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.

Anti-pop news break

Despite what it looks like on television and news websites right now, the world is full of other newsworthy happenings. Iran, for instance. Listen to Borzou Daragahi, Reza Aslan, Juan Cole and Dion Nissenbaum discuss the growing political and religious divide inside Iran and world reaction on today's "To The Point."

Iranian protesters caught in the net

Farhad Manjoo at Slate throws some cold water on the theory that social networking tools have delivered the means to bring about revolution in Iran, and warns that these same tools have been wielded by the wicked to sew confusion and silence voices calling for reform. Manjoo writes:

Over the last couple of weeks, those who believe in the transformative powers of technology have pointed to Iran as a test case—one of the first repressive regimes to meet its match in social media, the first revolution powered by Twitter. Even in the early days of the protest, that story line seemed more hopeful than true, as Slate's Jack Shafer, among many others, pointed out. Since last week, though, when the state began to systematically clamp down on journalists and all communications networks leading out of the country, hope has become much harder to sustain. The conflicting accounts about what happened at Baharestan Square are evidence that Iran's media crackdown is working. The big story in Iran is confusion—on a daily basis, there are more questions than answers about what's really happening, about who's winning and losing, about what comes next. The surprise isn't that technology has given protesters a new voice. It's that, despite all the tech, they've been effectively silenced.

-snip-

On Wednesday, a reader alerted the Lede to an Iranian government Web site called Gerdab.ir, where authorities had posted pictures of protesters and were asking citizens for help in identifying the activists. That's right—the regime is now using crowd-sourcing, one of the most-hyped aspects of Web 2.0 organizing, against its opponents. If you think about it, that's no surprise. Who said that only the good guys get to use the power of the Web to their advantage?

Meantime, the Washington Post reports that repressive regimes in China, Cuba and Burma have censored news of protests in Iran to ensure calls for democratic reform don't go viral.

Iran dot net

As the political and social consequences of a networked world slowly unfold, Iran has become the test case for how repressive regimes fit into the worldwide web. To that end, the New York Times has a piece today about the "laboratory" that the whole world is watching:

At one time, authoritarian regimes could draw a shroud around the events in their countries by simply snipping the long-distance phone lines and restricting a few foreigners. But this is the new arena of censorship in the 21st century, a world where cellphone cameras, Twitter accounts and all the trappings of the World Wide Web have changed the ancient calculus of how much power governments actually have to sequester their nations from the eyes of the world and make it difficult for their own people to gather, dissent and rebel.

Iran’s sometimes faltering attempts to come to grips with this new reality are providing a laboratory for what can and cannot be done in this new media age — and providing lessons to other governments, watching with calculated interest from afar, about what they may be able to get away with should their own citizens take to the streets.

One early lesson is that it is easier for Iranian authorities to limit images and information within their own country than it is to stop them from spreading rapidly to the outside world. While Iran has severely restricted Internet access, a loose worldwide network of sympathizers has risen up to help keep activists and spontaneous filmmakers connected.

Of course, repressive regimes also monitor these new nodes of communication in hopes of disrupting and punishing dissent.

Meantime, the mainstream media is struggling to adapt to these changes. News outlets have much more information to sift through to determine what they should report - and what they can verify, and must also strike a balance between becoming massive retweeting tools and capturing the larger political and social narratives in their storytelling.

Authorities admit voting irregularities in Iran*

Iranian authorities now say that in the June 12 presidential election "the number of votes cast in 50 cities exceeded the actual number of voters," according to the New York Times, but insist it's a "normal phenomenon." More ominously, they warned protesters of a "revolutionary confrontation" if they returned to the streets Monday.

*UPDATE: Robin Wright, formerly of the LA Times, looks at the long unraveling of the Iranian revolution and the persistence of ideas in the face of oppression. She writes:

Who would have thought that a Berlin Wall moment for the region might happen in the strict Islamic republic, where a revolution 30 years ago unleashed Islam as a modern political idiom and extremism as a tool to confront the West?

Unlikely as it seems, the rise of a popular movement relying on civil disobedience to confront authoritarian rule — in the last bloc of countries to hold out against the tide of change that has swept the rest of the world over the past quarter century — is almost a diplomatic dream for the Obama Administration.

I’m not talking about the regime's obstinate reaction or the brutality it unleashed on the streets of Tehran this past weekend. Even in his terse comments since the beginning of the electoral chaos in Iran, Barack Obama has made it clear the violence upsets him greatly. But in his speech to the Islamic world in Cairo on June 4, Obama spoke about the same principles that just eight days later galvanized millions of people throughout Iran to take to the streets.

