Tunisian judge imposes media ban on a candidate for presidential election
Opposition party said decision is ‘obstructions to challenging President Kais Saied’
Updated 12 July 2024
Reuters
LONDON: A Tunisian judge barred a potential presidential candidate from appearing in the media or traveling around the country on Friday, the latest politician to face what their parties have called obstructions to challenging President Kais Saied.
Abd Ellatif Mekki’s party called the measures an attempt to exclude a serious candidate from the campaign for elections on Oct. 6.
Opposition parties have accused Saied’s government of exerting pressure on the judiciary to track down the president’s rivals and pave the way for him to win a second term.
They say imprisoned politicians must be released and the media allowed to operate without pressure from the government.
Saied’s supporters deny allegations that opposition politicians have been targeted for political reasons. They say that running for elections is not a reason to stop prosecutions against people accused of crimes such as money laundering and corruption.
Two political leaders, Abir Moussi and Ghazi Chaouachi, have been imprisoned since last year.
Last week, police arrested another candidate, Lotfi Mraihi, on suspicion of money laundering. He said in a video that he has faced restrictions and harassment since announcing his candidacy.
Other potential candidates, including Safi Saeed, Mondher Znaidi and Nizar Chaari, are facing prosecution for alleged crimes such as fraud and money laundering.
OBSTRUCTION ALLEGATIONS
Mekki’s lawyer, Monia Bouali, told Reuters, “The judge decided to impose a travel ban on Mekki and prevent him from appearing in the media and social media and ordered him to stay (in) Wardia area,” referring to a neighborhood in the capital, where Mekki lives.
Court officials were not immediately available to comment on the decision.
“Mekki is clearly targeted to obstruct his campaign to collect signatures from citizens and to contact them,” said Ahmed Naffati, a prominent official in Mekki’s party, told Reuters.
Days after Mekki announced his candidacy this month, a court spokesman said Mekki was suspected of having participated in the murder of a businessman who died in prison years ago.
Mekki said he had nothing to do with this case, and that filing a case against him after he announced his intention to run showed he was targeted.
Saied, who was elected president in 2019, has not officially announced his candidacy but is expected to do so soon. Last year he said he would not hand over power to what he called non-patriots.
In 2021, Saied dissolved parliament and began ruling by decree in a move that the opposition described as a coup. Saied said his steps were legal and necessary to end years of rampant corruption.
Saudi Media Forum partners up with International Broadcasting Convention
Agreement includes allocation of dedicated pavilion for Saudi Broadcasting Authority at the annual exhibition
Updated 04 August 2024
Arab News
RIYADH: The Saudi Media Forum has officially become the primary media partner of the International Broadcasting Convention — supported by the European Broadcasting Union — ahead of Riyadh’s Future of Media Exhibition, or FOMEX, in 2025.
The agreement includes the allocation of a dedicated pavilion for the Saudi Broadcasting Authority at the annual IBC Exhibition in Amsterdam. Moreover, IBC will actively promote the forum and its accompanying exhibition through its extensive European media network.
This collaboration aims to elevate awareness and engagement with these events across Europe, ensuring widespread visibility and maximizing global audience reach.
CEO of the Saudi Broadcasting Authority and President of the Saudi Media Forum Mohammed bin Fahd Al-Harthi stated that this collaboration represents a significant milestone in fostering cultural and knowledge exchange between the authority and leading global media platforms.
Al-Harthi also emphasized the forum’s role as a vibrant media hub for exchanging expertise, forming impactful partnerships, and attracting thousands of media professionals and enthusiasts annually.
Al-Harthi added: “Our responsibility continues to grow, driving us to intensify our efforts and deliver superior initiatives through our strategic partnerships with leading international exhibitions and markets. This collaboration builds on our past achievements, such as hosting the MIPCOM Market, marking its first participation outside France. Today, we proudly include IBC among our esteemed partners.”
Mike Crimp, CEO of IBC, said: “IBC has always championed industry innovation worldwide, and our media partnership with FOMEX aligns with our shared goals of advancing transformative technologies in every region and sector of media and entertainment. As the (media and entertainment) industry continues to evolve on a global scale, we are proud to partner with FOMEX, a media gathering that nurtures this growth and encourages creativity and cooperation.”
The IBC stands as one of the foremost global events dedicated to broadcasting, media, and technology.
The Saudi Broadcasting Authority is set to organize the Saudi Media Forum and FOMEX in 2025.
