December 16th, 2010 by Jason

In a three part series at Tehran Bureau, Dr. Afshin Marashi explores the complex relationship between the rulers of Iran and the press going back to the early 19th century. The establishment of newspapers by the expatriate communities in places like Baku and London helped spread discontent with the Qajar Dynasty (1794-1925), eventually leading to the Constitutional Revolution (1905-1911). In the early years of the Pahlavi Dynasty (1935-1979) the number of media outlets began to shrink as a result of the centralization enforced by Reza Shah Pahlavi. Under Reza’s son, Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, newspapers again flourished until the overthrow of Mosaddegh in 1953 and the re-establishment of state controls. Prior to the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran saw an explosion of “underground media,” perhaps best exemplified by spread of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s sermons on tape. Since the Revolution, tensions between Conservatives and Reformists have maintained a vacillating balance between state controlled media and underground media. Most recently, blogs and YouTube videos have taken the place of tape cassettes and pamphlets. Marashi writes that “the current phase of state control of the Iranian media should be seen in the broader context of the country’s modern history. […] As in earlier stages of Iran’s history, today’s democratic opposition has made extensive use of the latest technologies to circulate news, opinions, and calls for reform.”

Posted in Civil Society, Freedom, Iran, Journalism, Technology | Comment »

December 16th, 2010 by Evan

The BBC recently released video of an interview with Jenan Al Oraibi, the wife of imprisoned Bahraini blogger Ali Abdulemam. Al Oraibi bluntly refutes the terrorism charges against her husband: “Ali has a free pen. That is exactly his crime. He has a free pen. […] The 23 detainees are all victims. They are all good people who have good jobs in this society. They are all innocent.” Authorities have limited family visits and the Shi’ite activists report that they were abused while in pre-trial detention. Their next hearing is scheduled for December 23.

Posted in Bahrain, Human Rights, Journalism | Comment »

December 9th, 2010 by Evan

Lawyers for the 25 Bahraini activists accused of supporting terrorist activities staged a walkout on Thursday, effectively bringing the trial to a halt. “‘We withdrew because the court disregards our requests to investigate the torture claims.We now consider this trial to be unfair and against international standards and we won’t be part of it,’” said defense attorney Jalila al-Sayed.  The Committee to Protect Journalists sent a letter to Minister of Justice and Islamic Affairs Sheikh Khalid bin Ali Al-Khalifa calling for the release of the detained activists: “We are concerned that these bloggers could well be punished for the mere expression of opinions that the government finds distasteful, and we ask that you intervene to ensure that they receive a fair trial. Bahrain’s Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, vowed on October 27 that his government was ‘keen to promote Bahrain’s image to be in harmony with the landmark political, economic, and social strides.’ The ordeal of these detained bloggers stands in direct opposition to that declaration.”

Posted in Bahrain, Human Rights, Journalism, Judiciary | Comment »

December 6th, 2010 by Evan

In response to a question about the case of Kuwaiti journalist Mohammad Abdul-Kader al-Jassem, who was recently imprisoned for defaming Prime Minister Shaikh Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah, State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley said that the U.S. is concerned about the case and continues to follow it closely. “Our view is the ability of citizens and journalists of any country to freely and vigorously discuss, debate, and critique the actions of government does not threaten national interest, and it strengthens civil society and makes governments better and more accountable,” Crowley said.

Posted in Human Rights, Journalism, Kuwait | Comment »

December 6th, 2010 by Evan

Human Right Watch released a statement Sunday calling for the release of Palestinian blogger Walid Hasayin, who was arrested by the Palestinian General Intelligence Services on October 31, 2010. Hasayin has not been charged with a crime, but is suspected of posting statements on his blog criticizing Islam and other religions. Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said “The Palestinian authorities’ claim that Hasayin offended Muslims is no excuse for arbitrarily detaining him. The Palestinian judiciary should demonstrate its integrity by protecting the right to free expression and ordering Hasayin’s release and his safety.”