"All people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and doesn't steal from the people; the freedom to live as you choose," Obama said.

With what now looks like uncanny prescience, he added, "There is no straight line to realize this promise ... Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away."

Yet in the midst of a debate over the U.S. role in Iran — recent past, present and future — Washington can take almost no credit for what is happening. The $400 million allocated by the Bush Administration for intelligence operations and the $75 million the State Department budgeted to promote democracy in Iran had little if any impact in changing the regime's ways or empowering Iranians. Many Iranian NGOs even publicly said they did not want, need or dare to be tainted by U.S. financial assistance.

Wright will be one of our guests on today's "To The Point."

Sunday in Iran

Yesterday's protests left 13 dead, according to Iranian state television; CNN has put the number at 19 dead, and some reports are as high as 150.

Another protest is reportedly planned for today at 5 p.m. Tehran time, the New York Times reports.

Iranian authorities have deemed reform candidate and opposition symbol Mir-Hossein Mousavi a criminal; he's said he's ready for "martyrdom." Meanwhile, state television says police have arrested family members of former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a vocal supporter of the opposition movement.

Steve Clemons of Washington Note and the New America Foundation reprints a letter to a colleague about Mousavi supporters targeting Iran's thuggish morals-police, the Basij (h/t Talking Points Memo):

Basij hunting

By the way, two nights ago I went out to see a few things ... as the general crowds spread into their homes militia style Mousavi supporters were out on the streets 'Basiji hunting'.

Their resolve is no less than these thugs -- they after hunting them down. They use their phones, their childhood friends, their intimate knowledge of their districts and neighbours to plan their attacks -- they're organised and they're supported by their community so they have little fear. They create the havoc they're after, ambush the thugs, use their Cocktail Molotovs, disperse and re-assemble elsewhere and then start again - and the door of every house is open to them as safe harbour -- they're community-connected.

The Basiji's are not.

These are not the students in the dorms, they're the street young -- they know the ways better than most thugs - and these young, a surprising number of them girls, are becoming more agile in their ways as each night passes on.

What's an update on Iran without an update about Twitter? "Six lessons learned" from the New York Times. Change comes on the ground, not online, from the Berkman Center. Etaoin Shrdlu calls bullshit on Clay Shirky claims.

Helene Cooper analyzes the extent to which America's shifting foreign policy has inspired reformers in Iran to challenge the hard-line regime.

Robin Wright looks at the way mourning, martyrdom and the death of a woman on the streets of Tehran could shape opposition strategy.

Foreign Policy talks to a Mousavi surrogate to find out what the reform candidate wants.

24 journalists arrested in Iran

Iranian authorities have arrested at least 24 reporters, editors and bloggers since June 14, according to Reporters Without Borders and other media sources. The NYT's Lede blog reports on the latest detention, that of Newsweek reporter Maziar Bahari:

The number of reporters arrested since the June 12 election has risen to at least 24. The Lede has learned that Newsweek reporter Maziar Bahari was arrested without charge on Sunday morning in Tehran, and has not been heard from since. Mr. Bahari, a Canadian citizen, has been living in and covering Iran for the past decade. His most recent article for Newsweek examined opposition supporters’ concerns that pro-Ahmadinejad groups were staging violent incidents at their rallies to undermine support for their movement.

An earlier AP story put the number at 23, based on the work of Reporters Without Borders.

President Obama releases statement on Iranian protests

Statement from the President on Iran

The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching. We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost. We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.

As I said in Cairo, suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.

Martin Luther King once said - "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian peoples’ belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness.

Police clash with Iranian protesters

Iranian authorities are trying to clamp down on the now daily protests in Tehran. Here's a few options to keep up to date on what's going on:

Borzou Daragahi and Romin Mostaghim are still in Tehran for the Los Angeles Times.

Andrew Sullivan at the Daily Dish is scouring Tweets from Iran.

The New York Times is filing reports from inside Iran.

Robert Mackey at the NYT's Lede blog is also following updates from social networking sites.

Updates from Tehran Bureau, an independent site with original reporting, commentary and citizens.

Washington Post has a reporter in Tehran.

Nico Pitney from Huffington Post is live blogging the protests.

