Check out the latest Digital Media Round-Up from the Center for International Media Assistance at the National Endowment for Democracy for essential news, analysis and events.

Upcoming Events – Washington DC Covering Egypt: The Media and the Revolution Monday, February 28, 2011 6:30-8:30PM National Press Club Featuring: Riz Khan, Mona Eltahawy, Jeffrey Ghannam, and Natasha Tynes RSVP: Grace Burton at gburton@icfj.org [READ MORE]

The Union of the Mediterranean has been described as “an almost meaning-free piece of European Union architecture, a cathedral built on a pinhead.” With North Africa in turmoil, Kimana Zulueta-Fülscher explains why the EU’s democracy assistance to its southern neighborhood failed to promote reform.

When the citizens [READ MORE]

Libyan government security forces fired indiscriminately on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tripoli today as thousands defied a security clampdown to demand Muammar Qadhafi’s overthrow.

Gunmen opened fire from rooftops and in the streets with automatic weapons and even an anti-aircraft gun as protesters emerged from mosques after Friday prayers.

A special session of the United [READ MORE]

Genuinely independent and non-partisan, Radio Ndeke Luka is an exception to the norm in the Central African Republic, where politics can be a fiercely sectarian and risky business.

A coalition of opposition groups and ex-rebels accused President Francois Bozize of blatantly falsifying last month’s joint presidential and parliamentary elections from which [READ MORE]

Thousands of residents fled from Abidjan’s Abobo neighborhood today in a bid to escape violent conflict between rival supporters of former President Laurent Gbagbo (left) and Alassane Ouattara (below)  who defeated the incumbent in November’s election in the Ivory Coast.

UN-certified returns confirmed Ouattara’s victory, but Gbagbo has refused to concede. The conflict [READ MORE]

At least one person was killed and several wounded today when a landmine exploded during a demonstration in the town of Lodar, a bastion of anti-government and secessionist sentiment in the southern province of Abyan.

The blast came hours after Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh reaffirmed several reform pledges and ordered state security [READ MORE]

The regimes’ pervasive, high-level corruption was sustained by authoritarian rule, their socialist ideology ossified into a ‘barren statism.’

Financed with huge rents, largely from oil, the ‘sclerotic political systems’ were beyond reform. The key questions were when collapse would occur, which regime would be toppled first, and what group would end the status quo.

We could be talking about the Arab world [READ MORE]

Prospects for a democratic transition in Tunisia will rest on the strategic choices made by the key political actors. But the chances of consolidating political reform will hinge in large part on addressing the country’s economic fragility, writes Abdulwahab Alkebsi (right), and that will require a coordinated effort by the emerging political [READ MORE]

A dramatic wave of unrest has exposed the seething discontent and resentment underlying the apparent stability of the Arab world.  So what can we expect of a system which already experiences tens of thousands of public protests each year?

In 2007, China had over 80,000 “mass incidents” – strikes, demonstrations, riots – up from more than 60,000 in 2006, according to [READ MORE]

Prospects for change in Iran hinge not only on the opposition Green movement acquiring fresh allies and momentum, but also on the coherence of the Islamic Republic’s leadership. So will a forthcoming succession crisis provoke a fracturing of the regime?

The disputed 2009 presidential election was “one of the most transformative events” in recent Iranian history, exposing critical schisms [READ MORE]

As workers at Iran’s largest oil refinery in Abadan enter the second week of a strike, observers are gauging the dispute’s likely political significance. While the strikers downed tools to demand unpaid wages, they chose to walk off the job last Monday, when the opposition Green Movement called for actions in solidarity with protesters in Egypt and elsewhere in the [READ MORE]

Authoritarian regimes, especially those with severe inequality, are inherently arbitrary, unpredictable, and unstable, writes Harvard Law School professor Mark Roe (left). A democratic polity will give Egypt the best chance of developing the healthy financial markets and economic growth the country desperately needs.

For Egypt, the question of the day [READ MORE]

As Egypt’s political actors begin to consider and debate the critical strategic choices for ensuring a genuine democratic process, the design of a new electoral system will have profound implications for the country’s political trajectory, writes Ellen Lust (right), associate professor of political science at Yale University. A parliamentary system based on [READ MORE]

Historical events often seem impossible before they happen – and inevitable afterwards. President Hosni Mubarak’s eviction from office was not pre-determined, writes Egyptian political analyst Emad Shahin (left), who recently spent several days in Tahrir Square.

None of the organizers of the January 25th demonstrations ever dreamt that their call for a [READ MORE]

Libya’s leader Muammar Qadhafi (left) dismissed “malicious rumors” that he has fled the country as security forces and foreign mercenaries violently suppressed protesters.

“I am in Tripoli and not in Venezuela,” he told state TV. British Foreign Minister William Hague said he [READ MORE]