Al Jazeera is leveraging the crisis in Egypt (and their coverage of it) to campaign for broadcasting rights throughout the US. They say they are not available in most of the 50 states in the US, but want the right to be. In an opinion article on their website, Al Jazeera’s Director General Wadah Khanfar […]
Advancements in communication technology have often foreshadowed civil unrest and revolution
Journalists and reporters have an unofficial badge of honor they work for in their careers: credibility. Or what people in the media industry sometimes jokingly refer to as “street cred.” It is usually earned by reporting under dangerous, extremely taxing, or even life-threatening circumstances. An extreme example is a story I heard from a former […]
As the situation in Egypt ramps up by the day, a casualty that is frequently making headlines is the media. Specifically, reporters. The attacks on journalists have become so frequent and high profile (think Anderson Cooper) that the White House, in a rare move, has commented on it. According to a story in the New […]
The office of a news website, Lankaenews (or Lanka-e-news) was set on fire over the weekend, apparently in an act of arson. The news website shows photos of the completely decimated office after the fire, which destroyed the organization’s computers. It is not the first time they have been attacked. According to a statement from […]
Though Egypt blocked Twitter following the protests that erupted on January 25th, tweets about Egypt have surged in the days leading up to and after the start of the revolution that has rocked the capitol. According to Sysomos, the number of tweets that contained the words “Egypt,” “Yemen,” or “Tunisia” increased more than tenfold after […]
I don’t ever want my name as a journalist to be prefaced with the phrase “Pulitzer-prize winning reporter.” It’s not that I am against winning the Pulitzer Prize for my work someday, or that I think the Prize is the mark of a bourgeois journalist. There are simply too many people in the world doing […]
By Sean Patrick Murphy This excellent and moving documentary reveals the plight of Zimbabwean white farmers under the rule of President Robert Mugabe. It centers on 75 year-old Michael Campbell, who has lived in Zimbabwe since 1974. He is the victim of invasions of his property, intimidation, and brutal violence for not agreeing to leave […]
Every speechwriter knows that when a politician needs a speech, there are certain key words and phrases to hit on. In the case of the President of the United States, they are usually things like “hope” and “challenge” and “promise.” There is also the seminal standby: reaching across the aisle to work with (fill in […]
TUNIS Jan 26 (Reuters) – Tunisia has dissolved an agency which acted as an effective censor of foreign media during the rule of ousted president Zine al-Abdine Ben Ali, a cabinet minister said on Wednesday. The External Communications Agency will be replaced by an independent body that will help coordinate with foreign media but will […]
Internet sites such as Twitter and Facebook were cut off within Egypt today as the government of President Hosni Mubarak tried to prevent social media from being used to foment unrest. Many sites registered in Egypt could not be reached from outside, according to Herdict.org, a website where users report access problems. Twitter, YouTube, Hotmail, […]
Why Afghanistan is called the graveyard of empires is made crystal clear in this short documentary. Journalist Paul Johnson made this film last year by traveling to Kandahar, one of Afghanistan’s deadliest regions that breeds young Taliban converts. He shows the aftermath of roadside bombs in part by turning the camera on civilians. The lack […]
Paris will be home to a conference of over 300 of what IFEX characterizes as “media professionals, government officials, policymakers and civil society activists” on Jan. 26 when UNESCO’s headquarters hosts an international symposium on freedom of expression. The event will be one day and will focus on the state of the free press around […]
Among the most notable entries to the 2011 Academy Awards is a still-little known film by the name of “The Black Tulip.” The movie, a dramatic story of a middle-class Afghan family terrorized by the Taliban in modern Afghanistan, is an anomaly in many ways. For one, it’s Afghanistan’s official submission for best foreign film […]
What better way to close out the year than with a list of the best in global music for 2010? Such lists abound, of course, from NPR to your favorite music blogs. We, like other modern day followers of music that spans the globe, try to avoid the term “world music” due to the sort […]