Egyptian Media Blackout on Gaza Wall تعتيم إعلامي مصري عن الجدار مع غزة
Israeli newspaper Haaretz broke the story of a massive metal wall being built by the Egyptians on the border with Gaza to curb smuggling. The strip has been under a cruel Israeli siege for years which has led to a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the Hamas-controlled territory, especially after the Dec/Jan 08/09 Israeli war on Gaza decimated the area. In their own right, Egyptian authorities were criticized across the Arab world for keeping the border shut during the height of the conflict and accused of participating in the collective torture of the Gazan population.
Once the wall story broke a few days ago, suspicion of the Israeli media left readers and the Arab press unconvinced until the BBC ran a story about it with a diagram of the barrier's structure. Having garnered the rubber-stamp legitimacy of the BBC, news of the wall was met with outrage in the Arab media outside Egypt, although most publications remained reluctant to accuse the Egyptian government of punishing Gazans until a statement of acknowledgment came from Cairo.
Well, that statement never came. The Egyptian government chose to bury its head in the sand and hope the passing storm leaves it unscathed. They also hoped the lack of acknowledgment would dispel what they described as rumors. Yet all indications point to the fact that work is well underway on the border with Gaza. A recent BBC Arabic report confirmed the wall's construction, accused Egyptian officials of denial/silence and the press of complicity. Sherine Tadros of Al-Jazeera English corroborated this in her coverage from the border itself.
One might ask, why would the Egyptians risk alienating themselves in the Arab world now given the growing animosities towards their government's positions in recent months and years? There is no clear answer, but the Christian Science Monitor raises some plausible Egyptian motives for building the wall.
Regardless, one thing is for sure--something is being built at the border. The Egyptian media's complicity/laziness is such that no one wants to go through the effort of reporting from Rafah or even asking some simple questions. Even independent newspaper El-Shorouk cited the Times of London's interviews with smugglers defying the wall without actually running a comprehensive story about the barrier itself or even doing their own investigative work. It must've been easier for the London paper to acquire information or make the trip to Rafah than the local one....but I digress!
Perhaps because of their limited readership (expatriate or bilingual Egyptian) and online presence only, Al-Masry Al-Youm English edition is the only Egyptian newspaper to pursue the story with as much depth and goes as far as publishing the views of "smugglers" and reaction to the wall, one of whom asserts that nothing can stop them. He says they will create deeper tunnels or blowtorch the wall. The online paper also published photographs taken by smugglers of what are purportedly underground metal frames being buried along the length of the border (see below).
Wael Abbas sentenced to 6 months in absentia. وائل عباس حكم عليه بالسجن 6 أشهر غيابيا
After being taken into custody briefly at the airport for carrying a book entitled "How to overcome internet censorship," Egypt's most famous blogger Wael Abbas وائل عباس (Misr Digital الوعي المصري) was released. However he did not return to his home and is currently in an undisclosed location. During a visit to Beirut where he attended a conference on blogging, his home was raided by plainclothes police who claimed they had an arrest warrant. For fear of being arrested upon his arrival to his home, Abbas chose to seek shelter elsewhere. During this time he learned that the arrest warrant was for a 6 month jail sentence in abstentia for what was initially described as "building illegal WAN networks." Of course this sounded like a completely farcical charge. On his facebook and twitter pages, the human rights activist said "whatever the hell that means" suggesting he has no clue what the authorities are referring to. The recipient of various international accolades including the first International Center for Journalists' (ICFJ) Citizen Journalism award, Abbas found himself a fugitive in the eyes of the law. Just a few hours ago, Abbas said he has filed an appeal against the verdict which accuses him of "sabotage" regarding a case pertaining to the brother of an officer who was involved in a previous assault case against Abbas. The blogger will likely get his papers and summons tomorrow during which time, all the details will be revealed.
Until some months ago, Abbas had generally been left to operate with limited interference or intimidation from authorities. However, he has been subjected to steadily increasing curtailment as he faced annoyances every time he entered or left Egypt. Having revealed some of the most shocking and scandalous videos of torture by Egyptian police, Abbas was always surprised that he hadn't experienced the wrath of the authorities. Yet, he certainly sensed the gathering storm which culminated in this shocking sentence.
