| |
I. Community Media and the Arab Spring
The Arab Spring is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began in December 2010. To date, there have been revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, a civil war in Libya resulting in the fall of its government; civil uprisings in Bahrain, Syria and Yemen, major protests in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, and Oman.
The revolts were sparked by the first protests that occurred in Tunisia in December 2010 following Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation in protest of police corruption and ill treatment.
Many demonstrations have met violent responses from authorities, as well as from pro-government militias and counter-demonstrators. The protests have shared techniques of civil resistance in sustained campaigns involving strikes, demonstrations, marches and rallies, as well as the use of social media such as community radio, and web-based and mobile technologies. These means of communication allowed protesters to organize, communicate, and raise awareness in the face of state attempts at repression and Internet censorship.
As of November 2011, governments had been overthrown in three countries. Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia on 14 January following the Tunisian revolution protests. In Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak resigned on 11 February 2011 after 18 days of massive protests, ending his 30-year presidency. The Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown on 23 August 2011, after the National Transition Council took control of Bab al-Azizia. He was killed on 20 October 2011, in his hometown of Sirte after the NTC took control of the city.
Following the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, a series of increasingly violent street demonstrations through December 2010 ultimately led to the ouster of long-time President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011. The demonstrations were precipitated by high unemployment, food inflation, corruption, lack of freedom of speech and other forms of political freedom, and poor living conditions.
II. Solidarity Coordination High on the Agenda
The event will gather more than 100 freedom of expression and communication rights activists as well as practitioners and stakeholders of the community radio movement. The gathering will focus heavily on knowledge exchange based on the accumulated experience of three decades of community radio movement practitioners from Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America. Particular attention will be given to solidarity coordination among communities sharing the Mediterranean Sea.
Holding the First Community Media MENA Conference in Tunisia is recognition of the importance of the civil society movement that started the Arab Spring and opened the way to media pluralism in the region. The sharing of experiences in working under various forms of legislation concerning international human rights standards are essential to democratic societies developing in the region.
There is a strong consensus in the human rights/media community on the important contribution of community media makes to participatory human sustainable development. It allows local communities to express their full potential in fighting poverty, ending the marginalization of women, and supporting youth and among, as well as taking on challenges such as climate change, food security, and water and sanitation issues.
III. AMARC Work in MENA and Community Media Working Group
AMARC has been active for several years in the region, sharing the community radio project as an essential component of democratic development.
In November 2006, the community Radio movement and stakeholders gathered in for its world conference AMARC 9 in Amman, Jordan, hosted by Ammannet pioneer community radio in the Middle East. This was an event that reinforced advocacy for community radio in the region.
In 2007, for the AMARC Africa and MENA Conference, in Rabat, advocacy strategies were reinforced and the Arab Spring permitted that production groups could become community radios in Tunisia and paved the way to concrete possibilities elsewhere.
In collaboration with IMS and other freedom of expression partners AMARC has shared knowledge and the support for pluralistic media has been fruitful. The Conference Community Media and the Arab Spring will facilitate reflection on what has been achieved so far, clarify challenges and define strategies for the right to communicate.
IV. AMARC MENA CONFERENCE
The MENA community Radio Working Group and the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters organize the First MENA Conference in Tunisia March 9-10, 2011.
Objectives :
The first MENA Conference Community Media and the Arab Spring will allow for information and skills exchanges among participants. In addition, strategies will be developed for the coordination of media pluralism advocacy, for participatory and sustainable human development, and the building of cultural diversity in the Mediterranean region. More specifically:
• Share MENA experiences with those of the community media movement elsewhere from the perspective of communication rights and access to the media;
• Define solidarity and advocacy strategic alliances with authorities leading to enabling environments for community media respectful of international Freedom of Information standards, facilitating access to the media and allowing for the participatory potential of community radio to become reality ; and
• Define strategies to facilitate the social change potential of local communities through access to the media, achieving development objectives, social inclusion and cultural diversity. Particularly, Mediterranean solidarities going beyond purely economic relations among states , beyond migration boundaries, towards exchanges on democratic practices;
V. The organization of the MENA Conference
AMARC has almost 30 years experience in accompanying the development of the community radio movement in more than 130 countries. AMARC has set-up a working committee to organize the conference and define the agenda. It is an open participatory structure open to the definition of challenges, advocacy strategies, and alliances with FoE actors and contributing to capacity building for citizen expression in a pluralistic media landscape.
Key members of the steering committee are :
Sawsan Zaida, she is the Vice president of AMARC MENA Region; General Manager of Ammanet / Radio Al Balad in Jordan,
Fahem Boukadous, is an independent Tunisian journalist and General Manager of Radio Sawt Al Manajem (Voice of the Mines), Gafsa,
Meriem Zghidi, Representative de "Association tunisienne des femmes democrates",
Nejiba Hamrouni, Syndicat national des journalistes tunisiens,
Salah Fourti, Founder and General Secretary of the Syndicat Tunisien des radios libres (STRL),
Nozha Ben Mohamed, Radio 6, Community Radio in Tunis;
Ahmed Samih, is Director of the Cairo-based Andalus Institute for Tolerance and Anti-Violence Studies and Founder of Radio Horytna, Egypt's first Internet radio.
Daoud Kuttab, is an award winning journalist and a leading community media activist. He is founder of AmmanNet and Radio Al Balad based in Amman, Jordan and General Manager of Penmedia, a Palestinian media NGO, based in Ramallah.
Jamal Eddine Naji, General Coordinator of the National Dialogue Media & Society, Morocco. Founder and member of UNESCO chair on public and community communication.
IV. The MENA Conference Agenda
The two-day conference will be highly interactive and explore themes that allow for sharing of experiences, capacity reinforcement and defining strategies. It will involve six plenary sessions that will consist of exchanges among practitioners, FoE activists, academia and regulatory authorities.
First Day: March 9
Session 1. Arab Spring experiences from media access and communication rights perspective.
Based on Tunisian, Moroccan, Egyptian, Libyan and Jordanian experiences, this session will seek exchanges on the diversity of experiences and commonality of challenges of the ongoing processes in the region.
Session 2: National challenges and participatory sustainable human development
From discussions about fundamental challenges such as the economic crisis, poverty, exclusion, this session will help participants to define key national challenges as well as the role played by community and social media elsewhere. Specificities of Mediterranean solidarity will be raised.
Session 3: Women Access to community media
There is strong recognition on the role of community media in gender equality and on women empowerment through community media. This session will reflect AMARC's strong recognition on the role of community media in helping women have access to social action activities and full participation as citizens.
Second Day: March 10
Session 4: Human Rights, public policy and communication rights
Exchange among regulatory authorities and FoE and communication rights activists to have a comparative vision on regulatory framework strengths and weaknesses.
Session 5: International Standards and Synergies for FoE
International Human Rights standards and advocacy strategies to reinforce practical exercise of communication rights.
Tunisia Declaration
Debates on advocacy strategies, on reinforcing capacities and on community broadcasting social impact.
Main Page
|
|
|
