as the “eight dark years” under former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which ended last August.

Farhad Fakhreddini (pictured), the founder of the national symphony orchestra, quit his job in 2009 to protest against growing interference by Mr Ahmadinejad’s government. On March 4th the 76-year-old conducted his first concert in five years, fronting the privately funded Mehrnavazan Orchestra. In the first of four sold-out concerts in Tehran, Mr Fakhreddini felt emboldened enough to perform a muscular rendition of the old national anthem from the time of the Shah. As he spun around to conduct his audience’s singing, he was met with standing ovation.

the highly divisive Information Ministry may soon be put to rest. Presidential media advisor Ahmed al-Moslemany has announced that the ministry — which many activists accuse of censoring the press —  would be abolished during the transitional period, state-run newspaper Al-Ahram reported on Monday.

It would be replaced by “an independent body for state media,” Moslemany reportedly said.

“When these people go online, they needed to be treated like trolls,” Amanullah said, “and we keep feeding the trolls.”

it is “impossible for State to know if it’s succeeded or failed at its task”

he initiative was inadvertently creating a dialogue of equals between the US and Isis, distracting from Muslim criticisms of Isis that carry more credibility within the Muslim world

a television commercial inspired by the assassination of a Hamas commander in Dubai

an actress wearing a wide-brimmed floppy hat mimics Israel's policy of neither confirming nor denying involvement in the assassination, saying she “couldn't admit to anything”.

He denied that the advertisement was in bad taste, saying that the company hoped to capitalise on the huge amount of media attention generated by the Dubai killing.

In Turkey we are about to start 1 to 1 netbook for 15.000.000 students with $ 7 per month installments for 36 months through credit cards. I knew technology would change until we complete to provide 15.000.000 netbooks. So I will write to Marvel. We can finance them, we can buy the first 1.000.000 netbooks at $ 120 per piece. I hope quality and functions are as they say . Hurra, education complainers. It is time to go online courses for 60 million USA K12 students. You have no excuse now.

We have dealt with Tablet PC before in one of our Smart School initiatives here in Malaysian and I must say the Moby Tablet is quite impressive.

The royal family probably thought that by taking down al-Sharif's Facebook page they could silence her protest, says Pat Bartels at Gather. But the video is still visible on YouTube. This case "illustrates just how oppressed women are in Saudi Arabia," and now that the word is out that women are standing up for their rights, there is no going back."Saudi woman uses social media and lands in jail"

Al-Sharif's crime, in the eyes of the government, wasn't driving, says Jane Martinson in Britain's Guardian. It was posting her protest video on Facebook and Twitter — the social networking powerhouses that have helped uprisings spread elsewhere. The government probably won't budge on its longstanding passive support of religious clerics' ban on women driving, but it will be "quick to stamp down" any effort by protesters to harness the power of the internet and use it against the government."A drive for freedom in Saudi Arabia"