CIA Stories

In the last few days, Telesur has run a number of stories about alleged CIA interference with at least three Latin American countries. Starting Wednesday, Telesur had extensive coverage of a diplomatic row that erupted between the U.S. and Argentina after CIA director Leon Panetta warned in a speech that, “Argentina, Ecuador, and Venezuela are in dire economic straits and could be destabilized by the global economic crisis”.

Argentina summoned its U.S. ambassador demanding an explanation and apparently received an apology by phone from Panetta, although the apology has so far only been reported by Spanish language news sites. Interestingly, Telesur has focused less on the Venezuelan government’s own response to the comments: a story appeared quietly on the website about Chavez demanding an apology from Obama for the comments, but the Argentinian response has gotten a lot more attention.

On Thursday, Telesur ran a story about alleged CIA infiltration of the Bolivian state oil company (YPFB). The headline was “Morales Denounces CIA Actions Against Progressive Governments,” and included complaints from the Bolivian president about “covert CIA operations” in the scandal-plagued Bolivian state oil company.

Friday, Telesur ran an exclusive interview with Ecuador’s security minister, Miguel Carvajal, who claimed a recent investigation uncovered evidence of CIA payments to informants within Ecuadorian state agencies, including agencies involved in “operations against transnational organized crime and drugdealing.” Carvajal called the CIA’s involvement “unacceptable”.

The stories draw on a legacy of covert CIA operations in South America, especially during the 1970’s, which has instilled permanent suspicions about the agency among a lot of Latin Americans. American interference with Latin America, and particularly with Venezuela, has been an ongoing theme on Telesur.

Putin Checks In

Via Kim Andrew Elliott (emphasis added):

Putin (briefly) visits RIA-Novosti and Russia Today. "Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti on Tuesday. ... RIA Novosti Editor-in-Chief Svetlana Mironyuk gave Putin a guided tour of the agency's two-floor multimedia newsroom, the only one of its kind in Russia, which was inaugurated in January 2008. ... The concept behind the newsroom is to help the department's 300 journalists and editors improve their efficiency through prompt exchange of information, better planning and tight coordination. ... RIA Novosti's main website www.rian.ru and foreign-language news portals have more than 5.5 million visitors per month. Putin also visited the offices of the English-language newspaper The Moscow News and Russia's first 24-hour English-language news channel, Russia Today, located in the same building." RIA Novosti, 24 February 2009. 

"Reaction among the staff to Putin's entrance ranged from big smiles to rabbit-in-the-headlights paralysis. No one dared to step forward and press the flesh with him, perhaps sensing that the brief description given by [RIA Novosti's editor-in-chief Svetlana] Mironyuk of the newspaper's work was all he had time for." The Moscow News, 26 November 2009.

Here is how RT covered the event, start at the 30 second mark: 

A few comments.

• It is interesting to note that RT was "inspired" by Putin.  
  
• What was Putin looking at?  It appears that he is getting a tour of RT's YouTube page.  Did RT care what they were filming when he was there?  
• What is the story?  RT does not explain why Putin decided to drop by.  I will try and find a better answer for that question.

London's PressTV?

In watching the PressTV programming, I notice more and more of the shows are not only based in London but focus on British issues. One program called "Comment" is hosted by British MP George Galloway and allows viewers to email and call into the show and pretty much talk about whatever they want. Viewers comment from Spain, the UK, Nigeria, Cyprus and other corners of the world. One caller brought up the torture of Guantanamo Bay prisoner, Binyam Mohamed. Galloway criticized Britain for its role in the situation. The show had its fair share of Israel criticism as is common on PressTV, but one viewer email from Nigeria stated that its author was glad to see Netanyahu elected but stated that Palestinians should have a state and that Israel needs to stop the indiscriminant killing of Palestinians "because it's better than that." Galloway replied that Israeli’s have overwhelmingly chosen war by electing Netanyahu. Which is not exactly true because Livni actually won the popular vote. Anyway, the program that followed dedicated its entire 50 minutes to Britain's laws regarding the custody of children in divorce. The show took to the streets of London interviewing Brits about how they felt about these laws. Clearly this means PressTV is catering to a largely British audience. I find myself wondering how this program topic furthers Iran's mission with PressTV. On that note, let's look at this clip from PressTV's "Comment" in which Galloway defends an email accusation that Iran is a dictatorship. Maybe this is Iran's mission with PressTV...