Four today

1. Social-media networks continue to tune their tools to respond to public interest in the Iranian protests. Facebook recently launched a Persian-language site and now Google has added a Persian-to-English/English-to-Persian translator to its Google Translate function. Google

2. Jakarta correspondent Paul Watson has left the Los Angeles Times to return to the Toronto Star. LAO

3. The city of South Pasadena has found a unique way to raise revenues in this down economy. It involves the police department and a school bus. LAT *Updated: Looks like the SPPD wants to make this go away. LAT

4. Californian vs. Californian. Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Garden Grove, cast the deciding vote to squash an amendment from Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, that would have forced the federal government to keep funding the Guantanamo Bay prison. Politico

Facebook releases Persian version

Much has been made about Iranian protesters' use of social networking tools such as Twitter to communicate and organize in the wake of last week's disputed presidential election. That led Facebook to release an test version of its site in the Persian language.

From the company press release:

Since the Iranian election last week, people around the world have increasingly been sharing news and information on Facebook about the results and its aftermath. Much of the content created and shared on Facebook related to these events has been in Persian – the native language of Iran – but the users have had to navigate the site in English or other languages.

Today we’re making the entire site available in a test version of Persian, so Persian speakers inside of Iran and around the world can begin using it in their native language.

Persian was already in translation before worldwide attention turned to the Iranian elections, but because of the sudden increase in activity we decided to launch it sooner than planned. This means that the translation isn’t perfect, but we felt it was important to help more people communicate rather than wait.

'Citizen-based warfare' takes on Iranian regime

Online activists are launching web attacks aimed at shutting down pro-government websites in Iran. The attacks have raised ethical questions and led some to worry the tactic could backfire on the very people the activists are trying to help.

From Wired:

What started out as an attempt to overload a small set of official sites has now expanded, network security consultant Dancho Danchev notes. News outlets like Raja News are being attacked, too. The semi-official Fars News site is currently unavailable.

“We turned our collective power and outrage into a serious weapon that we could use at our will, without ever having to feel the consequences. We practiced distributed, citizen-based warfare,” writes Matthew Burton, a former U.S. intelligence analyst who joined in the online assaults, thanks to a “push-button tool that would, upon your click, immediately start bombarding 10 Web sites with requests.”

But the tactic of launching these distributed denial of service, or DDOS, attacks remains hugely controversial.

-snip-

Other online supporters of the so-called “Green Revolution” worry about the ethics of a democracy-promotion movement inhibitting their foes’ free speech. A third group is concerned that the DDOS strikes could eat up the limited amount of bandwidth available inside Iran — bandwidth being used by the opposition to spread its message by Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. “Quit with the DDOS attacks — they’re just slowing down Iranian traffic and making it more difficult for the protesters to Tweet,” says one online activist.

Saberi freed*

An Iranian appeals court today freed American journalist Roxana Saberi and suspended the 8-year sentence imposed by a lower court after convicting her on charges of espionage.

*Update: Alan Mutter offered this sobering reminder:

As we celebrate the liberation of journalist Roxana Saberi from prison in Iran, don’t forget that two other innocent American newswomen are being held on similarly trumped-up charges in North Korea.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee, two correspondents for San Francisco-based Current TV, have been detained in North Korea since March 17, when they were arrested while filming a story at the border between China and North Korea.

Iran sentences U.S. journalist to 8 years in prison

An Iranian court today sentenced American-born journalist Roxana Saberi to eight years in prison after trying her in secret on charges of spying for the United States. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responded by saying she was "deeply disappointed" with the decision. An unnamed analyst told Reuters that the sentence "was likely to be commuted or reduced in a higher court."

The New York Times quotes an unnamed analyst saying the entire incident might be part of a plan to derail diplomatic talks between Iran and the United States.

From the NYT:

One political analyst in Iran, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicate subject matter, said Ms. Saberi’s arrest could be part of the efforts by radical forces within the establishment who might be trying to sabotage any reconciliation with the United States.

“There have been similar efforts in the past to sabotage efforts that were aimed at resuming ties with the United States,” he said. “Her jailing might be part of the same efforts."

Time magazine's Scott MacLeod has some thoughts on the conviction here.

Trial of U.S. journalist under way

Iranian officials revealed today that the trial of American journalist Roxana Saberi, 31, is already a day old. Iran has charged Saberi with being a spy.

From the NYT:

“She is charged with spying for foreigners,” the judiciary official, Alireza Jamshidi, told ISNA, a news agency. “The first session of the trial was held yesterday, and she defended herself for the last time.”

Mr. Jamshidi said the trial was being held behind closed doors because the charges against her were related to national security. “She was spying for America,” he said.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has said that the United States is “deeply concerned” about the espionage charges and has asked Iranian diplomats for help in obtaining Ms. Saberi’s immediate release.