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The pictures. The sounds. The rhythm of news and the ratatatt of people speaking from all over the Arab world; some analysis, much more emotion, more much speechifying.
The sense of bringing you there and of them being there, of a reporter standing up in the darkness or daylight in front of a live and dangerous background, of their breathless delivering of breaking news, of staring at masses in city after cityshouting, marching and getting caught up in the wave, and then the slow stumble into what it means though it all remains a fog as bleery as any other in days to come. But all within hours of the start of the news.
If there was any doubt about the power of Arab satellite television, the crisis in Gaza is the end, and yet another warning for newspapers across the Arab world. A warning they cannot ignore. They cannot capture the news as immediately as before. But what they can do is to use their websites to tell the news immediately, and then their pages to tell stories in detail and offer explanations and to capture in photographs the moments of humanity that can only be preserved in the well considered photo.
The newspapers that used their news pages to capture the history of the moment, al Hayat among them, rose to the occasion. With all of its sources, al Jazeera captured the moment and captured the masses who then became the news that the newspapers wrote about the next day.
Cairo-
The disconnect between coverage of Gaza in the West and Arab world-a very good overview
http://www.arabmediasociety.com/?article=698
On coverage — from the Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/31/israelandthepalestinians-middleeast1
on coverage – from al Ghad – in Arabic
http://www.alghad.jo/?article=11632–in Arabic
from al Jazeera, on the Western media’s coverage of Gaza
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/war_on_gaza/2009/01/20091585448204690.html
on al Jazeera in Arabic – an article I wrote for CJR online
http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/the_rage_will_be_televised.php
http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-fg-arab-media8-2009jan08,0,1236090.story
http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/what_the_red_cross_sees_the_me.php
http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/war_of_the_words.php
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/07/gaza-america-media
http://tyndallreport.com/comment/20/3556
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/12/israel-gaza-rea.html
see the blogs from gaza listed on the left
al jazeera in English on Gaza
http://labs.aljazeera.net/warongaza/
on al jazeera in English from the New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/12/business/media/12jazeera.html?th&emc=th
praise for an al Jazeera in English correspondent in Gaza, from Haaretz
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1054282.html
On the problems facing the foreign press in covering Gaza, from the Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jan/14/media-frustrated-over-gaza
on al Arabiya’s coverage
http://www.elaph.com/Web/NewsPapers/2009/1/400395.htm
Democracy under siege
Until Arab regimes embody the people they purport to represent they will remain fearful of them, writes Ayman El-Amir*–from Al Ahram
Democracy in the Arab world is in a bind. It is taking one step forward and two steps back. Although the silent majority is growing more active and increasingly restive, its yearning for democratic change has no sense of direction except, perhaps, the Islamist way. It has been tantalised by two examples of democratic and peaceful change, first in Mauritania and more recently in secular Turkey. However, it does not have the institutional power structure to emulate these experiences. For the past decade, conditioned political parties, opposition movements, factory workers and professional unions have staged demonstrations, protests and strikes, clashed with government troops and filed lawsuits in courts, but have been skilfully outmanoeuvred and contained by the regimes in power. Government-licensed political parties have little to no access to genuine power sharing leading to peaceful change.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/862/op3.htm
A strike is the end of the line. Everything collapses. It’s a blow. It’s a clash that reverberates for years. But reporters often miss this.
They miss the forces building up and forces at play. They miss the bigger picture and the human faces and voices.
Here are some suggestion in Arabic about how to cover labor disputes and labor issues from someone who has done this for some time – me
كيفية تغطية النزاعات العمالية
ثلاث استراتيجيات
1. الأخبار المباشرة. ما هو سبب النزاع؟ معظم النزاعات تحدث عندما يفشل شيء عادي.
من هم الأشخاص الأساسيين؟ ما هي النقابات والشركات والصناعات التي تأثرت؟
صف القياديين، تواريخهم، وآرائهم حول النزاع.
صف تعاظم الظروف الذي ادى إلى النزاع
التفاصيل
ما هي القضايا المالية؟
ما هو تاريخ النزاعات في هذه الشركة، الصناعة، أو البلد؟
ما الدور الي تلعبه هذه النقابة أو تلك الشركة في الإقتصاد المحلي والوطني؟
ما هي القوى السياسية والإقتصادية؟ هل يمكن تحمل إضراب؟
التوقع-ماذا يعني؟
ما هو الناتج المحتمل من النزاع: إضراب لفترة طويلة، مصنع مغلق، انتصار لمن؟
2. كتابة الفيلم – الكتاب – القصة عن الإضراب.