The previous edition of the forum successfully drew over 30,000 visitors, while FOMEX attracted nearly 300 exhibitors.
ANKARA: Instagram users in Turkiye woke up Sunday to find the social media network blocked for the third consecutive day, following censorship accusations against the US company from a high-ranking Turkish official.
The BTK communications authority announced on its website on Friday that the Meta-owned platform had been frozen, without giving any reason.
An official then referred to a regulation that allows “criminal content” to be blocked.
“Our country has values and sensitivities. Despite our warnings, they did not take care of criminal content,” Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said on Friday.
“We blocked access. When they abide by our laws, we’ll lift the ban.”
The president’s communications director, Fahrettin Altun, accused Instagram on Wednesday of “preventing people from publishing messages of condolence for the martyr (Hamas leader Ismail) Haniyeh.”
“This is a very clear and obvious attempt at censure,” Altun said on social media platform X.
The social-democrat and nationalist opposition parties and the Ankara legal profession petitioned the courts on Friday evening for the freeze to be lifted.
According to Turkish media, 50 million of the country’s 85 million people have an Instagram account.
Spanish journalist or Russian spy? The mystery around Pablo González’s double life
Friends had organized protests in Spain demanding his release as Polish authorities kept him detained without charges
His inclusion from last week's US-Russia prisoner swap appears to confirm suspicions that he was a indeed Russian operative using his cover as a journalist
Updated 04 August 2024
AP
WARSAW, Poland: When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, reporters from around the world rushed to the Polish-Ukrainian border to cover an exodus of refugees fleeing Russian bombs.
Among them was Pablo González, a freelance journalist from Spain who had been based in Poland since 2019, working for Spanish news agency EFE, Voice of America and other outlets. Warsaw-based reporters knew him as an outgoing colleague who liked to drink beer and sing karaoke into the wee hours of the morning.
Two and a half years later, he was sent to Moscow as part of a prisoner swap, leaving behind both mysteries about who he really was and concerns about how Poland handled a case in which he was accused of being a Russian agent.
In the first days of the war, González provided stand-up reports to TV viewers in Spain against a backdrop of refugees arriving at the train station in the Polish border town of Przemysl.
But less than week into the war, Polish security agents entered the room he was staying in and arrested him. They accused him of “participating in foreign intelligence activities against Poland” and said he was an agent of the GRU, Russian military intelligence.
A man identified as Pablo González, a freelance Spanish journalist who has been based in Poland since 2019, second from left, with shaved head, listens to Russian President Vladimir Putin following the biggest prisoner swap between the US and Russia in post-Soviet history, upon their arrival at the Vnukuvo government airport outside Moscow on August 1, 2024. Gonzalez had another passport and another name: Pavel Rubtsov. (Sputnik, Kremlin Pool via AP)
Friends were astonished — and, as Poland held González without trial for months that turned into years, some grew skeptical and organized protests in Spain demanding his release. Authorities have never detailed the accusations.
But on Thursday evening, the burly 42-year-old with a shaved head and beard was welcomed home by President Vladimir Putin after being freed in the largest prisoner swap since the Soviet era.
His inclusion in the deal appears to confirm suspicions that González was a Russian operative using his cover as a journalist.
Born Pavel Rubtsov in 1982 in then-Soviet Moscow, González went to Spain with his Spanish mother at age 9, where he became a citizen and received the Spanish name of Pablo González Yagüe. He went into journalism, working for outlets Público, La Sexta and Gara, a Basque nationalist newspaper.
It’s not clear what led Poland to arrest him. The investigation remains classified and the spokesman for the secret services told The Associated Press that he could not say anything beyond what was in a brief statement. Poland is on high alert after a string of arrests of espionage suspects and sabotage, part of what the authorities view as hybrid warfare by Russia and Belarus against the West.
Polish security services said Poland included him in the deal due to the close Polish-American alliance and “common security interests.” In their statement, they said that “Pavel Rubtsov, a GRU officer arrested in Poland in 2022, (had been) carrying out intelligence tasks in Europe.”
The head of Britain’s MI6 agency, Sir Richard Moore, said at the Aspen Security Forum in 2022 that González was an “illegal” who was arrested in Poland after “masquerading as a Spanish journalist.”
“He was trying to go into Ukraine to be part of their destabilizing efforts there,” Moore said.
Another hint at his activities came from independent Russian outlet Agentstvo, which reported that in 2016 Rubtsov befriended and spied on Zhanna Nemtsova, the daughter of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was murdered in Moscow in 2015.
