Arab Media Forum 2020 goes virtual amid coronavirus pandemic

Director-General of the Government of Dubai Media Office (GDMO) Mona Al-Marri speaks at the opening of the 2020 Arab Media Forum. (Screenshot)
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Updated 24 December 2020
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Arab Media Forum 2020 goes virtual amid coronavirus pandemic

  • Organized by the Dubai Press Club, the forum hosts several panel discussions and talks in an attempt to further enhance the changing media landscape throughout the Middle East
  • Regional and international media experts and commentators came together virtually to discuss obstacles and issues facing the industry

LONDON: The 19th edition of the Arab Media Forum kicked off on Wednesday with an unprecedented virtual conference — the first since its launch in 2001 — due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Regional and international media experts and commentators came together virtually to discuss obstacles and issues facing the industry, with the main theme focusing on the media’s performance and future in the wake of a global pandemic that began almost a year ago. 

In a conference spanning nearly two and a half hours, sessions included “The Arab Media and Geopolitical Changes,” “The Future … Digitized,” and “The Middle East: New Trajectories.”

Merrill Brown, founder and CEO of the News Project, summed up the impact of the pandemic on the industry, saying that 60,000 journalism-related jobs have been lost since the coronavirus outbreak. 

“We need solutions to rescue journalism,” he said.

In a live streamed video from his Cairo office, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, the keynote speaker, highlighted challenges facing media in the Middle East and the world, warning that mass disinformation campaigns have plagued the region as terrorism has proliferated across Arab countries.

Egypt’s Information Minister, Osama Heikal, said that the coronavirus crisis has paved the way for widespread disinformation across all media platforms.

“As a result of the negative impact of recent global challenges, media has become a very important sector,” he said.

“The media has a great role and we must use it as a means to channel the real morals and ethics of nations in order to avoid their deviation to terrorism and raise their awareness.”

Discussing the digital future of media, Reuters President Michael Friedenberg said that combating the proliferation of misinformation is hugely important.

“Tackling fake news is crucial and news organizations have a great responsibility to provide true information to help the public during this crisis.”

He added: “Everyone should recognize our role in society to combat disinformation which is the core of what we do.”

New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thomas Friedman also spoke of changing trends in the Middle East in a conversation with Asharq News anchor Zeina Yazigi.

“The biggest change in the Middle East right now is that everyone is realizing that the old agenda is finished,” he said, referring to the sectarianism that has long plagued the region.

Friedman went on to discuss the conflict in Syria, saying that the country is still “a keystone in the region, and which way Syria goes will dictate the region’s future.”

Syria must be brought back into the Arab fold, he said.

Finally, giving his comments after Friedman’s conversation at the end of the forum, Arab News Editor-in-Chief Faisal Abbas spoke of the US election outcome and its impact on the Arab world, namely US-Arab relations, which he said have always endured.

“Nobody can change the solid facts on the ground, such as Iran being a threat, the US remaining a superpower, and Saudi Arabia, for example, being the land of the Two Holy Mosques, a crucial ally in the war against terror, and the biggest exporter of oil to the world,” Abbas said.

Highlighting the crucial lessons learnt during the coronavirus crisis, Abbas said that “the pandemic has been a humbling experience since it showed that what unites us is much more than what divides us, and that we need each other much more than we thought.”

He added: “This is why we hope that President-elect Biden can bring a peace deal with the Palestinians so that the region can finally live in peace and harmony.”


India press watchdog demands journalist murder probe

Freelance journalist Mukesh Chandrakar. (Supplied)
Updated 06 January 2025
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India press watchdog demands journalist murder probe

  • Chandrakar’s body was found on January 3 after police tracked his mobile phone records following his family reporting him missing

NEW DELHI: India’s media watchdog has demanded a thorough investigation after a journalist’s battered body was found stuffed in a septic tank covered with concrete.
Freelance journalist Mukesh Chandrakar, 28, had reported widely on corruption and a decades-old Maoist insurgency in India’s central Chhattisgarh state, and ran a popular YouTube channel “Bastar Junction.”
The Press Council of India expressed “concern” over the suspected murder of Chandrakar, calling for a report on the “facts of the case” in a statement late Saturday.
Chandrakar’s body was found on January 3 after police tracked his mobile phone records following his family reporting him missing.
Three people have been arrested.
More than 10,000 people have died in the decades-long insurgency waged by Naxalite rebels, who say they are fighting for the rights of marginalized indigenous people in India’s resource-rich central regions.
Vishnu Deo Sai, chief minister of Chhattisgarh from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), called Chandrakar’s death “heartbreaking” and promised the “harshest punishment” for those found responsible.
India was ranked 159 last year on the World Press Freedom Index, run by Reporters Without Borders.
 