صف تأثير النزاع على العمال، المديرين، الملاّك، والمجتمع
احيانا ما تتحول النزاعات إلى حروب شخصية. هل حدث ذلك هنا؟
قيم وصف العمال المختلفين. ما اوجه الاختلاف في هؤلاء الناس؟
الإضرابات الطويلة أو الإضرابات الصعبة لها تأثيرات عاطفية وإقتصادية. أحيانا تكون النتيجة اليأس، الإنتحار والدمار المالي.
تجنب النماذج المكررة. تابع مجموعة أشخاص على مر الوقت وارجع لتحديث قصصهم.
أعط تاريخ الشركة – النقابة وأوضح كيف كانت جزء من حياة المجتمع والأشخاص العاملين هنالك.
3. الصورة الأكبر
ما الدور الذي يلعبه الإقتصاد العالمي والشركات العالمية في هذا النزاع؟
كيف يحدد النزاع التغييرات الحاصلة في اقتصاد الأمة؟ هل تعكس صناعة قديمة أو جديدة؟ ماذا كان تأثير التجارة العالمية؟ كيف غير الإقتصاد الدولي المنتج المصنّع في المصنع؟
وفر معلومات وخرائط لإيضاح التغيرات.
هل هنالك نزاعات موازية في بلدان أخرى؟
The column is done and he’s pleased. People will notice it when it appears. He is sure. The West has given up on democracy in the Arab world, it says, and so it is time for people to do their own work.
The column will go out now to al Masry al Youm and six other newspapers across the Arab world. When his words are too strong for al Masry al Youm, he says he gives the column to al Destour. He is pleased that he will also be writing regularly for Newsweek magazine in Arabic.
He smiles. He likes, he says, being a “critic of public affairs, and being informative, and touching on unspoken lives.” He knows he is on the “right track,” he says, when he ruffles the authorities.
For exercising his freedom of expression, the elderly sociologist has paid a price.
He was found guilty by a court in 2001 of defaming Egypt, of receiving money from overseas without government approval, and other charges related to the work of the center that he had created, the Ibn Khaldoun Center for Social and Developmental Studies.
He was given seven years. On the third round of hearings, he was set free. He calculates that he served two years. He has had four operations since leaving prison. But he says he still suffers physically. Professor Saad Eddin Ibrahim looks all of his 68 years and more.
His center is open again and as busy, he says, as over. It is a platform, he says, “for people who cannot get their voices heard.”
The door to his office at American University in Cairo swings opens constantly with a stream of students. He nods at their explanations, their eager plans. An author of numerous books, and one-time commentator on Egyptian television, he also once taught at DePauw University in Indiana.
First thing in the morning, he watches the news on CNN and then Sky News and then al Jazeera and then al Arabiya and then he reads al Ahram, and al Masry al Youm and al Destour and al Hayat and maybe some others. He squeezes in magazines in his spare time.
He likes the way al Hayat and al Shark al Awsat have raised the Arab media’s professionalism. He admires the progress made by the Lebanese and Kuwaiti news media.
He has hope for the Arab news media. But it is measured.
“It (the news media) is being changed from the periphery,” he says. “It is being reshaped and being reshaped at the edges.”
We like the investigation by al Ahram on the surprising waters that have appeared in el Obur City.We also like the investigation by al Masry al Youm on the status of copyright protection in Egypt. And we think the article by Mohammed el Sayed Said on the opinion page of al Ahram about what’s happened to Cairo touches deeply. All of these articles appeared on May 21. We, by the way, are Stephen Franklin and Ahmed Tarek aboelsoud.
We come alive. We laugh. We remember. We dream. We rage. We cry. We smile. We are connected. This is why we read. This is why we write. This is what happens when a newspaper, an online journal, a blog does its work well. It is a daily miracle. It is worthy trying. It is humanity. Honest. Compelling.
The words of one Egyptian blogger capture this. I borrow his words from another who also noticed them. This is from Arabeyes by Amira al Hussaini, which appeared on Globlal Voices Online:
Ala’a Abdulfattah tells us why he really isn’t a blogger. Ala’a has come to this conclusion after returning from Lebanon and finding himself lost about what to blog about.
أرجع من السفر في دماغي حواديت كثيير ، يجي في بالي المدونة، مش يبقى لطيف لو كتبت عن بيروت، دأنا حتى شفت الضاحية الجنوبية و الاعتصام و مخيم شاتيللا و عاصرت اللبنانيين و هما عايشين القلق من العودة للحرب الأهلية.بس مش عارف أجيلها منين، مفيش كتابة عايزة تيجي، أصلي لما بسافر لازم لما أرجع أحكي كل الحواديت لكل الناس اللي بقابلهم و باين كده الحدوتة اللي اتحكت باللسان مينفعش تتحكي بالكيبورد.