Poland-based journalists who knew González said he used his base in Poland to travel to former Soviet countries including Ukraine and Georgia. He had a license to operate a drone and used it to film Auschwitz-Birkenau from the air for coverage on the 75th anniversary of the death camp’s liberation in 2020.
Voice of America, a US-government funded organization, confirmed that he worked briefly for them, but they have since removed any of his work from their website.
“Pablo González contributed to a few VOA stories as a freelancer over a relatively short period of time starting in late 2020,” spokesperson Emily Webb said in reply to an emailed query. “As a freelancer who provided content to a number of media outlets, his services were arranged through a third-party company used by news organizations around the world.”
“At no time did he have any access to any VOA systems or VOA credentials,” Webb said. “As soon as VOA learned of the allegations, we removed his material.”
Because Poland’s justice system was politicized under a populist government that ruled in 2015-23, some activists worried about whether his rights were respected. Reporters Without Borders was among the groups that called for him to be put on trial or released.
The group stands by its position that he should not have been held that long without trial. “You are innocent until a trial proves you guilty,” Alfonso Bauluz, the head of the group’s office in Spain told AP on Friday. He expressed frustration at the silence around the case, and the fact that there will apparently not be a trial at all, saying Poland has not presented the evidence it has against him.
But the group also says it expects González to provide an explanation now that he is free.
Jaap Arriens, a Dutch video journalist based in Warsaw, hung out with the man he knew as Pablo in Warsaw and Kyiv, as well as in Przemysl shortly before his arrest.
Arriens described him as a friendly, funny man with a macho demeanor and a chest covered in tattoos that he once showed off in a bar.
González mostly fit in, but seemed better-off than the average freelance journalist. He always seemed to have the newest and most expensive phones and computers, working at the Poland-Ukraine border with the latest 14-inch MacBook Pro. He had plenty of money to spend in bars.
He recalled González once saying: “Life is good, life is almost too good.”
“And I thought: ‘Man, freelance life is never too good. What are you talking about?’ I don’t know any freelancer who talks like this.”
González, whose grandfather emigrated from Spain to the Soviet Union as a child during the Spanish Civil War, was known as a Basque nationalist with ties to the region’s independence movement.
Russia is suspected of supporting separatist movements in Spain and elsewhere in an effort to destabilize Europe.
González’ wife in Spain had been advocating on his behalf during his detention in Poland, even though they were not living together at the time of his arrest.
Over the past years, the suspect’s supporters ran an account on Twitter, now X, to advocate for his release.
When he was sent to Moscow on Thursday, the @FreePabloGonzález account tweeted: “This is our last tweet: Pablo is finally free. Endless thanks to all.”
Those who have followed the case are now awaiting González’s next moves.
He has Spanish citizenship — and the right to return to the European Union. His wife was quoted in Spanish media saying she hopes he can return to Spain.
How social media sites failed to avoid censorship, curb hate speech and disinformation during Gaza war
Since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack that sparked the conflict in Gaza, social media has been inundated with content related to the war
Meta, TikTok, X, and Telegram have promised to create a safer, less toxic online environment, but the process lacks transparency
Updated 04 August 2024
GABRIELE MALVISI
LONDON: Tech giant Meta recently announced it would start removing social media posts that use the term “Zionist” in contexts where it refers to Jewish people and Israelis rather than representing supporters of the political movement, in an effort to curb antisemitism on its platforms.
Facebook and Instagram’s parent company previously said it would lift its blanket ban on the single most moderated term across all of Meta’s platforms — “shaheed,” or “martyr” in English — after a year-long review by its oversight board found the approach was “overbroad.”
Similarly, TikTok, X and Telegram have long promised to step up efforts to curb hate speech and the spread of disinformation on their platforms against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Gaza.
Activists accuse social media giants of censoring posts, including those providing evidence of human rights abuses in Gaza. (Getty Images)
These initiatives are intended to create a safer, less toxic online environment. However, as experts have consistently pointed out, these efforts often fall short, resulting in empty promises and a worrying trend toward censorship.
“In short, social media platforms have not been very good at avoiding censorship or curbing hate speech and disinformation about the war on Gaza,” Nadim Nashif, founder and director of 7amleh, a digital rights and human rights activist group for Palestinians, told Arab News.
“Throughout the conflict, censorship and account takedowns have jeopardized efforts to document on-the-ground human rights violations as well.”
