Arab Bloggers Meeting: Energizing the Blogosphere Through the Arab Revolutions

Houda Mzioudet | 06 October 2011 | 1 Comment

The Arab Bloggers Meeting kicked off its second day on October 4th with a BarCamp, a series of user-generated conferences and open participatory workshops whose content was provided by attendees and which addressed different techniques that could be of use to bloggers. The workshops took place in six rooms in the Golden Tulip Hotel in Ganmarth, and in each room was a trainer who coached bloggers on the usage of Photoshop, video editing, translations, and editorials. Moreover, bloggers suggested particular issues that might come up during the elections and brainstormed ways to cover them.

A workshop entitled "Learning from Arab Revolutions," moderated by Slim Amamou and Azyz Amamy -- two Tunisian bloggers -- in which they discussed lessons from the Arab revolutions with bloggers from all over the Arab world

The elections workshop had different bloggers discussing who owns the media, what exactly is “citizen media,” and how to use live-reporting videos. Egyptian blogger Lilian Wagdy raised the issue of how social media can democratize the way elections are held and how mainstream versus traditional media coverage of elections differs. Another blogger suggested the example of collaborative citizen monitoring in India in 2009 as a way that citizen media can be involved in election coverage. Bloggers also exchanged experiences with previous elections, as well as elections violations in their respective countries. Another Egyptian blogger wondered what news and information a blogger can cover, and how they can be more engaged throughout the elections process in certain less-covered regions. He stressed the necessity of honesty and integrity in all citizen journalists.

Bloggers discussing election monitoring with a trainer in a workshop at the Arab Bloggers Meeting

The bloggers’ meeting was underscored by the issue of eleven Palestinian bloggers who were denied entry visas to Tunisia by the Tunisian Ministry of Interior. Through the technology of Skype, however, bloggers at the conference in Tunisia were able to converse live with Palestinian bloggers blocked in Ramallah, Jerusalem and the West Bank. In response, Saad Karazon, a Palestinian blogger corresponding via Skype, suggested that all bloggers write an open letter to the Palestinian Delegation in Tunis, both in English and in Arabic, in protest of the refusal to grant visas to the Palestinian bloggers in order to attend the conference. A petition to the Ministry of Interior was also suggested by the Palestinian bloggers. Furthermore, a Facebook event has been scheduled to last from October 4th to October 6th, and some bloggers considered boycotting the Arab Bloggers Meeting, as well, in protest of the Tunisian authorities’ decision.

Palestinian blogger talking to Arab bloggers via Skype about his inability to attend the conference with other Palestinian bloggers

The issue of censorship was, and will continue to be, the greatest challenge of bloggers. During the conference, Marek Tuszynsk suggested tools to circumvent censorship, as well as how to use proxies — such as those used by bloggers during the Internet blackout period throughout the Arab revolutions, when social media networks were blocked by authoritarian regimes. According to Marek, the “Tor Project” is the most effective way to circumvent censorship, although many regimes in the Middle East have blocked access to the “Tor Project.”

One last highlight of the day was a round-table discussion entitled Learning from Arab Revolutions, moderated by bloggers Slim Amaou and Azyz Amamy. The two bloggers tackled the problem of misinformation propagated during the Arab revolutions by the former regimes and the use of similar misinformation on the part of bloggers in order to counter the regimes’ false facts.