Hariri's Speech Blunder an Internet Sensation سعد الحريري يهرتل والإعلام العربي نايم و يوتيوب مولعة
Newly appointed Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri had plenty of time to prepare his confirmation speech before his country's parliament. His coalition of Western-backed parties, known as the March 14 Alliance, won 71 of 128 seats in the hotly contested June 7, 2009 elections. From that point forth, Hariri, the son of assassinated Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri, was destined for the top seat. Under the Taif Agreement, power-sharing among Lebanon's various religious sects stipulates that the PM's position must be held by a Sunni, making Saad Hariri the only viable candidate after the elections. However from June 7th until last week's appearance before the parliament, Hariri has been caught in a deadlock with the opposition over the composition of his incoming government. Nevertheless, one could presume that 6 months would have been enough to ensure Hariri's highly-anticipated debut in the nation's most revered political institution would at least have been rehearsed.
In a testament to the haphazard nature of politicking in Lebanon, the failure to recognize the importance of public image by politicians, and the infinitely devoid nature of political rhetoric, Saad Hariri shocked parliamentarians and audiences alike with his inability to correctly deliver his speech in Arabic. Interspersed with stutters, hesitations, mispronunciations, improper conjugations, and breaks for laughter and collective commiseration, Hariri's performance has become the subject of a viral video making its rounds on videosharing websites and Facebook.
The video is a montage of Hariri's blunders with excerpted parts from a 1970s Egyptian theatrical comedy called El-Eyal Kibret (The children have grown) where the character of the eldest son Sultan Ramadan El-Sokari, an untamed vagabond with a horrendous scholastic record in high school, tries his hand at reading to his siblings a secret letter from his father mistress. His attempt is an iconic satirical gem, as Sultan makes the farcical claim that his education is German. Hence, the juxtaposition of Sultan and Saad is hilarious and uncanny. At one point and in an obvious act of ridicule, while Hariri squirmed to find the correct pronounciation for a word, Shiite legislator and speaker of the parliament Nabih Berry, jabs the PM by asking whether he wanted someone to complete his speech for him. Jokingly and nonchalantly, Hariri dismissed the comment. The next snippet is of the youngest sibling in the El-Sokari family, a seemingly-mentally-challenged buffoon, is asked to come to the rescue of Sultan by reading the letter for him.
In a span of 4 days, the video has been a sensation online, setting records for Arabic videos online. At the time of this writing, the most popular copy of this video was viewed 350,000 times, rated over 750 times and drawn more than 1500 comments. Most of these comments use the video as fodder to redraw the same old lines in the Lebanese political landscape. Supporters of Hariri argue that one need not have a command of Arabic to rule Lebanon, some using leaders in the Gulf and King Abdullah of Jordan as examples, others claiming the PM suffers from dyslexia. His opponents assert it is an absolute embarrassment that the PM of a nation known for its literary contribution to the Arabic language cannot read a speech. Others say that his poor performance has boosted the egos of all those Arabs whose language skills are less than exemplar. One thing is certain though. For Saad Hariri to have gone through the entire election campaign process without his linguistic handicap every coming up implies that his rise to power must've been very well-orchestrated, his image tightly managed, and his faults craftily shrouded. All of this executed and maintained by a loyal media empire at his disposal, including his very own Al-Mustakbal newspaper and Future TV.
One might look at this event as indicative of the decline of Arabic language skills throughout the region, or at least the public acceptance of such a decline. Or one could perceive this as a sign that the rulers and politicians are out of touch with the cultures and traditions of their citizenry. Either way, for the time being, the video is definitely a virtual box office hit in two genres, comedy and tragedy.
Media Exploit Religious Animosity with "Battle of Faiths" Boxing Match
Last night British Muslim boxer Amir Khan defeated Ukrainian-born NY Orthodox Jewish fighter Dmitri Salita in the first round and in under 76 seconds. Normally, even the most high profile fights at the WBA light welterweight rarely get international coverage. However, the Khan-Salita fight was an exceptional as global news agencies rushed to carry stories about the event held in Newcastle, England. The reason for the excitement isn't the boxers' starpower, the highstakes, the hefty bets, or the celebrity attendees. Rather, it was the fighters' religions that drew all the attention. Salita who is known as "Kosher Kid" and "Star of David" became a sensation in the Jewish community prompting the media to cover the story as a religious contest. After the match, CNN runn the headline "Khan destroys Salita in battle of faiths."
