If you’re a fan of the PBS stations like I am, perhaps you know about WorldFocus, a news show that debuted recently that delivers world news to an American audience. Because American news media is almost entirely focused on domestic news, WorldFocus “partners with international news organizations” to bring news from outside the US borders into the US for American audiences. It’s rather fascinating, really. I’m hooked – which is not a good thing. I don’t have that much time. Of course, their decision to place their broadcasts online? Freaking BRILLIANT. OMG. Thank you.
Here’s one story that you might like to ponder: the state of journalism in Egypt, and the campaign of harrassment that faces bloggers in Egypt, as religious culture and western media collide, and as more Egyptians have access to the internet. There’s an additional online only segment about two specific bloggers and their activism.
I know we have a few readers who currently reside in Egypt, and I’m curious what they think of this story. It’s certainly a timely reminder of the fact that I take my ability to write about romance, sex, mantitty, Hasselhoff, and feminism for granted. I don’t know if I can express how much I adore writing here, and reading what y’all say. Thank you for coming by.
I do not reside in Egypt, but have lived and worked there (in Cairo) for several periods. As a visitor who really doesn’t understand the language, let alone am able to read it, a lot of those things re. freedom of speech, censorship and so on does go over your head most of the time. There are, however, a few magazines (maybe only one now that I think about it) which is in English and they are sometimes excercising a tiny bit of critique of the Egyptian regime. The English newspapers in Egypt are really not critical of the regime. Censorship is heavy and even though Egypt is called a democratic country, even a stupid visitor like myself can see after a few hours there, that that is not the case.
The Egyptian blogging community or movement as one should really call it, is very interesting and something I have been “studying” a lot recently – from the safety of my own computer in Denmark.
I rarely bother with reading any newspapers here in Cairo because they are so heavily restricted on what they can report that they are nearly worthless. (As an aside, because there is no real reliable source of credible news, rumors abound and spread like wildfire) It’s no wonder the bloggers are attracting such scrutiny – so much more difficult to control what individual citizens are up to out on the web. And totally futile as well – they might manage to silence one, but ten more will take their place. Unplug the internet entirely and people will just talk on the street corners. I’ve had taxi drivers independently offer their opinions on the government to me. The only way to silence social / political discontent is to actually deal with all the very real problems that exist here.