Posted in Journalism, Judiciary, Palestine, Technology | Comment »

November 29th, 2010 by Evan

Amnesty International issued a statement calling on Kuwaiti authorities to release Muhammad ‘Abd al-Qader al-Jasem, the Kuwaiti lawyer and journalist who was sentenced to one year in prison last week for a writing a blog post criticizing Prime Minister Shaikh Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah. Amnesty’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa Philip Luther said “Amnesty International believes that Muhammad ‘Abd al-Qader al-Jasem has been convicted and sentenced solely for non-violently exercising his right to freedom of expression and is therefore a prisoner of conscience. […] The authorities should release him immediately and unconditionally and, more broadly, cease their apparent attempts to stop him from airing his views on the government and Kuwait’s ruling family.” Al-Jasem was formally the editor-in-chief of Al-Watan Daily, a Kuwaiti newspaper, and editor-in-chief of Newsweek’s and Foreign Policy’s Arabic editions.

Posted in Journalism, Kuwait | Comment »

November 28th, 2010 by Jason

A statement released yesterday on the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) website criticized the High Elections Commission (HEC) for actions prior to the election that were somewhere “between timid silence and speaking on behalf of the Interior Ministry.” The statement specifically denounced the failure of the HEC to “implement all Administrative Court orders to reinstate candidates rejected by the security directorates.” Also, a report from the Egyptian Association for Supporting Democratic Development looks at how the Egyptian media covered the different political parties during the first week of official campaigning, which ran from November 14th to November 19th. 

Posted in Civil Society, Egypt, Elections, Journalism, Middle Eastern Media | Comment »

November 28th, 2010 by Jason

Bahey eldin Hassan writes at Foreign Policy’s Middle East Channel that “one of the brightest spots” in Egyptian political life over the past decade has been the “emergence of a freer media climate and more open public discourse on political issues.” These advances are now under threat, however, because the Egyptian government “has turned the entire media scene upside down, forcing it to abandon critical discourse and uproot real political debate from the electoral coverage.” According to Hassan, the government has formed a “special security-media team,” meant to compile a “list” of the most influential  “columnists, independent papers, news channels, [and] heated political talk shows,” in order to silence them. “Following the proverb that says strike whoever is in reach and those roaming free will fear,” television stations have been taken off the air, talk shows have been canceled, and the editor of Al Dostor, Ibrahim Eissa, was fired. Hassan links the “wave of repression” to the effect that the parliamentary elections will have on next year’s presidential election.

Posted in Civil Society, Egypt, Elections, Freedom, Journalism, Middle Eastern Media | Comment »

November 26th, 2010 by Jason

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called for the release of Kuwaiti writer Mohammad al-Jasim. The Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, Sarah Leah Whitson, called al-Jasim’s conviction “‘one more assault on freedom of expression in Kuwait,’” adding that the decision “‘flies in the face of human rights law, which prohibits governments from sending people to jail for nonviolent opinions.’” Al-Jasim was convicted of “publication of [a] statement causing damage to another person’s honor,” when he published an article on his blog accusing a businessman close to the Kuwaiti prime minister of “supporting Iranian intelligence interests.”

Posted in Freedom, Journalism, Kuwait | Comment »

November 22nd, 2010 by Evan

NPR’s Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson began a weeklong series examining life in Egypt ahead of the country’s parliamentary election on Monday. The first installment focuses on growing discontent with the Mubarak Administration: “Not all Egyptians are in favor of Mubarak staying in power. A growing number of them are fed up living in what they see as a police state under his iron-fisted rule and in a country whose economy has failed to lift enough people out of poverty,” Sarhaddi Nelson writes. Much of the discontent stems from widespread corruption and police brutality. “Like many Egyptians of his generation, 29-year-old Ahmad Maher has a different view of life in Egypt today. The construction engineer says he could fill books with descriptions of everything that is wrong with Egypt after three decades of Mubarak’s rule. He complains that no one in government is accountable to the public,” she reports.

Posted in Egypt, Elections, Human Rights, Journalism | Comment »

November 22nd, 2010 by Jason

Bahey el-din Hassan writes in Al Masry Al Youm that civil society and human rights organizations face three major challenges in monitoring Egypt’s November 28 elections: First, the groups must obtain permits from the High Elections Commission (HEC), a process that has become increasingly opaque. “Although the HEC set 7 November as the deadline for human rights groups to submit applications to monitor elections, it set no date for the issuance of permits,” he writes. Also, the HEC “mandates that monitors be impartial, but how can the commission, with its limited resources, evaluate thousands of monitors for bias? Or is it planning to outsource the job to the security apparatus?” The second major hurdle for groups is a lack of accurate information, a problem exacerbated by the “deplorable state” of the HEC itself. The third challenge are the restrictions placed on the press. “The regime launched a quiet coup in October that restructured TV and print media and placed enormous restrictions on the free flow of information. This means that election monitors will do their job in the dark,” according to Hassan.