“I return from my travelling with a lot of tales in my head. I think of the blog. Wouldn’t it be nice if I wrote about Beirut? I even saw the southern Dhahya, the protest, the Shatila Refugee camp and lived with the Lebanese as they anxiously anticipated the return of another civil war.But I don’t know how to start. There are no words coming to my head. This is because when I travel I have to relate all the stories to all the people I meet. It seems that the story I narrate in person cannot be repeated using the keyboard,” he admits.
كل ماجي أفكر في مدخل للحدوتة ألاقي خبر منيل يشتتني، منعم اتقبض عليه، الباشا الفاضي عبد الفتاح مراد ملفقلي قضية، نواب أخوان بيتقبض عليهم، ضرب نار في سينا، مركز الخدمات النقابية بيتقفل، القضاة معرفش مالهم.بلاش هبل، أنت هتصدق الهيلمان اللي معمول و تحس أنه واجب أنك تدون؟ أنك بتناضل بالكيبورد؟ لا أنت تنفع ولا أنت عايز. و بعدين لو هتكتب في الكلام ده ايه الجديد اللي هتقولله؟ ما الجرائد بتحكي فيه و الأمور واضحة و مفقوسة و مش عرضة أصلا لاختلاف الرأي. طيب منعم ضروري حاجة تتعمل لمنعم ده برضه صديق و كمان يمكن بكره تكون مطرحه و تحتاج اللي يقف معاك، .
“When I start thinking of an introduction for my story, I come across bad news which distracts me. Monem has been arrested. The void Pasha Abdulfattah Murad is framing me for a case. The Muslim Brotherhood MPs have been jailed. There has been a shooting in Sinai. The Union Service Centre will be shut down. I don’t know what’s up with the judges.Stop being a fool. Will you believe all the fuss being made around you and start feeling that it is your duty to blog? Are you rebelling using a keyboard? You are useless and your are not willing. And after all, even if you write about all this, what is the new thing that you will say? Newspapers are writing about all this and the situations are clear, detailed and not even debated. Of course there should be something done for Monem because he is a friend. I may also be in his place tomorrow and will have to stand besides him,” notes Ala’a.
And someone comes in with the latest gossip, latest news, latest whatever. They tell it to you and in seconds it is not only down the street, but around the country and around the Arab world. This is how it goes with blogs in the Arab world. The talk a few days ago was about something that happened in Kuwait. A Bahrani blogger had something interesting to say, and you can find it at Mahmood’s Den, (mahmood.tv) and look under “Goooood Morning Kuwait. Smaller and smaller world.
Chaos. Hundreds of police and unblinking, tough-looking security guys. The main square is jammed and so the demonstrators race here and there. They ran up to another square that’s several blocks away. The police keep moving you back so you can’t see and you are suddenly out of touch. But you are with a colleague who watches over your shoulder as you pay attention to the spokesman shouting in front of you. That way you don’t get lost in case of a police rush or a crowd stampede. If you are shooting pictures, always know what’s in front of you. You call another colleague who is several blocks away and she tells you the crowd is there. You get your notes from here and move on. You never lose telephone or walkie talkie contact. If people are arrested, you need to know from the police who they are and where they went. Before the demonstrators disappear, you need contacts from them. You need the government to tell you what happened, the police to explain what they did and why, and then the demonstrators and experts to explain what’s going on. You need to see and feel the scene and put it in context. It’s not just a demonstration is it or isn’t it?. What’s happening here? Why does this matter?
There was such a demonstration in downtown Cairo and the Daily Star of Egypt did a good job overall.
CAIRO: Demonstrations organized by the Kefaya National Movement for Change and opposition parties against proposed constitutional amendments were met with a massive state security sweep in downtown Cairo on Thursday.
Over 30 Kefaya activists were detained in protests that began in Tahrir Square and spread through Talat Harb Square, ending with a sit-in of some 200 people outside the Tagammu Party headquarters on a side street off Mahmoud Bassouny St demanding the release of the detainees.
Protesters were vastly outnumbered by ranks of central security forces that surrounded Tahrir and Talat Harb squares and lined every major connecting street downtown.
Dozens of security trucks and squadrons guarded major sites like the Egyptian Museum, the Mugamma, and the American University in Cairo, even as protesters did not outnumber 50 when the demonstration began at 5pm.
Individual protesters shouted anti-Mubarak slogans on a traffic island in Tahrir Square before plainclothes security agents began arresting activists, beating them and hauling them into nearby security trucks.
“We’re ready for democracy and that’s why we’re here,” Sayyed Mahmoud Saadawy, a Kefaya activist, told The Daily Star Egypt.
“We reject constitutional amendments set to oppress the people. This is terrorizing the public,” said Sayyed Abdel Fattah, a lawyer and Kefaya member standing in front of the Mugamma building as the police made arrests.
