BBC NEWS | Middle East | Gaza conflict map
Map and timeline of the Gaza crisis that ended in January 2009.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of MENA Media 09 group favorite links are here.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Media & Identity in the Middle East - Noted This Week (weekly)
Posted from Diigo. The rest of MENA Media 09 group favorite links are here.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Media & Identity in the Middle East - Noted This Week (weekly)
Internet & Democracy Blog » Why Twitter Won’t Bring Revolution To Iran
Moving Out of Kuwait’s Political Impasse - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Posted from Diigo. The rest of MENA Media 09 group favorite links are here.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Media & Identity in the Middle East - Noted This Week (weekly)
Christian group sues for right to burn gay teen novel | Books | guardian.co.uk
ATTACKERMAN » @PersianKiwi Is The World’s Most Important Journalist Right Now
BBC NEWS | Middle East | Will Iran's protests succeed?
Sage words from Jim
- Sage words from Jim - By Ed Webb
- Whatever the case, perception is what counts. And the perception of large numbers of Iranians that their votes were "stolen" presents the authorities - and especially the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - with a burning dilemma.
- perception is what counts. And the perception of large numbers of Iranians that their votes were "stolen" presents the authorities - and especially the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - with a burning dilemma.
- The outcome has also played into the hands of Benjamin Netanyahu's hardline government in Israel.
Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Several killed at Iran rally site
BBC NEWS | Europe | Turkey probes 'new anti-PM plot'
the military was investigating whether the reported anti-AKP plan was authentic.
Along with the AKP, it also allegedly targeted a Muslim brotherhood led by a cleric, Fethullah Gulen.
Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere: Politics, Culture and Dissent | Berkman Center
- Same group and approach as the Persian blogosphere map - By Ed Webb
State Department comments on 'talks' with Twitter | The Social - CNET News
With the Iranian government clamping down on foreign journalists, Kelly has a point: access to Twitter and ilk are crucial sources of information.
Social media tools like Twitter and Facebook have already emerged as sources of raw news in disasters and political crises before--from the Hudson River emergency plane landing to the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. But this is the first time they've been highlighted as vital information channels in Iran--both for protesters trying to spread information and for government authorities trying to gather it.
Op-Ed Columnist - Tear Down This Cyberwall! - NYTimes.com
The push to remove witnesses may be the prelude to a Tehran Tiananmen. Yet a secret Internet lifeline remains, and it’s a tribute to the crazy, globalized world we live in. The lifeline was designed by Chinese computer engineers in America to evade Communist Party censorship of a repressed Chinese spiritual group, the Falun Gong.
Today, it is these Chinese supporters of Falun Gong who are the best hope for Iranians trying to reach blocked sites.
“We don’t have the heart to cut off the Iranians,” said Shiyu Zhou, a computer scientist and leader in the Chinese effort, called the Global Internet Freedom Consortium. “But if our servers overload too much, we may have to cut down the traffic.”
- China is fighting back against the “hacktivists.” The government has announced that new computers sold beginning next month will have to have Internet filtering software, called Green Dam (the consortium has already developed software called Green Tsunami to neutralize it). More alarming, in 2006 a consortium engineer living outside Atlanta was attacked in his home, beaten up and his computers stolen. The engineers behind Freegate are now careful not to disclose their physical locations.
- bullets usually trump tweets
Posted from Diigo. The rest of MENA Media 09 group favorite links are here.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Media & Identity in the Middle East - Noted This Week (weekly)
New site promotes journalists as individual brands by AP: Yahoo! Tech
Syria Comment » Archives » Syrians Silent and Disappointed but Ready to Put Lebanon Behind Them
- Syrian officials have been silent on Lebanon for weeks, unlike Americans - an irony that must really tick them off given how insistent American officials have been about the need for smooth elections untainted by foreign meddling.
- Many Syrian Christians are gratified by Aoun’s turn toward Syria because it provides them with a strong political figure who is not a Geagea or Jemayyal. It shows that even Lebanese Christians stand with Syria. They are not alone.
- Damascus too may feel a certain relief in the very highest halls of the foreign ministry. It has avoided the complications of an Hizbullah win, which could have strained already bad relations with the US even further. The Lebanon situation will take some of the oomph out of Syrian hardliners, who may believe that Syria is winning the long term struggle for Arab public opinion and can afford to play hardball with Washington.
- Even those who feel the real urgency to move ahead economically are not prepared to concede the Golan.
Al Qaeda fighters move into Horn of Africa, officials say - CNN.com
Al Qaeda operatives are leaving the battle zones along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and heading for Somalia and Yemen, where they have set up training camps, according to U.S. intelligence officials."> We label the poles as 1) Secular/Reformist, 2) Conservative/Religious,
3) Persian Poetry and Literature, and
4) Mixed Networks.
Surprisingly, a minority of
bloggers in the secular/reformist
pole appear to blog anonymously, even in the more politically-oriented part of
it; instead, it is more common for bloggers in the religious/conservative pole
to blog anonymously.
bloggers in the secular/reformist
pole appear to blog anonymously, even in the more politically-oriented part of
it; instead, it is more common for bloggers in the religious/conservative pole
to blog anonymously.
Huffington Post Op-Ed: Cairo Under Siege Ahead Of Obama’s Speech at 3arabawy
- Republicans screw the Arabs. Democrats screw the Arabs, but with a smile,” is a popular saying among the dissidents’ circles in Egypt.
- Even before his “historical speech” is delivered, Obama’s “mini-historical speeches” have been nothing but one slap after the other on the faces of human rights campaigners in the region. After conversing with the Saudi monarch, “yes we can” changed to “I’m struck by his majesty’s wisdom.” Will the next step be praising the public beheadings in the kingdom as an example of ideal justice?