Convergence facilitates global perspective

Amongst the plethora of reports about Al Jazeera English's new campaign to engage North American viewers to petition cable companies to carry their broadcast, the Denver WestWord's blog posted a story about their Denver news anchor Gabriel Elizondo who left to work for Al Jazeera international.

In the post, Elizondo comments that, when covering the Democratic National Convention (in Denver) for AJ, there were "police snipers on top of the buildings, [and] undercover cops around me", says the reporter.

On the other hand, UK newspaper, The Independent, is taking a completely different approach, having just signed a deal with Al Jazeera English to begin posting the broadcast on the paper's website. The Independent's editor of digital, Jimmy Leach, says, "showing Al Jazeera videos was a great way of delivering a global perspective both to The Independent’s UK-based users and to its growing audience overseas." He adds that Al Jazeera [will] enable The Independent to bring a different world-view to its audience and its broad-minded approach to interpreting world opinion would sit perfectly with Independent readers.

I'm willing to bet there are not very many Independent readers in Denver.

Telesur's Agenda

Telesur’s coverage over the last couple of days is a good example of the kind of agenda-setting the network’s trying to do. For starters, Telesur has chosen not to cover the Academy Awards at all. The top story over the last few days has been a wiretapping scandal in Colombia which has gotten very little coverage so far on other networks, including major Latin American newspapers.

The scandal is about agents of the DAS (Colombian intelligence service) who allegedly wiretapped journalists, Supreme court judges and members of the political opposition. There have been contradictory claims that Colombian drug lords were behind the operation or that Uribe’s Colombian government itself was responsible.

Telesur’s coverage includes an accusation that the U.S. provided the surveillance equipment used, which hasn’t been reported elsewhere. Meanwhile, the Chavez government has just announced that it will be supporting a search for a Colombian presidential candidate in 2010 who shares the Venezuelan government’s ideological approach.

So Telesur’s heavily reporting a scandal that could damage the Colombian president, while the Venezuelan government looks for a candidate to oppose Uribe in 2010. That seems to be both agenda-setting in Telesur’s choice of stories as well as news coverage with a pretty clear agenda.

All you need to know.... PressTV

Apparently PressTV feels that Obama picked an anti-Iran man for Iran post. Veteran US diplomat's Dennis Ross was appointed as special advisor on the Persian Gulf and southwest Asia.

"In light of its supposed "policy U-turn" toward Iran, the Obama administration has managed to raise eyebrows by giving the post to Ross as he seeks a tough anti-Iran approach.In the heat of the presidential race, Ross co-chaired a group called United Against Nuclear Iran -- an organization working to 'stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons'."

Ross also supported further sanctions against the country for its nuclear program.

"The report by think tanks [is] believed to be an integral part of the so-called Israel Lobby in the US. 'Only if Israeli policymakers believe that US and European policymakers will ensure that the Islamic Republic does not gain nuclear weapons will the Israelis be unlikely to strike Iran independently,' added the report."

Among the reader comments, most of which were angry and not constructive, "Morteza" showed what seemed to sum up the reader sentiment:

"As this person is a zionist and his loyality is first to the zionist entity, there will be no good coming out of meeting with him. The Supreme Leader should publicly ban our gov to deal with him and openly say to the whole world that he is a zionist terrorist and Irn welcomes talking to USA but not with this man."

In other important PressTV news.... a riveting story about nail care hits the pages of PressTV.

"If the eyes are the windows to the soul, the nails hold clues to one's health and even personality."

Seems even PressTV wants to show its readers that it is one-stop shopping for everything you need to know: Updates about Iran's nuclear program and how to grow strong, healthy nails.

Is that my iPod or Russia Today?

Last week, Russia Today unveiled its new website, and it looks a lot like the home screen of my iPod Touch. Take a look (or visit the website):


Clearly, they are appealing to a younger audience. The content continues to be, well, a little fishy (See Noah's previous posts here and here). Moreover, according to alexa.com, not a lot of people are visiting the website, and more importantly, the new design hasn't generated any new traffic either (click on the data below to enlarge). Also of note is the decreased number of page views/user: the 1 week average is 1.9 pages/user, lower than the 2.41 pages/user 3 month average. Since the new format is just over a week old, I'd say that so far it is scaring more people away than drawing people in.