 


Washington Post cartoonist quits after paper rejects sketch of Bezos bowing to Trump

Updated 05 January 2025
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Washington Post cartoonist quits after paper rejects sketch of Bezos bowing to Trump

  • Ann Telnaes said that she’s never before had a cartoon rejected because of its inherent messaging and that such a move is dangerous for a free press
  • Wapo exec says the cartoon was rejected only to avoid repetition, because the paper had just published a column on the same topic as the cartoon

A cartoonist has decided to quit her job at the Washington Post after an editor rejected her sketch of the newspaper’s owner and other media executives bowing before President-elect Donald Trump.
Ann Telnaes posted a message Friday on the online platform Substack saying that she drew a cartoon showing a group of media executives bowing before Trump while offering him bags of money, including Post owner and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Telnaes wrote that the cartoon was intended to criticize “billionaire tech and media chief executives who have been doing their best to curry favor with incoming President-elect Trump.” Several executives, Bezos among them, have been spotted at Trump’s Florida club Mar-a-Lago. She accused them of having lucrative government contracts and working to eliminate regulations.
Telnaes said that she’s never before had a cartoon rejected because of its inherent messaging and that such a move is dangerous for a free press.
“As an editorial cartoonist, my job is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable,” Telnaes wrote. “For the first time, my editor prevented me from doing that critical job. So I have decided to leave the Post. I doubt my decision will cause much of a stir and that it will be dismissed because I’m just a cartoonist. But I will not stop holding truth to power through my cartooning, because as they say ‘Democracy dies in darkness.’”
The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists issued a statement Saturday accusing the Post of “political cowardice” and asking other cartoonists to post Telnaes’ sketch with the hashtag #StandWithAnn in a show of solidarity.
“Tyranny ends at pen point,” the association said. “It thrives in the dark, and the Washington Post simply closed its eyes and gave in like a punch-drunk boxer.”
The Post’s communications director, Liza Pluto, provided The Associated Press on Saturday with a statement from David Shipley, the newspaper’s editorial page editor. Shipley said in the statement that he disagrees with Telnaes’ “interpretation of events.”
He said he decided to nix the cartoon because the paper had just published a column on the same topic as the cartoon and was set to publish another.
“Not every editorial judgment is a reflection of a malign force. ... The only bias was against repetition,” Shipley said.


Al-Qaeda has executed Yemeni journalist abducted 9 years ago, says media watchdog

Updated 03 January 2025
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Al-Qaeda has executed Yemeni journalist abducted 9 years ago, says media watchdog

  • Mohamed Al-Maqri disappeared in the Arabian Peninsula while covering an anti-group protest in Al-Mukalla

LONDON: Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has executed Yemeni journalist Mohamed Al-Maqri after holding him captive for nine years, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported on Thursday.

Al-Maqri, a correspondent for the television channel Yemen Today, was abducted in 2015 while covering an anti-AQAP protest in Al-Mukalla, the capital of the southern governorate of Hadhramaut.

He was executed along with 10 other individuals after years of enforced disappearance.

“The killing of Mohamed Al-Maqri highlights the extreme dangers Yemeni journalists face while reporting from one of the world’s perilous conflict zones,”  said Yeganeh Rezaian, CPJ’s interim MENA (Middle East and North Africa) program coordinator.

“Enforced disappearances continue to endanger their lives.”

Rezaian condemned the act and called for accountability, urging all factions in Yemen to abandon such “abhorrent practices.”

The Yemeni Journalists Syndicate also condemned the execution, saying it was working with “the relevant authorities to investigate the crime, prosecute the perpetrators, recover the journalist’s body, and deliver it to his family.”

Al-Maqri had been held incommunicado by AQAP since Oct. 12, 2015, following his abduction during the protest.

The group accused the individuals of “spying against the mujahedeen,” a label the group uses for its fighters.

His death underscores the increasing dangers for journalists operating in Yemen, where armed groups have targeted media professionals as part of broader efforts to suppress dissent and control narratives.

At least two other Yemeni journalists remain subjected to enforced disappearances, a practice characterized by abduction and the refusal to disclose a person’s fate or whereabouts.

Waheed Al-Sufi, the editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper Al-Arabiya, has been missing since April 2015 and is thought to be being held by the Houthi movement.

Naseh Shaker, who was last heard from on Nov. 19, 2024, is believed to be being held by the Southern Transitional Council, a secessionist organization in southern Yemen.