While Evander Holyfield, George Foreman, and Mohammed Ali all espoused strong religious sentiments and never shied from attributing their success to their Almighty transcedental deities, never have any of their fights (especially those between members of different faiths) been pitted as interreligious wars in such blatant fashion. Even though both Khan and Salita appear to be devout adherants of their respective faiths, both have come out and dismissed the dogmatic view of their bout as a war of doctrines. Nevertheless, the tag has been tough to shake as the media rushed to create hype around the event. CNN's Arabic website ran a news story after the fight that barely discussed the match and instead showcased faith and identity as the only compelling narrative. While few Arab news media have picked up the bait on this story, CNN's coverage has made it difficult for Arabic papers to ignore it. Twenty-four hours ago the Arabic press was oblivious to the existence of Amir Khan, but with the CNN story circulating, they might rally behind the young Muslim boxer. So far only the Bahraini news agency and online portal Al-Bab relayed the CNN piece. For one, the manner in which the story was written is reminiscent of the days when televangelist Jimmy Swaggart and Islamic preacher Ahmed Deedat used to duke it out for religious superiority.
Egyptian and Algerian Media Escalate Soccer Spat الإعلام المصري والصحافة الجزائرية يحشدان غضب الجماهير
Football (soccer), like all high-energy spectator sports can generate extreme emotional reactions from its followers and loyalists. Yet unlike other athletic activities, football's ability to produce outbursts that turn into hooliganism is unmatched. As the sport developed throughout the 20th century, it did so in parallel with major political transformations which helped shape national, subnational, regional, ethnic, and linguistic identities. The two World Wars, the anti-colonial movement and Cold War all manifest is some way shape or form on the pitch, as sides were pitted against each other in simulated battles akin to those unfolding between competing political and social camps. Nowhere is this more evident as the World Cup where countries compete for the ultimate trophy in the most watched tournament on global television.
This year has seen its share of high-octane matches but none has come close to the two games which determined the final qualifier from Africa in the world cup 2010 in South Africa. Egypt and Algeria, two teams with an intense rivalry played once in Cairo International Stadium and three days later in a playoff in "neutral" Sudan. The fall out from the games produced massive demonstrations, riots, millions of dollars worth in destruction of property, attacks on both teams and even more serious battles between fans and nationals of both countries. The spill over from the match has produced a virulent brand of discourse in the blogosphere, social networks, and videosharing websites where supporters have gone as far as calling for their opposition's blood. The Algerian and Egyptian official and so-called "independent" presses have both played a significant role in fomenting anger sides and as the saga continued, some went as far as inciting violence. Egyptian fans and media, have accused unruly Algerian fans in the Sudan of attacking them with weapons with the intent to kill. While little evidence has emerged to corroborate this, the Egyptian government, and most notably both sons of president Hosni Mubarak, have come out and fanned the flames of anger against Algerians, winning themselves valuable points at a time of skepticism and disenchantment with the regime.
This has also raised questions about the role Egypt is playing in the region, its Arab identity, and its perception throughout the Arab world. One mixed marriage in the Gulf split following the match and after watching a particularly heated episode of Amr Adeeb's show Cairo Today which was described by some as fitna, a term used to describe a serious "upheaval within the ranks of Muslims."
The Revolution will be Twittered... this time in Iran
Courtney C. Radsch (DUBAI): Iranian activists successfully got Twitter to suspend a planned interruption of service today because it has become an indispensable communication tool. Twitter and the other new media applications of the day -- Facebook, Flikr, YouTube and all -- have once again become indispensable tools in the repertoires of contention of activists in a less-than-democratic country.
So when Twitter announced Monday it would temporarily suspend the service for an hour the next day it immediately spurred a wave of requests not to take away what has become a key communication and organizational tool for post-election activism. Iran has taken press credentials from foreign media and kicked them out of the country and banned their broadcasts. It shut Al Arabiya's Tehran bureau and imprisoned journalists. But it ca't stop Twitter, which works via Internet and mobile phones and is too dispersed and instantaneous and pervasive to block. So real information and images are getting out.
“@twitter Twitter is currently our ONLY way to communicate overnight news in Iran, PLEASE do not take it down,” wrote Moussavi1388, a feed with nearly 11,000 followers that serves as a virtual newsroom, providing information about protests and press conferences. People began posting tweets about the need to prevent the planned outage and shortly after 4 p.m. Monday, Tuesday morning in Iran, the company announced it would suspend the planned upgrade in acknowledgment of its role in facilitating communication in and out of Iran.