Al Manar's Online Audience

Al Manar’s television programming has either been banned or has simply not been made available in many nations so the website if the primary medium for many in Europe and the Americas. The site offers content in English, French and Arabic.

According to Quantcast, which provides statistics on Americans’ online activity, only about 7,000 Americans access Almanar.com.lb each month. These site visitors are primarily young and male. For more insights into Al Manar’s audience, I reviewed several features on the website which provide for audience engagement.

POLLS


For the past two weeks the poll question on Al Manar has been, “Do you see the Zionist public’ inclination to the right as an expression of fear following the outcome of the Lebanon and Gaza wars?” Of the nearly 10,000 participants in the poll, over 90% responded in the affirmative.





AUDIENCE COMMENTS

Al Manar allows website visitors to comment on news articles, asking that they provide their name and country of origin. Al Manar lists the most read and most commented news. Even for the stories included in the most commented news group, there are only several visitor comments, but the few comments are highly vehement. For example, in response to the article I mentioned in a previous post, “Jesus Abused by Spiteful Isrealis, Hezbollah Condemns,” one reader from Pakistan responded with “I am not surprised at all. Zionists do not have any religion, they do not have any God, they don’t have any prophet. Their God is Money.” This comment is reflective of most comments. The other typical component in audience comments is quotations from religious scripture. Those who post are both from Western nations such as the US, UK and Belgium as well as Middle Eastern and North African nations such as Pakistan and Algeria. A sample audience post is provided below.

No Cable, No Mobile

Al Jazeera is now pushing their mobile service updates, where you can be continually texted or sent Al Jazzera's coverage or watch mobile Al Jazeera TV on your cell phone. However, like the lack of availability of Al Jazeera on North American cable television, no cell phone company in North America provides Al Jazeera's mobile service either.

IRINN's News Scrolls in English

I think it is interesting to note that while IRINN broadcasts in Persian, there is always a news headline scroll at the bottom of the screen running in English. This is not unusual given the fact that English is a lingua franca in many countries. In fact, there are usually  postings in both the Persian and English languages in major public places in Iran. The name of the broadcaster "IRINN" is itself written in English and it is displayed in the corner of the broadcast. On a last point, IRINN replays coverage from a diverse group of international broadcasters during segments of their program. The list of broadcasters includes: BBC, MSNBC, Al Jazeera, and Al Arabiya. News from other media are also referenced, such as the The Economist.

Here is a list of news headlines that have been displayed on IRINN: 

"Haaretz: West Bank settlement gets green light for massive expansion; Senator John Kerry says U.S. eager to talk to Syria; Civilian, solider gunned down in Mosul; Clinton criticizes Bush on N.Korea; Moscow again eyes Afghanistan 20 years after retreat; Hamas: dialogue, only way for internal reconciliation."

Coverage of Germany's Schroeder in Iran

This week former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was in Iran for a four day visit. During his visit he met with Iranian President Ahmadinejad and IRI's parliament speaker Ali Larijani in Tehran. 

The IRINN coverage of the meeting between Ahmadinejad and Schroeder was a positive one. The IRINN said that Schroeder emphasized Iran's importance to the region [Middle East] and that Europe and Iran should work well together. Furthermore, there was an emphasis on the need for energy and solving the current global problems.  This story was also covered by the IRIB, another Iranian news agency. 

The IRIB covered the meeting between Schroeder and Larijani, and it was affirmative of Iran as well, "Schroeder lauds IRI's positive role in the region." The report goes on to say, "Former German chancellor, for his part, called Iran an important and influential country in the regional and international equations adding, 'if we would not appreciate Iran's role in Afghanistan it would not be fair.' Gehrard Schroeder also said Iran's huge energy capacities can provide ripe grounds for development of trade ties with the European Union."

The meeting was described differently in a report by Reuters, however. The report said: "'The Holocaust is a historic fact and there is no sense in denying this unparalleled crime,' Schroeder told the Iranian Chamber of Commerce. 'Iran needs to take responsibility and respect international rules, if it wants to be taken seriously as a regional power.'"

The Reuters report goes on to say that "the head of Iran's Chamber of Industry and Commerce Mohammad Nahavandian said it would be wrong to 'measure the developments in the Middle East with two yardsticks. We shouldn't forget the recent massacre of people in the Gaza strip and should internationally condemn Israel for it.'"