- Hosni Mubarak has ruled Egypt since 1981 with an iron fist, detention facilities, and a fearful security aparatus which is engaged in systematic torture of dissidents and ordinary Egyptian citizens, as documented by local and international rights watchdogs. He has always managed to get away with good coverage in the Western press, however, that tended to focus on his “moderate” (read: obedient to US foreign policy) role as “peacemaker” in the region, besides the archeological discoverings of the I-so-wanna-be-Indiana-Jones, also known as Mr. Zahi Hawas.
- the strongest wave of labor strike action since WWII.
- the first free trade union in the history of Egypt was declared last December, by the property tax collectors who already went on a three month strike in 2007 bringing down tax collection by 90%. By the domino effect, a wave of free unions is brewing.
- non-governmental actors like human rights NGOs, labor and trade unions, which we urge to extend their solidarity to their Egyptian brothers and sisters, and to pressure the US administration into severing all ties and funding to the Mubarak’s dictatorship, the second largest recipient of US foreign aid after Israel.
My first take on The Speech | Marc Lynch
- the rollout of the speech already stands as one of the most successful public diplomacy and strategic communications campaigns I can ever remember -- and hopefully a harbinger of what is to come. This wasn't a one-off Presidential speech. The succession of statements (al-Arabiya interview, Turkish Parliament, message to the Iranians) and the engagement on the Israeli-Palestinian policy front set the stage. Then the White House unleashed the full spectrum of new media engagement for this speech -- SMS and Twitter updates, online video, and online chatroom environment, and more. This will likely be followed up upon to put substance on the notion of this as a "conversation" rather than an "address" -- which along with concrete policy progress will be the key to its long-term impact, if any.
It's not like Bush left a legacy of active democratization which Obama is supposedly abandoning. Rather than repeat the old buzzwords to please those invested in the democracy promotion industry, Obama did something more important by addressing head on some of the most vexing issues which have plagued American thinking about democracy in the region. This, to my eye, was the key statement:
America respects
the right of all peaceful and law-abiding voices to be heard around the world,
even if we disagree with them. And we will welcome all elected, peaceful
governments - provided they govern with respect for all their people.As I noted yesterday, that suggests clearly that the U.S. will accept the democratic participation of peaceful Islamist movements as long as they abstain from violence --and respect their electoral victories provided that they commit to the democratic process. He made a passionate defense of that latter point, that victors must demonstrate tolerance and respect for minorities and that elections alone are not enough. But he clearly did not prejudge participants in the electoral game -- the old canard about Islamists wanting "one man, one vote, one time" thankfully, and significantly, did not appear.
National Intelligence Examiner: Censored: Jewish professor wins Arab 'Nobel Peace Prize'
- no major media in Europe or the U.S. picked up the Reuters article or even mentioned this historic event at all. Israel's respected Haaretz was one of the few major media publications in the world to discuss the significance of Saudi Arabia for the first time in the award's 30 years choosing a Jew as the recipient.
Middle East Views | God’s plan versus global realities
Posted from Diigo. The rest of MENA Media 09 group favorite links are here.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Media & Identity in the Middle East - Noted This Week (weekly)
Iran cuts access to Facebook as election looms - Yahoo! News
- TEHRAN, Iran – Iran has blocked access to Facebook, prompting government critics on Sunday to condemn the move as an attempt to muzzle the opposition ahead of next month's presidential election
THE INFLUENCE GAME: Pro-Israel doves seek DC clout - Yahoo! News
Japan university gives away iPhones to nab truants by AP: Yahoo! Tech
A prestigious Japanese university is giving away hundreds of iPhones, in part to use its Global Positioning System to nab students that skip class.
Truants in Japan often fake attendance by getting friends to answer roll-call or hand in signed attendance cards. That's verging on cheating since attendance is a key requirement for graduation here.
Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo is giving Apple Inc.'s iPhone 3G to 550 students in its School of Social Informatics, which studies the use of Internet and computer technology in society.
The gadget will work as a tool for studies, but it also comes with GPS, a satellite navigation system that automatically checks on its whereabouts. The university plans to use that as a way check attendance.
Candidacy for Unesco by Egyptian Is Faltering - NYTimes.com
- I'm amazed Mubarak put Hosny up for the job. He has not had a good reputation among diplomats for a long time now. - By Ed Webb
Iraq faces the mother of all corruption scandals - Middle East, World - The Independent
- the video, widely viewed and sent from phone to phone in Baghdad
Posted from Diigo. The rest of MENA Media 09 group favorite links are here.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Media & Identity in the Middle East - Noted This Week (weekly)
BBC NEWS | Middle East | Israelis targeted on Facebook says Shin Bet
- SURABAYA, Indonesia -
Muslim clerics debating the exploding popularity of Facebook in Indonesia said Friday that followers could use the networking site to connect with friends or for work — but not to gossip or flirt.
- Around 700 clerics, or imams, agreed to draft up guidelines on surfing the Web after receiving complaints about Facebook and other sites, including concerns they encourage illicit sex
- It has become easier today for the young to connect, the imams' 300-word edict said, "erasing space and time constraints" and making it possible for couples to get to know — before they get married — if they really are well-suited.
- Though an edict by the clerics does not carry any legal weight, it could be endorsed by the influential Ulema Council, which recently issued rulings against smoking and yoga. Some devout Muslims adhere to the council's rulings because ignoring a fatwa, or religious decree, is considered a sin.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of MENA Media 09 group favorite links are here.
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