Yemen continues to rank among the deadliest countries for journalists, with armed conflict and factional violence leaving media workers vulnerable to abductions, disappearances, and killings.


Apple agrees to $95 million deal to settle Siri eavesdropping suit

Updated 03 January 2025
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Apple agrees to $95 million deal to settle Siri eavesdropping suit

  • A class action lawsuit filed five years ago accused Siri of listening in on private conversations of people with iPhones, iPads, HomePods or other Apple devices enhanced with the digital assistant

SAN FRANCISCO, California: Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit accusing its digital assistant Siri of listening in on users’ private conversations.
The proposed settlement detailed in a court filing accessed on Thursday came with Apple holding firm that it did nothing wrong.
“Apple has at all times denied and continues to deny any and all alleged wrongdoing and liability,” the tech titan said in the proposed settlement, which requires a judge’s approval to be finalized.
A class action lawsuit filed five years ago accused Siri of listening in on private conversations of people with iPhones, iPads, HomePods or other Apple devices enhanced with the digital assistant.
The California-based tech giant has made user privacy a big part of its brand image, and one of the reasons it tightly controls its “ecosystem” of hardware and software.
Talk captured by “unintended Siri activation” were obtained by Apple and perhaps even shared with third parties, according to the suit.
A proposed settlement fund of $95 million would be used to pay no more than $20 per Siri device to US owners who had private conversations captured without permission, the settlement indicated.
The agreement also requires Apple to confirm it has deleted any overheard talk and make user choices clear when it comes to voice data gathered to improve Siri.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In 2023, Amazon agreed to pay more than $30 million to the US Federal Trade Commission to settle litigation accusing the company of violating privacy with its Ring doorbell cameras and Alexa digital assistant.
 


Blowback online to Jewish Chronicle article claiming Palestinian solidarity is antisemitic

Updated 02 January 2025
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Blowback online to Jewish Chronicle article claiming Palestinian solidarity is antisemitic

  • Newspaper faces criticism after writer Melanie Phillips suggests advocating for Palestinian rights fosters ‘deranged and murderous Jew-hatred’
  • One social media user wrote: ‘Your exploitation of antisemitism is seriously disturbing. But why would Zionists care that they endanger Jews by merging their identity with Israel?’

LONDON: British newspaper The Jewish Chronicle is facing intense criticism over an article in which the writer equated support for the Palestinian cause with antisemitism.

The piece was written by British commentator Melanie Phillips and published on Tuesday with the headline “If you support the Palestinian cause in any form, you’re facilitating Jew-hate.” It was subsequently edited and the headline changed to “The Truth of the Palestinian cause,” without any editorial note of the changes.

In her article, Phillips suggested that advocating for Palestinian rights fosters “deranged and murderous Jew-hatred.”

She wrote: “Jew-hatred has not only been normalized. It’s been rebranded as social justice because support for Palestinianism, which seeks to write the Jews out of their country, their history and the world, is what now passes for a moral sense among swathes of the public, the entire intelligentsia and even — heaven help us — many Jews.”

Phillips continues: “Let’s not hear any protests that you were once a member of Habonim or have a holiday home in Herzliya … If you support the Palestinian Arab cause today, you are facilitating deranged and murderous Jew-hatred. Own it.”

The article was widely condemned on social media.

The user Torah Jews wrote in a message posted on X: “Your exploitation of antisemitism is seriously disturbing. But why would Zionists care that they endanger Jews by merging their identity with Israel?”

Miqdaad Versi, a spokesperson for the Muslim Council of Britain, wrote that even after the “secret” edits to the article, Phillips’ words “remain disgusting.” He added: “Always good to see the cranks at The Jewish Chronicle show their true colours.”

Some critics accused the newspaper of promoting “Israeli propaganda.” Others warned that such rhetoric undermines efforts to combat true antisemitism by conflating it with solidarity for the Palestinian people.

Political commentator Owen Jones said: “Melanie Phillips is explicitly stating what Israel’s cheerleaders have long been pushing for. They want to redefine antisemitism as ‘any form of solidarity with Palestinians,’ rather than the very dangerous hatred of Jewish people that it is.”

This is not the first time the writer and the newspaper have caused controversy. Phillips has long argued that solidarity with Palestinians should be considered antisemitic, and she has denied the existence of Islamophobia.

In September, The Jewish Chronicle was criticized after it emerged that one of its writers had fabricated details in several high-profile stories. The revelations prompted a mass exodus of staff, with departing employees complaining of poor editorial standards under the present management.