Also, China View reported that Schroeder called for talks between the U.S. and Iran. He is quoted as saying, "'We need dialogue at the highest possible levels' to resolve the discords between Iran and the United States.'"  

Clearly, the coverage by Iranian broadcasters IRINN and IRIB excluded Schroeder's criticism of Iran and any recommendations regarding U.S.-Iran relations. Also, the Reuters report did not discuss any of the positive exchanges that took place in the meetings, particularly the emphasis on trade cooperation between the EU and Iran. It is more important however, to note the lack of self-critical reporting by IRINN or IRIB, since both are the central news broadcasters of Iran. This lack of self-criticism is evident in regards to the nuclear issue as well.

Al Manar Can Take a Joke

Al Manar has a page on its site called Caricature with a gallery of political cartoons. A new cartoon is added to the gallery every day and even though the words are in Arabic, the imagery makes the messages very clear.

Political cartoons have been accredited with being able to capture complicated political situations with visual metaphors and can be a persuasive form of communication. In my opinion, Al Manar's cartoons successfully capture Hezbollah's worldview and it is worth noting that Al Manar has added humor to its arsenal of persuasive tactics.

Al Manar Gets Emotional

Yesterday, my daily visit to almanar.com.lb was different. The most prominent story of the day was entitled, “ Jesus (pbuh) Abused by Spiteful Israelis; Hezbollah Condemns.”

This was a far cry from last week’s coverage of Israeli elections, which were characterized by some semblance of dispassionate neutrality. The article details a comedy program on Israeli TV, which made fun of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. The author, Hussein Assi infuses his opinion of Israel thorough the story and argues that this television program shows that Israel degrades and disrespects other prominent religions. For instance, the article begins with “It’s the same Israeli ‘spite’ that has proved itself since the ‘creation’ of the so-called Zionist entity that reveals itself once again.”

This article is the most blatant expression of opinion from an Al Manar journalist on the website that I have seen. As mentioned previously, Almanar.com.lb had seemingly established a pattern of limiting its own staff to less partial news reporting and providing passionate opinionated pieces by posting articles from writers and activists not affiliated with Al Manar. These proxy voices have worldviews match Al Manar’s assumed biases but Al Manar was able to separate itself with a disclaimer:

“Al-Manar.com.lb is not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.”


The decision to post such an opinionated piece and jarring headline as news seriously erodes Al Manar’s attempt to be a credible news source. Today, a new story about the Vatican’s response to the Israeli television show illustrates the resumption of the traditional division of labor, as the news piece refrains from passing judgment and allows quotes from the Vatican about the blasphemous nature of the television show to suffice. It will be interesting to see what other issues spark this lapse in journalistic composure.

Crickets for Politkovskaya

Russia Today's top headline reads: Skull and Bones sued over Indian chief's remains.  Since the redesign (which eerily reminds me of the TV game show, Hollywood Squares), only one top news story is displayed at a time.  After a ten to twenty second freeze frame* on the riveting Skull and Bones piece, a photo of Anna Politkovskaya graces the screen with the caption, "The Manhunt for Red October Continues."  The editorial decision made by RT to elevate the coverage of a lawsuit about Geronimo's remains over one of the most pressing stories concerning the future of free speech in Russia is inexcusable.

Here is some background.  Journalist Anna Politkovskaya was murdered at her home on October 7th, 2007.  Known for unabashed coverage of the human rights violations in Chechnya by Russian soldiers, Anna Politkovskaya was named by the New Statesman as one of the fifty heroes of our time.  What made her heroic also made her a target.  Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Anne Applebaum described  Politkovskaya's murder,

There was no attempt to disguise the murder as a theft or an accident: Her assassin not only shot her in broad daylight, but he left her body in the elevator of her apartment building alongside the gun he used to kill her -- standard practice for Moscow's arrogant hit men. Nor can her murder be easily attributed to distant provincial authorities or the criminal mafia: Local businessmen had no motivation to kill her -- but officials of the army, the police and even the Kremlin did. Whereas local thieves might have tried to cover their tracks, Politkovskaya's assassin, like so many Russian assassins, did not seem to fear the law.

Recently, three men were acquitted for being accomplices in her murder.  From the start of the trial, many court watchers called into doubt the guilt of these suspects as her murderer has yet to be named or caught by Russian authorities.  How did RT cover this trial that further serves to delay action and sustain a potential cover-up?  Here's how,

If justice was awarded for courage alone, Anna Politkovskaya, the late journalist who seemed most comfortable reporting from an exploding battlefield, would have been vindicated long ago. 

