Video of Egyptian protests

Mohamed Ibrahim Elmasry, a Canadian computer science professor staying in Cairo, captured dramatic video of police and protesters clashing on a bridge near Tahir Square. I found the videos on the New York Times' Lede blog.

Al Jazeera and social change in the Middle East

Broadcast news, whatever its allegiances and whatever platform it uses, has great power to organize the collective mind around ideas, ideals and events. While Twitter, Facebook and other social media have been profiled as part of the coverage of protests in Tunisia, Egypt, and Iran, not as much has been said about the role of Al Jazeera. The New York Times yesterday published a fascinating piece on just this subject. From the story:

In many ways, it is Al Jazeera’s moment — not only because of the role it has played, but also because the channel has helped to shape a narrative of popular rage against oppressive American-backed Arab governments (and against Israel) ever since its founding 15 years ago. That narrative has long been implicit in the channel’s heavy emphasis on Arab suffering and political crisis, its screaming-match talk shows, even its sensational news banners and swelling orchestral accompaniments. 

“The notion that there is a common struggle across the Arab world is something Al Jazeera helped create,” said Marc Lynch, a professor of Middle East Studies at George Washington University who has written extensively on the Arab news media. “They did not cause these events, but it’s almost impossible to imagine all this happening without Al Jazeera.”

Read the rest here.

If you want to hear Al Jazeera's coverage, the live English-language stream is here.

Thai army assault on anti-government protesters

On May 19, hundreds of Thai soldiers moved in to clear anti-government protesters from downtown Bangkok. Reporter in Exile blogger Todd Ruiz filmed the operation, which left at least 15 people dead:

Dawn-to-dusk footage from the Bangkok crackdown from reporterinexile.com on Vimeo.

Tying the Intertubes

The Thai government has turned to online censorship in its effort to quell an anti-government uprising. Todd Ruiz at Reporter in Exile has the scoop - here's an excerpt:

Blocking URLs to prevent the flow of information is like trying to dam a river with your hands. You just get wet and look stupid. Especially since any of the thousands of proxy servers so easily circumvents your finest efforts.

That hasn't stopped the censorship-loving Thai government, which steers all TCP/UDP port 80 traffic through its Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, from dropping the ban hammer on thousands of websites, YouTube videos and news sites since the red crisis began mid-March.

All in the name of protecting those delicate, vulnerable Thai minds from the weighty burden of critical thought.

The complete post is here.