One of the first activists to be detained could he heard screaming from inside a blue security truck after he was dragged from the street. He had been leading a chant for reforms to the proposed constitutional amendments saying “quiet, quiet Hosni Mubarak!”
Abdel Fattah said the amendments would only allow those in charge to inherit more power. Other protesters echoed those sentiments, singling out President Mubarak and his son Gamal, head of the ruling National Democratic Party’s policy secretariat, who many suspect is being groomed to succeed his father, in power since 1981.
One Kefaya member attracted protesters and security forces as she stood in the middle of the street outside the Mugamma screaming: “The kids that were taken, I want them back now or else we’ll block the street.”
Layla Sweif stood in front of evening traffic until police pushed her and other demonstrators out of the square.
Activists reassembled in Talat Harb Square, reviving chants of “Why are we under military law? Is this prison or what?” and “Mubarak you have our money, why have you made us broke.”
More uniformed and plainclothes security officers surrounded protesters in Talat Harb as members of the opposition Al Ghad party waved banners and chanted anti-government slogans from the second floor balcony of their party headquarters.
Escaping what some called a “siege” activists then moved outside the Tagammu Party headquarters, located on a one-way side street off Mahmoud Bassouny Street.
There, rows of uniformed police and plainclothes thugs numbering into the hundreds filled the side street, allowing people to enter but blocking the entrance back to Mahmoud Bassouny.
The cordoned off crowd of about 200 protesters burned the American and Israeli flags, setting off brief skirmishes with the lines of security forces pushing down the side street.
“The last time I had seen this much security was in the March 2003 anti-war demonstrations,” said blogger Hossam El-Hamalawy, standing outside the Tagammu’s headquarters.
Abdel Aziz El-Husseiny, Media Coordinator of Kefaya, addressed the demonstrators and gathered media after tensions dissipated before 8pm.
El-Husseiny read the names of the detainees, at that time confirmed to be 33, and the crowd responded by declaring a sit-in until their release, shouting “free our imprisoned brothers.”
At that time, security forces refused to allow activists to leave the side street, effectively blocking them off.
“We can’t leave until [the security forces] move, but we’ll stay until the morning,” Aida Mansour, a Kefaya member, told The Daily Star Egypt.
“I know the ones who were arrested well. When I tried to leave just now, [the security forces] searched me and told me to stay here. Now I can’t leave. We’re caught in a dead end. This is ridiculous.”
The stand-off ended relatively peacefully, however, after people in the crowd began receiving mobile phone calls from some of the detainees, who were being shuttled around the city in security trucks.
Security forces then allowed people to leave the side street and the crowd dwindled, though around fifty remained, waiting for more news of the detainees.
As the crowd lingered, El-Husseiny told The Daily Star Egypt that the arrests were “what we expect from the Egyptian regime and how it deals with peaceful political activists demanding general freedom.”
El-Husseiny called on Egyptians to boycott the constitutional referendum, which “a majority of the Egyptian people will not take part in anyway because it is something that the government has decided without their will.”
He added: “We will continue to demand a change in this regime which only exists by rigging elections and policing severely.”
Other activists highlighted the workers’ strikes across Egypt, saying that those “examples of extreme oppression” had sparked the day’s protests.
Nadia, whose fiancé was among the first Kefaya activist to be detained, was in tears as she stood outside the Tagammu Party Headquarters.
“What happened today is evidence of the repression of freedom in Egypt,” El-Husseiny said. “The regime fears only a few hundred peaceful Egyptians.”
By early Friday morning, fourteen detainees were reported released from Dhaher Police Station, although over twenty remained in custody.
At 10 am Friday, the remaining detainees were transferred to El-Galaa court downtown for prosecution, according to local witnesses there.
Just after noon, however, lawyers arrived at the courthouse but were refused entry, although the detainees were being held inside.
“This is an embarrassment for every Egyptian lawyer, the fact that we cannot go into our own courthouse,” Sayeda Abdel Fattah told The Daily Star Egypt.
A guard outside the courthouse admitted to The Daily Star Egypt that “yes, it is [the lawyers’] right to be admitted into the courthouse, but we have to obey our superiors authorities.” He preferred to remain anonymous.
Lawyers were eventually admitted into the courthouse, although at press time a sentence was still pending.
The protests came after Abdel Wahab El Messiri, the newly appointed General Coordinator of Kefaya, reportedly said in late January that Kefaya would shift its activities away from public demonstrations towards political organization.
“We are starting new educational training sessions to increase political awareness among the members,” El Messiri said.
Still, Mounir Fakhry Abdel-Nour, General Coordinator of Al-Wafd party, disagreed at the time, saying that Kefaya had distinguished itself as a popular street movement driven by protest and public demonstration.