What a backhanded compliment!  It gets better.  The article then describes her work in Chechnya,

Known best for her relentless coverage of the atrocities of the Chechen war from both sides of the trenches, Politkovskaya did not limit herself to war correspondent. On the evening of October 23, 2002, about 45 Chechen terrorists seized the House of Culture Theater in central Moscow with 850 hostages inside. The perimeter of the theater was rigged with explosives and the terrorists clearly had no intention of leaving alive. Anna Politkovskaya was one of the few people permitted inside of the building in an attempt to negotiate with the terrorists. Although the talks were essentially fruitless (after a dramatic two-and-a-half day waiting game of cat and mouse, Russian Special Forces finally stormed the building, rescuing 721 of the 850 hostages and eliminating the terrorists), Politkovskaya proved her mettle by voluntarily exposing herself to the gravest danger in an effort to save human lives.

This is a gross misrepresentation of her life's work.  Politkovskaya was one of the most visible Russians speaking out against Putin and the acts perpetrated by Russian forces.  Portraying her as a terrorist negotiator is an insulting attempt to offer an olive branch to those who respected her sacrifice.

RT would not want to glorify her too much, so this section is followed by,

In many ways, Politkovskaya’s desperate talks with the theater terrorists showed her star shooting full circle. From something of a human rights vigilante with a pen that scribbled like a sword (sometimes a bit too haphazardly, however, as her many critics would counter) . . .

Of course it would be too much effort for RT to identify a SINGLE CRITIC of hers.  Rather, it is better to disparage her memory anonymously, so as to not offend her family.  The article concludes by attributing her murder to organized crime and vindicating Putin from having any role in her execution.

I've read that it is a mistake to blog when angry.  I'll heed that advice now.

*Sometimes RT switches to the Politkovskaya story second, sometimes third after an article entitled, "Ukraine Defense Minister: We are going down".

Is France 24 an arm of US PubD efforts? Or just a sloppy operation?

I’ve been trying to assess whether France 24’s programs, consistent with its mission to promote French values, had a pro-French bias, and if so, in what ways. I was pretty puzzled when I ran into the following program the other day, the English version of daily “The Debate.”

The topic of the day was “Iraq, between hope and terror”, and the subtitle read “with news of fresh suicide attacks against Shiite pilgrims, it’s clear that Iraq remains polarized and dangerous. Nevertheless, peaceful provincial elections in January have shown us a different Iraq. How does the situation stand today?”

http://www.france24.com/en/20090213-the-debate-iraq-between-hope-and-terror-1


The video is quite long, but basically, it provides a very positive outlook on how things are moving in Iraq. It shows women voting, optimistic Iraqis, etc. It was so positive it sounded more like something that would have been produced by an American PubD outlet, than by the French PubD outlet, especially since France has been such an outspoken opponent of the war.

As I’ve previously pointed out, instead of dubbing one show from French to English, France 24 actually produces the same show twice, once in French, once in English. In this case, the video documentary segment was the same. The debate itself, then, was facilitated by the same anchor, once in French with French guests, and once in English. What is very interesting is that on the English broadcast, while 2 of the guests were French people speaking English, the third guest was an American – in fact, a “Political Officer” of the US Embassy.

I’m not quite sure how this fits with France 24’s mission "to cover international current events from a French perspective and to convey French values throughout the world". Is France 24 an arm of US PubD? At the very least, on the face of this segment, it should not be accused of having a pro-French bias. Would this explain why the French General Auditor (Cour des Comptes) recently called France 24 on its "instable strategy" and "yet-to-be-defined coherence"?

Modern day Orientalism in International Broadcasting

It is interesting to compare the technical manifestation of ‘freedom of the press’ in America and the actual.

This past week Al Jazeera, the Qatar funded broadcasting system that within the last couple of years has developed an English language network, began a campaign in North America to address ‘myths and misperceptions’ about their work. This is due to the fact that the majority of American and Canadian cable networks will not carry Al Jazeera, although this is supposedly slowly changing.

Al Jazeera is known for its presence in the Middle East and for coverage of world issues/events often from the ‘other side’, such as airing speeches by Osama bin Laden, etc. As seen in Al Jazeera’s PR campaign in the North America, how is the conception of ‘Othering’ (Hall; Silverstone) a present concern in international broadcasting? Is this a clear example of Edward Said’s analysis of ‘Orientalism’ but in a different medium?

