Turkish press freedom: a priority for journalists'organizations

While Turkey is lauded for its role model as a "Muslim democracy" in the context of the Arab spring its governement has been increasing its pressures on journalists. In the last months dozens of media professionals have been detained under vague anti-terror laws and submitted to intimidating legal proceedings.
The European Federation of Journalists has made Turkey its top priority and the Committee to Protect Journalists has been very firm in condemning Ankara's authorities. “We believe that the press freedom in Turkey is terrible,” CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon recently told the Hürriyet Daily News.
European institutions - the European Commission, the Council of Europe's Commissioner for human rights, the OSCE's, representative for the media - have also expressed their outrage.
Press freedom in Turkey is especially important since the country is becoming a increasingly influential actor on the international scene, as an economic powerhouse and as a reference in the Arab world.

Please read Joel Simon's interview in the Turkish paper Hurriyet.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/press-freedom-terrible-in-turkey-watch-group.aspx?pageID=238&nID=12027&NewsCatID=339

The future of Al-Jazeera, according to Philip Seib

I had missed this story, branded as one the best "webbased articles" on the Foreign Affairs website. Written by professor Philip Seib, one of the leading analysts of global media and journalism, it explains the evolution of the Arab mediasphere through the changes at Al-Jazeera, the famous and at times controversial Qatar-based broadcaster that revolutionized Arab and global news coverage in the last decade.
In a nutshell Philip Seib shows how Al Jazeera is a victim of its own success by triggering the creation of other pan-Arab news channels but also of local news channels that now compete for public attention.
The rise of the Internet in the Arab world as well as of social media is also changing the media landscape and reducing the time devoted to TV watching.
Al Jazeera however will remain "a significant player in Arab journalism and politics for many years to come", Philip Seib concludes. "It will continue to merit careful scrutiny by governments that want to understand the region".

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/print/68219

Best Books of 2011: the choice of Foreign Affairs

Foreign Affairs, the magazine published by the New-York based Council on Foreign Relations has just published its lists of the "best books of 2011", reviewed by leading academics and classified according to regions (Europe, Asia, etc) and themes (military, economy, etc.)
The selections are of course subjective but quite a few refer to issues close to the "mandate" of this blog. Among these "human rights" books, Bloodlands (on the Nazi and Stalinist massacres in Central Europe between 1930 and 1945), Europe and Genocide or A Predictable Tragedy (on Robert Mugabe and the collapse of Zimbabwe).
Bonne lecture!

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/features/collections/best-international-relations-books-of-2011?cid=nlc-this_week_on_foreignaffairs_co-122911-best_international_relations_b_3-122911

43 journalists killed in 2011, Committee to Protect Journalists

2011 has been again a bad year for the press. 43 journalists have been killed around the world in direct relation to their work, with Pakistan infamously topping with 7 deaths.
This tallly by the Committee to Protect Journalists, reminds us that journalists pay a heavy price to inform the public, in particular on conflicts and issues that have a strong human rights angle, like wars or street "crowd control" operations where civilians are often directly targeted or victims of "collateral damage", but also in countries, like Mexico, affected by wholesale corruption or narco-criminilaty.
The fight against impunity remains one of the major objectives of the CPJ and other press freedom organizations. State authorities have to send a strong message that crimes will not go unpunished. If not journalists' murderers will keep their license to kill and intimidate the press.
The safety of journalists, it should be emphasized, is not a corporatist concern. It affects the capacity of all to have access everywhere in the world to crucial information on issues of public interest. 

http://www.cpj.org/reports/2011/12/journalists-killed-political-unrest-proves-deadly.php

The potential and pitfalls of "drone journalism"

Drones are being used to "neutralize" targets in the new wars of Afghanistan or the Near East. But these unmanned small flying machines are also being used to gather video and cover news stories, like street demonstrations and police repression.
Drones were used for instance in Moscow to report on protests against the recent elections.
There are however some problems in th use of drones. Strict regulations are in place in many countries to control the use of flying objects and there could be heavy human and legal consequences if a drone used bya news organization would fall down on someone "donw under".
These two articles consider these issues and also provide great examples of drone journalism in action.

 http://ijnet.org/stories/five-things-you-need-know-about-drone-journalism
http://www.bbc.co.uk/journalism/blog/2011/12/spy-planes-the-news-industrys.shtml

Social media and Arab revolts: how to make the most of technology

Social media have been -to some extent, some will correct - at the centre of the Arab spring but also at the center of the world attention to these events. Mohamed al Abdallah reports on a conference organized by Victoria University that describes new original ways of using new technologies to communicate, inform and organize.
http://ijnet.org/blog/how-arab-spring-moved-citizen-journalists-use-more-maps-html5-video-instead-text

Russia: know who are for human rights and press freedom

The protests against Putin and last week's elections have produced great examples of journalism. Not only on how to interpret what has come as a surprise to many observers but also to know who is who in this democratic movement.
Among these media jewels, I have selected
In Foreign Policy, the anti-Putin brigade, a photo essay on the "new" Russian dissidents as well as Tanya Lokshina's (Human Rights Watch's senior Russia researcher) sharp analysis of the recent events.
At Human Rights Watch, a photo essay on Russia's voice of discontent
In The New Yorker a photo essay on Russian activists and video interviews by Human Rights Watch: http://www.newyorker.com/online/2011/12/19/111219_slideshow_russia#slide=1