Nashif says hate speech and incitement to violence remain “rampant,” particularly on Meta’s platforms and X, where antisemitic and Islamophobic content continues “to spread widely.”
Since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack that sparked the conflict in Gaza, social media has been inundated with content related to the war. In many instances it has served as a crucial window into the dramatic events unfolding in the region and has become a vital source of real-time news and accountability for Israeli actions.
Profiles supporting the actions of both Hamas and the Israeli government have been accused of sharing misleading and hateful content.
FASTFACT
1,050
Takedowns and other suppressions of content on Instagram and Facebook posted by Palestinians and their supporters, documented by Human Rights Watch during October-November 2023 period.
Even so, none of the social media platforms — including Meta, YouTube, X, TikTok, or messaging apps such as Telegram — has publicly outlined policies designed to mitigate hate speech and incitement to violence in relation to the conflict.
Instead, these platforms remain flooded with war propaganda, dehumanizing speech, genocidal statements, explicit calls to violence, and racist hate speech. In some cases, platforms are taking down pro-Palestinian content, blocking accounts, and sometimes shadow banning users voicing their support for the people of Gaza.
On Friday, Turkiye’s communications authority blocked access to the Meta-owned social media platform Instagram. Local media outlets said access was blocked in response to Instagram removing posts by Turkish users that expressed condolences over the recent killing in Tehran of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh.
The previous day, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim accused Meta of cowardice after his Facebook post on Haniyeh’s killing was removed. “Let this serve as a clear and unequivocal message to Meta: Cease this display of cowardice,” wrote Anwar, who has repeatedly condemned Israel’s war on Gaza and its actions in the occupied West Bank, on his Facebook page.
Screenshot of Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's post denouncing Meta's censorship of his post criotical against Israel's assassination policy.
Meanwhile, footage of Israeli soldiers purportedly blowing up mosques and homes, burning copies of the Qur’an, torturing and humiliating blindfolded Palestinian detainees, driving them around strapped to the bonnet of military vehicles, and celebrating war crimes remain freely available on mobile screens.
“Historically, platforms have been very bad at moderating content about Israel and Palestine,” said Nashif. “Throughout the war on Gaza, and the ongoing plausible genocide, this has simply been exacerbated.”
A report by Human Rights Watch titled “Meta’s Broken Promises,” published in December, accused the firm of “systematic online censorship” and “inconsistent and opaque application of its policies” and practices that have been silencing voices in support of Palestine and Palestinian human rights on Instagram and Facebook.
The report added that Meta’s behavior “fails to meet its human rights due diligence responsibilities” due to years-long failed promises to address its “overbroad crackdowns.”
Jacob Mukherjee, convenor of the political communications MA program at Goldsmiths, University of London, told Arab News: “I’m not sure to what extent you can really even call them efforts to stop censorship.
“Meta promised to conduct various reviews — which, by the way, it has been promising for a good couple of years now since the last upsurge in the Israel-Palestine conflict in 2021 — before Oct. 7 last year.
“But as far as I can see, not a great deal has changed, substantially speaking. They have had to respond to suggestions that they’ve been engaged in censorship, of course, but that’s mainly been a PR effort in my view.”
Between October and November 2023, Human Rights Watch documented more than 1,050 takedowns and other suppressions of content on Instagram and Facebook posted by Palestinians and their supporters, including content about human rights abuses.
Of these, 1,049 involved peaceful content in support of Palestine that was censored or otherwise unduly suppressed, while one case involved the removal of content in support of Israel.
However, censorship appears to be only part of the issue.
7amleh’s violence indicator, which monitors real-time data on violent content in Hebrew and Arabic on social media platforms, has recorded more than 8.6 million pieces of such content since the conflict began.
Nashif says the proliferation of violent and harmful content, predominantly in Hebrew, is largely due to insufficient investment in moderation.
This content, which has primarily targeted Palestinians on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, was used by South Africa as evidence in its case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
Meta is arguably not alone in bearing responsibility for what has been described by South Africa’s lawyers as the first genocide livestreamed to mobile phones, computers, and television screens.
Activists accuse social media giants of censoring posts, including those providing evidence of human rights abuses in Gaza. (Getty Images)
X too has faced accusations from both supporters of both Palestine and Israel of giving free rein to handles known for spreading disinformation and doctored images, which oftentimes have been shared by prominent political and media personalities.
“One of the major issues with current content moderation systems is a lack of transparency,” said Nashif.