The biggest questions are: Are all international broadcasts considered equal? If not, why not? And, who says?

Gitmo Diplomacy

Telesur has picked up a story from the AP wire about a visit next week by new U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to the Guantanamo Bay prison facility. The difference in the Telesur story - which is taken almost word for word from the AP story- is Telesur describes Guantanamo as an “illegal prison,” a description which they use in the headline as well: “New U.S. Attorney General to Visit Illegal Prison”. While Gitmo is a popular subject among international broadcasters, none of the other networks describe Gitmo as an illegal prison. The only other similar description I’ve seen is in Cuban newspapers (like Juventud Rebelde ) which describe Guantanamo as an "illegally-occupied naval base”.

Welcome to IRINN

All during the second week of February 2009, the television broadcast by IRINN (Islamic Republic of Iran News Network) was focused on the 3oth Anniversary of the Iranian Revolution. The programs included footage of the Revolution (such as Khomeini arriving in Iran) and interviews with Iranians about the Revolution and what they experienced. One particular interviewee was a lady who recalled her 3 1/2 year imprisonment before the Revolution, during the time of the Shah. What became clear was that the angle of this interview, and all the others, was in clear support for the Revolution. Although an interesting note is that this particular lady said she was not fully aware that the Revolution was actually taking place and did not know the full scale of the events.  

Another topic during last weeks broadcast was on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the launch of the first Iranian satellite. First, Ahmadinejad was shown giving a talk given to diplomats in Tehran. Ahmadinejad said that "the time for force is over", referring to Israel and the conflict in Gaza. Right after that, the program diverted to the launch of the first Iranian satellite, Omid ("hope"). An Iranian state web address all about the satellite was then given and can be found here: www.omid-sat.ir/. This launch has been argued by some as a way for Ahmadinejad to sway voters in his favor in the upcoming presidential elections that will be held on June 12, 2009. There is probably a substantial amount of validity to this argument, given that Ahmadinejad has not lived up to the reason he was elected - his promise to improve the economy. Adding further pressure to Ahmadinejad's re-election bid is the fact that Khatami, a reformist and former Iranian President, has announced he will be running for President as well. 

What will Broadcasting 2.0 look like?

The Al-Jazeera Network is certainly trying to find out. Judith Townend reviewed AJ's ambitious efforts--known as Al-Jazeera Labs--to succeed in a world of Web 2.0.

AJ Labs started out a bit slow, but has recently picked up pace. One pillar of the Labs project is focused on making AJ's content available through as many mediums as possible. Along these lines, the webpage now features an application for the iPhone, a link to the newly revamped mobile webpage (designed for non-iPhone Smart phones), information on how to receive AJ's news via twitter, how to text or tweet in a question for Riz Khan to ask a guest on his show, a link to AJ's YouTube page, information on how to receive a RSS feed of AJ's news on your Sony Ericsson phone, a link to all of AJ's podcasts (available through iTunes), information on how to receive AJ's headlines through your Instant Message client, and, of course, AJ's Facebook application.

The second pillar of the Labs project is a bit more innovative. While AJ's coverage of the recent conflict in Gaza drew attention worldwide for its relative depth (AJE was the only international broadcaster that had English speaking journalists on the ground in Gaza), it also coincided with several innovative Labs initiatives that show much promise. Last November, AJE launched its citizen-journalism upload portal, a webpage devoted to "seeking eyewitness news reports from its vast international audience." During the conflict on Gaza, the Your Media webpage was flooded with photos and video from Palestinians in Gaza, much of which made its way to AJ's webpage and some of which was rebroadcast on the network's programming. In addition, the Mapping the War in Gaza feature was a big hit. Using software developed by Ushahidi, AJ created a map (based on Microsoft's virtual earth program) that integrated information submitted from its citizen journalists into a zoomable map of Gaza. Each nugget of submitted "news" from citizen journalists--be it a tweet, a video or a cell phone picture--was turned into a dot, categorized via color in order to differentiate the different events (dark blue dots noted a death of some sort, while yellow dots were references to news about international aid), and placed on the map. Citizen reports were vetted to ensure that they were indeed factual, and then integrated into reports from the mainstream media to ensure that the map was providing a comprehensive look at the events taking place.

