Posts Tagged ‘Lebanon’
May 1st, 2013
Preliminary research from a survey of nearly 10,000 Arab respondents has found that while most support the right to free expression online, they are apt to believe that the internet should be regulated, according to the researchers.
The survey — a joint effort between researchers at the Qatar campus of the US-based Northwestern University and the World Internet Project — explored media usage in the Arab world. Participants were drawn from eight Arab nations: Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates.
The survey questioned participants’ perceptions of the news media, finding that 61 per cent thought the “quality of news reporting in the Arab world has improved over the past two years.” Media credibility declined in countries that experienced revolutions during the Arab Spring. The Saudi Arabian respondents gave their media outlets high marks with 71 [per cent agreeing with the statement, “The media in your country can report the news independently without interference from officials”.
Overall, the survey found high Facebook penetration among respondents who used social media. Ninety-four percent of the social media users had Facebook accounts, 47 per cent used Twitter and 40 per cent used Facebook. Among the Bahrain social media users, 92 per cent had a Facebook account, while just 29 per cent of the Egyptian respondents did.
The survey aimed to assess the use of media — TV, radio, newspapers, books, web — and levels of trust respondents had toward the sources. It also sought to guage how the respondents used the internet to communicate and conduct transactions like banking or purchases.
The results can be accessed at Arab Media Use Study.
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Tags: Tags: Bahrain, Egypt, freedom of expression, internet, Jordan, Lebanon, Middle East, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates,
June 27th, 2012
The headquarters of a leading
Lebanese TV station Al-Jadeed
were attacked by armed men earlier this week. Five masked gunmen opened fire on the building in Beirut at 9.30pm on 25 June, and set fire to tires in the station entrance. The attack followed the airing of a controversial interview with Sheikh Ahmad Al-Assir, a Salafist Imam, who
harshly criticised the Shiite Muslim leaders in the country. Al-Jadeed were forced to apologise for the interview, and any anger it had unintentionally provoked.
June 21st, 2012
At least nine
Lebanese journalists
have been attacked whilst covering ongoing clashes in
Syria over the last month in four separate incidents. On 10 June, Ghadi Francis from Beirut-based TV station Al-Jadeed was attacked by the bodyguard of a politician participating in the internal elections of the local Syrian Social Nationalist Party. Francis was punched in the face and kicked several times. Firas Shoufi, another journalist, attempted to intervene, but was also beaten. On 21 May, cameraman Naji Mazboudi was threatened and beaten. Another Al-Jadeed journalist Rona al-Halabi and two cameramen were attacked by a group of unidentified men whilst covering clashes near the northern road of al-Abdanear Tripoli on 20 May. Similarly, a news crew from Russia Today were attacked and had their equipment destroyed on 17 May.
April 10th, 2012
A TV cameraman has been
shot dead near the
Lebanon-
Syria border. Ali Shaaban, from Lebanese TV channel Al-Jadeed, is believed to have been in northern Lebanese region of Wadi Khaled when
Syrian soldiers opened fire on a car carrying Al-Jadeed staff. Shaaban’s colleague Hussein Khreiss said that the soldiers fired at the car, even though the crew made it clear they were not military. Prime Minister of Lebanon Najib Mikati deplored the incident, and said he would ask Syria to investigate the shooting.
November 10th, 2011
Lebanon’s media council now requires all news websites and blogs to register, amid speculation that authorities are preparing to censor the web in the wake of Syria’s uprising. Karl Sharro explores what the move means for free speech in Lebanon
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September 12th, 2011
Lebanese blogger Imad Bazzi
was denied entry to
Egypt on 5 September, 2011, and sent back to Lebanon. Bazzi, who is also director of
CyberACT — an NGO which advocates the usage of social media tools in order to create reforms in the Middle East and North African region — was told that his name “was on a list of people banned from entering at the request of a security apparatus”.
July 28th, 2011
Lebanese musician Zeid Hamdan was briefly
held at the prison of the Palace of Justice in Beirut on Wednesday for defaming President Michel Suleiman, urging him in a song posted on
YouTube last year to “go home.” A statement posted on Hamdan’s
Facebook page by his lawyer, Nizar Saghieh, noted that the musician had been investigated three times in recent weeks. He was released late on Wednesday, though Saghieh says his client faces a maximum of two years in prison if the prosecutor decides to file formal slander charges against him.
According to the LA Times’
Babylon & Beyond blog, Sagieh called Hamdan’s detention “a blatant violation of the right of freedom of expression.” He added, “this increasingly obvious over-sensitivity of the regime to any form of criticism of the president is the problem of the regime and not the citizen.”
October 11th, 2010
State censors in Lebanon
have asked Beirut International Film Festival not to show an Iranian opposition film during a visit from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Originally scheduled for screening on 13 October, the day of Ahmadinejad’s arrival, the film “Green Days” documents violent protests in Iran following last year’s disputed elections. Director Hana Makhamalbaf is the daughter of Mohsen Makhamalbaf, who is close to opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi.