“When it comes to AI, the platforms do not release clear and transparent information about when and how AI systems are implemented in the content moderation process. Policies are often opaque and allow a great deal of leeway for the platforms to do as they see fit.”
For Mukherjee, the issue of moderation happening behind a smoke screen of murky policies is strongly political, requiring these companies to adopt a “balanced” approach between political pressure and “managing the expectations and desires of the user base.”
Activists accuse social media giants of censoring posts, including those providing evidence of human rights abuses in Gaza. (Getty Images)
He said: “These AI tools can kind of be used to insulate the real power holders, i.e. the people that run the platforms, from criticism and accountability, which is a real problem.
“These platforms are private monopolies that are essentially responsible for regulating an important part of the political public sphere.
“In other words, they’re helping to shape and regulate the arena in which conversations happen, in which people form their opinions, from which politicians feel the pressure of public opinion, and yet they are completely unaccountable.”
Although there have been examples of pro-Palestinian content being censored or removed, as revealed by Arab News in October, these platforms made clear, well before the Gaza conflict, that it is ultimately not in their interest to take down content from their platforms.
“These platforms are not made for reasons of public interest or in order to ensure that we have an informed and educated populace that’s exposed to a range of perspectives and is equipped to properly make decisions and form opinions,” said Mukherjee.
“The fact (is) that the business models actually want there to be lots of content and if that’s pro-Palestine content, then so be it. It’s ultimately still getting eyeballs and engagement on the platform, and content that provokes strong sentiment, to use the industry’s terms, gets engagement, and that means data and that means money.”
‘I’ve always had a passion for beauty,’ TikToker Ali Majed says
Influencer says he wants to ‘support other aspiring beauty enthusiasts’
Updated 04 August 2024
Rahaf Jambi
RIYADH: A Saudi makeup artist with a gift for glamour is hoping to use his growing social media presence to inspire men and women across the region.
Ali Majed has almost 600,000 followers on TikTok and has been an ambassador for French beauty products retailer Sephora since 2022.
Despite his links to one of the giants of the industry, his online content regularly features lesser known brands from around the region.
Beauty influencer Ali Majid says he wants to ‘support other aspiring beauty enthusiasts.’ (Supplied)
“I’ve always had a passion for beauty, for as long as I can remember,” Majed told Arab News.
“Even when I didn’t quite realize it fully, because I was so young, I knew there was something about this world of creativity and glamour that was calling out to me.”
When he is not promoting Sephora products, Majed spends his time working on a range of his own.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Ali Majed has almost 600,000 followers on TikTok and has been an ambassador for French beauty products retailer Sephora since 2022.
• Majed’s interest was piqued by the boom in social media coverage that started around seven or eight years ago.
• His online content regularly features lesser known brands from around the region.
“My brand came about as a result of my constant contemplation of how I could support other aspiring beauty enthusiasts, not just in the region, but globally.
“If there’s anything I can do to make someone feel less alone and empower them to pursue their dreams, I’ll work on that immediately.”
Majed is one of a number of Saudi men who are making waves in the beauty industry. He said his interest was piqued by the boom in social media coverage that started around seven or eight years ago.
“That was the time where makeup content had made its way onto mainstream social media, planting its feet firmly into the ground, announcing that it was here to stay. And I enjoyed every second of it,” he said.
In 2022, Majed joined the Sephora Squad, a program for beauty content creators in the Middle East.
“It’s safe to say that (it) has taught me a tremendous amount of things about my job, whether it be the behind the scenes of the beauty industry or the influencer world and how to navigate that space as well.”
To those hoping to follow in his footsteps, Majed said it is all about being happy in what you do.
“Make sure this is something that you’re not only passionate about, but also something that sparks joy in you,” he said.
“It’s one thing to be incredibly interested in a certain field, for whatever reason, but when that interest is supplemented by a feeling of fulfillment and happiness, that is what will make you unstoppable.”
Majed said he took his inspiration from the first Saudi men to put themselves forward as beauty ambassadors.
“I have observed and learned from Bassam Fattouh, Fady Khataya, Issam Majed, Mohammed Hindash and many more,” he said.
“These men were each pioneers in their own way, masters of their signature techniques and also inspirations to many more like them within the region.”
These days, Majed is a beauty leader in his own right, with many other content creators complimenting him and citing him as an inspiration. Though his newfound fame still leaves him a little surprised.
“A fan recognized me and asked for a picture at a concert,” he said. “I was thrilled that someone wanted to take a selfie with me, as I didn’t realize that was something that could happen.”