Perhaps most interesting was AJ's decision to release its raw Gaza footage under the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution license, functionally making the footage available for all commercial and non-commercial use, free-of-charge. This means that news outlets, filmmakers and bloggers will be able to easily share, remix, subtitle or reuse the footage (see previous post on this here). While I don't think that this move was publicized enough, and probably came too late in the conflict (over two weeks in), I do think that it shows promise. By giving up the rights to control and profit from the footage (and keep in mind that footage was not easy to come by during the conflict since journalists weren't allowed to enter into Gaza), AJ said to the world that they thought that news and journalism should not be dictated by the market, and that political efforts to suppress AJ's broadcasts in the West and elsewhere would not stop the images from Gaza from getting out.

Governments around the world continue to suppress the free media. Burma, Iran and China offer just a few examples of how effective governments have been at controlling their information environments, despite revolutions in communications technologies. If this model of releasing footage of events under a creative commons license becomes routine during conflicts (or other, hard-to-cover events), it may be a defining moment for the age of information. Governments will struggle to be able to suppress all of the different ways in which creative commons videos can be distributed. And while today videos are spread daily around the Internet, Al-Jazeera's viral footage would offer a marked difference given that it comes with a certain level of respect and authenticity (AJ was ranked as the 5th most influential brand in the world in 2005, prior to the launch of AJE).

Hopefully, other international news outlets will follow suit. The combined potential of BBC World Service and the Al-Jazeera Networks raw footage, and the possibilities of mashing the two together, would be a bold step in the direction of fostering a truly global and democratic communications ecology.

Finally, Qtel, Qatar's cell phone provider, announced today a their Mozaic Mobile TV service, offering programming from up to 23 channels available to be streamed to any of its mobile phones.

"The full range of International and Arabic channels includes news (Al Jazeera and Al Jazeera English, CNN International, CNBC Europe and CNBC Arabiya and BBC World), Islamic (Iqra), sports (ESPN Europe, ART Sports Channels, and AlKaas), entertainment (AsianNet, B4U Music, Al Safwa, Arabic Series Channel and Rotana Moussica) and children’s television (Cartoon Networks, Boomerang, Al Jazeera Children’s Channel)."

Now, that's broadcasting 2.0.

Iran's PressTV plays up the threat of Israel

Last week, PressTV.com visitors saw a line up of headlines discussing Israel's supposedly eminent attack on Iran. One headline even stated that Israeli warlord vows face-off with Iran: meaning Israeli PM candidate, Benjamin Netanyahu who stated that "[Iran] will not be armed with a nuclear weapon… It includes everything that is necessary to make this statement come true." PressTV states that Netanyahu "is currently facing war crime charges in Gaza," citing Israel's use of white phosphorous and also Netanyahu's promise to spread Israeli settlements. The story is sure to mention Iran's party line that it is not trying to obtain nuke's:

"Israel, the sole nuclear power in the Middle East, accuses Tehran of seeking nuclear weaponry while the UN nuclear watchdog, in its Sept. 15 report on Iran, declared that it could not find any 'components of a nuclear weapon' or 'related nuclear physics studies' in the country. Western powers accuse Iran, a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), of attempting to develop nuclear weaponry. Iran, however, says its nuclear program is for peaceful energy purposes and that it has the right to the technology already in the hands of many other nations including Israel - which is not a signatory NPT and yet houses the Middle East's sole nuclear arsenal."

Another related article that week quotes Aaron David Miller, the US State Department's top analyst in the 1980s, in saying that "Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu will be able to convince President Barack Obama that a military attack is the only solution to the Iranian nuclear issue."

"The Israelis will be pushing [Washington] to ensure that Iran never gets to that point and failing that, they will consider a military strike. It need not be conclusive or threatening, but it will be very serious and ... scare the daylights out of the president that unless the international community mobilizes to address the situation, the Israelis will," says Miller.

And yet another article entitled New Obama challenge: Rise of Israeli hawks threatens that a Netanyahu victory could hinder Obama's Middle East plans;

"Analysts fear that a possible power shift in the Israeli government in favor of hawks would foil US plans for the Middle East peace."

All these articles attempt to persuade American readers that a Netanyahu victory would be detrimental to Obama's mid-east peace plan. In fact, PressTV posted an article on Saturday that a Gallup poll released on Friday shows that 56% of Americans are of the opinion that the United States should engage in direct diplomacy with Iran. It seems that PressTV is trying to play to the opinions of this 56% and persude them that Israel is not acting in their best interest. A definite agenda can be seen in the headlines of the week.

