Analysis: Role of Media During Arab Upheaval

The international press organization Reporters Without Borders (RWB) released a report on the critical role of the media during the Arab spring since November 2011. The report focused on Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Syria and Yemen.Reporters Without Borders noticed that generally the first reaction from these country’s governments was to hinder the media’s work. The authorities imposed a total censorship on media staff and bloggers, cut access to internet and phone networks, expelled foreign journalists, and directly assaulted and arrested media workers. According to RWB, 11 media workers were killed during the Arab upheaval.

The report emphasized the rise of new media such as Facebook and Twitter in spreading information as a substitute to a traditional press. Also, Al-Jazeera and CNN provided real-time coverage of violent acts committed by the army or the police on the protesters. Al-Jazeera is mentioned as an important actor in  allowing opposition voices to be heard, mostly in less-covered countries like Bahrain.

The report asserted that in Tunisia, after the fall of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the “tone of the media has changed”, the tone is genuinely freer. However, the media has still regularly faced censorship. For now, a positive reform process of the media sector depends on the constituent assembly.

After the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, the situation for the media did not evolve. The Supreme Council, appointed to lead the transition, used the same method of controlling information. Since November 2011, more than 40 instances of assaults and arrests of journalists by security forces have been recorded.

In Syria, the government wanted to impose a blackout on the protests, preventing journalists from joining the demonstration and expelling foreign correspondents. On April 27 Al-Jazeera announced that it was stopping its activities after facing threats. At the same time, the government spread rumors and calls to violence and later accused activists of being behind them, using propaganda to point a conspiracy theory.

In Bahrain, like in the other states, the authorities tried to control information. Media workers have particularly suffered police repression during the upheaval:  40 were forced to resign, 36 were imprisoned and one journalist was killed. The RWB report reiterates that the Bassioni report mentioned that the security forces used excessive  violence to stop the popular upheaval.