Messages with #IranElection, a tag that enables users to search for all tweets on that subject, was the most popular tag on Twitter Tuesday, with more than 70 new posts a minute coming in Tuesday night. Tehran was the second most popular.
Mosavi’s Facebook page, which lists his current position as “president” of Iran, has more than 54,000 members posting pictures and videos that are helping to document the largest protests since the 1979 Islamic revolution as well as government violence that has left at least eight activists dead.
But blogs and Twitter feeds can also be seen by governmental authorities, prompting a campaign Tuesday evening to encourage people around the world to change their profiles to help protect activists in Iran.
“Help cover the bloggers: change your twitter settings so that your location is TEHRAN and your time zone is GMT +3.30” read the tweets sent by hundreds of users in an effort to make it more difficult for the government to track down those blogging inside Iran.
This is certainly not the first time Twitter has helped activists organize, as I've written many posts about its use in Egypt in particular (it has also been used in Moldova, Lebanon, China, etc). But of course, my detailed research is on Egypt, so if you want to read more about how activists in the Middle East use Twitter click here!
Hackers crash official Iran news sites: Exclusive
My team and I discovered this morning that several official Iranian news sites were down after a Facebook note went out telling supporters to download a file that would cause denial of service and crash the sites. From the article I just wrote and posted on Al Arabiya about the hacking, which followed just a day after Iran officials closed Al Arabiya's Tehran bureau for a week.
"Iranians sympathetic to reformist Mir Hossein Mousavi, who lost his election bid against the incumbent president, fought back against a government crackdown on media by hacking official news websites Sunday.
Activists dissatisfied with what they say were fraudulent elections that saw President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad elected to a second term with a landslide 63 percent of the vote, organized a denial of service campaign through Facebook that caused the websites of several official news agencies to crash.
The official IRNA and FARS news agencies websites could not be displayed for several hours in the morning, Press TV’s site delivered a server busy message while the official parliament site, Majlis.ir, gave an unending still working message.
The websites of IRIB, the official broadcaster, Sepah News, the Revolutionary Guards newspaper and Kehan, the conservative government mouthpiece, were also unavailable.
A note posted on Facebook urged supporters dissatisfied with the vote results to download a file called “giveourvoteback” that would send requests to the various official websites effectively creating a denial of service because of too many server requests and crashing the sites.
Facebook, used by supporters of rival reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi to rally support, was blocked in the weeks leading up to the election and in the wake of post-election demonstrations. 
But Iranians at home, using proxies, and abroad fought back by causing the denial of service of several official government news sites. The campaign came amid the third day of violent protests and a continued government crackdown on the media, especially foreign press." (for the rest of the article click here)
So... yesterday Iran told Al Arabiya that we would not be able to broadcast from Tehran for the next week. Conveniently this would prevent coverage of the enormous protests that have wracked the capital and other cities for the past three days since the election results were announced. Reports are that they are the biggest in a decade if not since the Islamic Revolution in Iran...
Attacks to the Iranian corpus!
Today's news from Iran is worrisome or is it promising?! As protesters riot in the streets of Tehran to express their anger at the reelection of President Ahmedinijad, attacks on the bodies of Iranians are making headlines worldwide as videos circulate online. BBC, Al-Jazeera English and other international networks are showing the gory footage of protesters confronting law enforcement and the latter assaulting them with batons, pepper spray and tear gas. Throngs of youth are seen swarming the streets, clashing, and dispersing. The violation of the human corpus on the Iranian streets has become central to the way these elections will be perceived and historicized. Al-Jazeera English, in an attempt to stockpile their Iran coverage, decided to run a documentary entitled 
"Rough Cut" by Firouzeh Khosrovani on the show Witness tackling the manipulation, exploitation and silencing of the female body in Iran through the lens of mannequins. Video narration about patriarchy and the suppression of women's corporeal expression are coupled with images of mannequin breast being sawed off. It will be difficult on this Friday, June 14th, for us to overlook the contiguity between these two narratives of corporeal dismemberment on the streets and behind the shop windows. Hundreds have been arrested and beaten after they attacked stores and burned police motorcycles. Some of Mousavi's people have been detained. Mobile phones have been frozen, sms messages disabled, and bodies continue to descend onto the streets even against the advice of their leader Mousavi who has urged calm. At 5pm local time, Ahmedinijad is scheduled to rally his supporters in Tehran and clashes are expected to occur as the contesting crowds collide. It appears the sentiment in the streets is now apart from the leaders themselves as herd mentality has translated into immense public mobilization. 