Al Masry Al Youm also reports that the head of the HEC, Al-Sayed Abdel Aziz, has now “definitively” stated that “there would be ‘no monitoring’ of Sunday’s parliamentary elections, stressing that the role of civil society and human rights organizations would be limited to ‘following’ the elections rather than ‘monitoring’ them.”

Posted in Civil Society, Egypt, Elections, Human Rights, Journalism, Middle Eastern Media, NGOs | Comment »

November 22nd, 2010 by Evan

Kuwaiti lawyer and blogger Mohammad Abdul Qadir Al Jasem was sentenced to one in year in prison after he was found guilty of defaming Kuwait’s Prime Minister Shaikh Nasser Al Mohammad Al Subah. Earlier this year, Al Jasem was detained for six weeks on charges that he had harmed Kuwait’s national interests by criticizing the Al-Sabah regime. Also, Reporters Without Borders recently released reports condemning the arrest and trial of 18-year-old blogger and women’s rights activist Navid Mohebbi in Iran and the court martial of blogger Ahmed Hassan Basiouny in Egypt.

Posted in Egypt, Human Rights, Iran, Journalism, Kuwait | Comment »

November 18th, 2010 by Evan

Maati Monjib, a Moroccan political analyst, has a new article in the Carnegie Endowment’s Arab Reform Bulletin on the Moroccan government’s recent crackdown on independent and foreign media outlets. The regime has become adept at “using roundabout means to portray targeted newspapers or journalists as having violated the law, morals, sacred taboos, or national values,” Monjib writes. On the other hand, officials encourage the formation of government-friendly private media groups. Foreign media outlets have not been immune to government pressure. Al Jazeera and AFP have both had issues registering journalists and maintaining offices in Rabat. According to Monjib, the crackdown is the government’s response to the “increasingly prominent political role” the independent press has played in recent years.

Posted in Journalism, Morocco | Comment »

November 10th, 2010 by Anna

In an interview with David Lepeska in the Columbia Journalism Review, Egyptian journalist Ibrahim Eissa notes that in an effort to control  Al Dostor, the government has filed lawsuits, imprisoned Eissa, and threatened the paper’s publishers with millions of pounds in taxes. After finally taking over the paper, Al Dostor is now “a pet newspaper.” He states that although there was a period of increasing media freedom in Egypt during the Bush administration, “Now the Egyptian government seems to have gotten the green light from the Obama administration to go back to the way they were before.” In “not pressuring Mubarak at all,” Obama ignores the possibility that “society is going to implode on itself and destroy those regimes.”

Regarding the upcoming elections, Eissa says: “[m]y sense is there’s going to be a lot of fraud.” He also predicts that Western media outlets will not be allowed to access polling stations during the upcoming parliamentary elections, a strategy that the regime will likely repeat during the presidential race next year. Without an independent media, Egyptians cannot hold their government accountable, and since opposition parties in Egypt “do not speak out,” the media has taken on that role. “The people want change,” Eissa says, but politicians are not pushing for it.

For more news and analysis on Egypt, sign up for the Egypt Daily Update.

Posted in Democracy Promotion, Egypt, Elections, Freedom, Journalism, Political Parties, US foreign policy, US media | Comment »

November 10th, 2010 by Anna

Ian Black reports in the Guardian today that the BBC will resume broadcasting in Iran after an 18-month lapse. Its correspondent Jon Leyne was asked to leave in June 2009 during the post-election unrest, and the government accused him of organizing the shooting of protester Neda Agha-Soltani. Some observers have interpreted the agreement to return British journalists to the country as a “slight thaw” in Iran’s relations with the West. Former Beijing correspondent James Reynolds will take the position in Tehran.

As Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports, however, opposition programming in Iran may be weak. One blogger (Persian) is skeptical that the Green Movement’s new satellite TV channel, called “Rasa,” will attract a substantial audience. Although its programming is “interesting,” the channel “is producing only one to two hours of weak programs everyday. Also, it’s available through Telstar [satellite], which can’t be accessed by many people.”

Posted in Iran, Journalism | Comment »

November 8th, 2010 by Anna

Authorities in Libya have reportedly arrested 10 journalists affiliated with the Al Ghad media group. The agency was founded by Saif al-Islam Gaddafi (the reform-oriented son of Muammar Gaddafi), who has been openly critical of the government’s conservative old guard. The agency reported: “[The detention] was carried out by the Internal Security Agency on Friday evening, violating the law on the promotion of freedom … and all international norms and conventions signed by Libya.” The arrests come as Saif al-Islam Gaddafi has become increasingly critical of the Libyan government, calling it inept and nonexistent.

Last week, the print version of the weekly Oea newspaper (also part of Al Ghad) was blocked after publishing an article that urged a “final assault” on the government for its failure to address corruption.

Posted in Freedom, Journalism, Libya | Comment »

November 5th, 2010 by Anna

Earlier this week, staff from the Egyptian daily Al Dostor announced that they will continue to publish material on their website, which they have renamed “The Real Al Dostor.” The domain name for the site is registered under Ibrahim Eissa’s name – as such, it will maintain the same editorial policy as the original paper, according to the site’s managing editor Hesham Obia. Al Masry Al Youm reports that about 37 former writers for Al Dostor will contribute stories to the online version, and Eissa is reportedly paying them out of his own pocket while the team searches for sponsors. The newspaper’s former managing editor, Ibrahim Manour, confirmed that the group plans to launch a print version “as soon as we get a new license.”

Posted in Egypt, Journalism, Middle Eastern Media, Technology | Comment »

November 5th, 2010 by Anna

In the Washington Post today, Egyptian finance minister and member of parliament Youssef Boutros-Ghali responds to recent criticisms of the Egyptian government. Boutros-Ghali contends that Egypt’s economic growth “has helped make Egyptian civil society the most dynamic in the Middle East.” He cites the sizeable number of independent satellite broadcasters, publications, bloggers, and opposition papers as evidence that “Egypt is a different country from the one it was five years ago,” and calls the country “a regional trendsetter.” Boutros-Ghali also highlights increased women’s representation in public positions. Regarding “the imperfections in our political system,” he argues that “[t]he fact that Egyptians are having open discussions about the upcoming elections, government performance, poverty and even the president is proof of a healthy political space.” Moreover, he depicts the alternative to the ruling National Democratic Party as attempting to  “steer the country…toward greater fundamentalism.” Boutros-Ghali points out that U.S-Egypt relations are increasingly built on trade and investment, and contends that “an economically developed and politically stable Egypt will improve America’s security and help to create the foundations of a prosperous and stable Middle East.”

For more information on news on Egypt, sign up for POMED’s Egypt Daily Update.

Posted in Civil Society, Egypt, Freedom, Journalism, US foreign policy | Comment »

November 1st, 2010 by Evan

Posted in Journalism, Judiciary, Technology, Turkey | Comment »

November 1st, 2010 by Anna

The Moroccan government reportedly suspended Al Jazeera’s service in the country on Friday, a move the satellite television network condemned. The government charged the network with deviating from accepted standards of journalism, adding that its “refusal to be objective and impartial systematically tarnishes Morocco’s image.” One unnamed official stated that the government objected to “the way Al Jazeera handles the issues of Islamists and Western Sahara,” where over 2,000 Islamists have been detained since 2003.

Magda Abu Fadil, director of the Journalism Training Program at the American University of Beirut, writes at Huffington Post that “[r]un-ins with Arab governments have been a trademark of the channel, whose motto ‘the opinion, and opposite opinion,’ has often landed it in hot water in a region where personality cults and state-run media are standard fare.” Al Jazeera got in a spat with the Jordanian government last month over the jamming of World Cup broadcasting, and officials in Cairo have criticized the network’s editorial policies and “anti-Egyptian reports,” according to Abu Fadil.

Posted in Journalism, Middle Eastern Media, Morocco | Comment »