While the body naturalis and body politic are strangled, the virtual body is also restrained as Iranian authorities blocked YouTube.com, Facebook and the websites of several newspapers. Some twitter reports and blogs have described raids on the student dorms and the arrests of bloggers. At this time, the Iranian corpus is in a more precarious position that in anytime over the last 20 years. And as authorities attempt to create a blockade on media representation of this, images, videos and experiences are trickling out and reverberating worldwide.
Ahmedinijad Landslide, SMS Frozen, Streets Charged
Saturday morning, Iranians woke up to a perplexing situation. Election results announced by national television networks show a decisive blow to the Green contender Mousavi with a landslide in favor of the notorious incumbent Ahmedinijad. This is anything but what was expected and speculated by Western media. The announced 67% victory for the conservative leader left global observers puzzled and his contestants defiant. Some analysts in the West have argued that Iran will likely exhibit what has been referred to as "The Obama Effect" indicating the US president's charm in the region and ability to sway elections. Mousavi has stated clearly that he intends to challenge the results, with his supporters pouring into the streets to express their dismay and vowed to launch "Operation Sovereignty" with confrontational slogans such as "If there was fraud, there will be riots." Fear of a backlash by Mousavi supporters may have prompted Iranian authorities to shutdown all text (sms) message services in the country for a whole day. Some bloggers and facebookers have accused the authorities of trying to fragment and disconnect Mousavi supporters by crippling their ability to connect with one another and mobilize. Anytime now, the election committee is supposed to announce the final results with 95% of ridings reporting. The ramifications of this announcement are anyone's guess, but could be significant if election fraud is seen as a probable.
Midnight Media Mayhem on Iran Elections!!
At this hour, Iran is ablaze with speculation about the presidential elections which produced a massive turnout from voters. Unlike the measely turnout in European parliamentary vote earlier this week, and more akin to the Lebanese parliamentary elections, ballot box traffic is booming in the Middle East. Iran is a clear example where the turnout was large enough to warrant a 4-hour extension of voting which in the end shattered the 80% record that came out to vote Khatami to office more than a decade ago!! In the period between the closing of ballot boxes and the official announcement of election results, Iranian and global media have been thrown into a whirlwind.
Reformist contender Mousavi has declared himself "definite" victor just hours after closing of ballots and relied on exit polls of 65% supporting his election. Western news agencies picked up that news and ran with it; Reuters and AP delivered stories about Mousavi's announcement caught on like wildfire in the Saturday morning press worldwide. Just minutes ago, the Interior Ministry has decided to hold an early press conference to announce results (an uncustomary occurrence given that only 20% of the votes have been counted and mostly from rural regions) where they announced that incumbent Ahmedinijad secured 69% of tallied votes.
It is unclear why both Mousavi and the Interior Ministry (an arm of the government which could raise questions about its impartiality) both took a leap to ignite frenzy about how the results given that none of the numbers so far are conclusive. Some western reporters and Mousavi supporters have started suggesting that the press conference may serve a pro-Ahmedinijad conspiracy. Rather it seems this is part of the information battle which will characterize the next few days, implying the post-election dust will not settle fast. The politically-charged atmosphere in Iran today has both camps mobilized and perhaps street-bound if the election results don't go their way. For the next few hours, until the official figures are out, Iran and much of the international community will be holding their breaths to see what will come out of this.
This is an election that has produced a phenomenal public outpouring and populism by the challenger Mousavi who has reached out to liberal-minded educated professional urbanites, youth, and women (which are thought to be the main group in the swelling of election turnout). There are questions of class, urban/rural, gender, ideology, and age that factor into this election as the faultlines became clear. Charges of corruption, nepotism, conspiracy, ignorance, and radicalism were lobbed by both candidates at each other in their televised debates. Diasporic Iranians also might factor into the election as hundreds of thousands cast their votes from around the world, with 40 stations in the US alone!!
For now, the craze continues as Iranians will spend latenight hours infront of their television sets and computers and text messages flurry back and forth between them. The infamously active Iranian blogosphere is ablaze and Iranian Facebook users are posting messages, status updates, and sharing minute-by-minute content with one another about the elections.