Former Taliban leader hearts his iPhone

Okay, so let's file this under stories that I couldn't have made up if I tried. AJE's Hamish Macdonald is reporting that Mullah Zaif, the Taliban's former ambassador to Pakistan who is now under virtual house-arrest on the outskirts of Kabul, is addicted to his iPhone. Some background on Zaeef: "Zaeef became well known on Western television during the interim period between the Sept. 11 attacks and the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. He held multiple news conferences in which he both condemned the terrorist attacks and insisted that Usama bin Laden, then a guest of the Taliban, was not responsible. He then spent more than three years in U.S. custody, including significant time at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, before being freed in 2005."

Does this mean that Apple is less likely to be a target of terrorism? And I wonder if the Taliban has their own iPhone applications? Or, as Macdonald jokes, a "Taliban Twitter."

Telesur Cranks Up the Coverage

As Venezuelans get ready to vote on Sunday for the second time in less than 2 years on a constitutional amendment that would allow Chavez to run for office indefinitely, Telesur has been cranking up the coverage. Today’s coverage of a rally with Chavez traveling through a sea of red as supporters talk about why they plan to vote yes for the amendment, has been repeated several times in the last few weeks. The Chavez government has organized these color-coordinated rallies all over the country to try to build support for the amendment.

Meanwhile Telesur has mostly avoided coverage of opposition rallies, student protests, and alleged suppression by the government of opposition groups, which has been on the front pages of the main Venezuelan newspapers (El Universal and El Nacional). Telesur did air an interview with Chavez this week in which he said the government would oppose dissident groups which had “international funding” and had “violent plans” to disrupt the referendum.

Telesur has also been running a half hour special on the amendment with experts from Bolivia, Spain, and Venezuela describing how the amendment would actually be advancing Venezuelan democracy. The special describes North American democracy as being corrupted by the excesses of capitalism, and says the purest forms of democracy are being practiced in Europe. It also claims that there are EU member states which allow for indefinite election of their presidents. I haven’t figured out which ones those are yet, but this is part of the way Telesur is framing the amendment as evidence of a true democracy where the constitution can be changed according to the people’s will, rather than as an attempt to consolidate power as many of Chavez’s opponents suspect.

Saying the Unspoken: The Power of Proxy Communicators

On the right hand side of Al Manar’s website are op-ed pieces and interviews with well-known intellectuals and activists. There are interviews with Noam Chomsky and lawyer Dr. Franklin Lamb. There are also opinion pieces by economist Michael J. Mandel, jazz musician and activist Gilad Atzmon and Palestinian activist Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi. These voices are highly critical of the U.S. and Israel and take the political stance that Al-Manar seems reluctant to make in their news articles. It appears that Al Manar’s strategy is to provide less biased reporting of current events and provide op-ed pieces by more legitimate voices to provide the color and support Al Manar’s political agenda.

Where's Obama?

Compared to other networks there are surprisingly few images (photos or video) of Barack Obama broadcast on Telesur, and very limited coverage of Obama’s administration so far, both on the website and live channel. Telesur makes clear that its mission is to focus on issues of significance to Latin America and to skew away from U.S.-centric reporting. Still, for a station as conscious of image and personality as Telesur, it seems like part of an overall editorial policy. The policy could be a response to Obama’s popularity in Latin America, which is extremely high according to a BBC world service poll taken around the time of the inauguration.

In comparison, pictures of Bush and key members of his administration appeared often on Telesur, especially on the website, in articles critical of his policies. Ironically, Bush’s unpopularity may have been good for business for the Chavez administration, while, based on the cold shoulder he’s gotten so far in coverage, Obama may be bad for business.

While Obama has been nowhere to be found recently on the Telesur site, CNN en Espanol has kept a running story called “The First 100 Days of Obama” on its website. Other international broadcasters like Press TV, Russia Today and Al Jazeera English also seem to show Obama more frequently, so this may be unique to Telesur for the moment.

Al Manar: Radically Objective?

My initial impression of the English page of the Al Manar TV’s website is that it is does not match the extremely negative image of Al Manar. Hezbollah describes to Al Manar, its 24-hour satellite television network as “psychological warfare against the Zionist enemy,” and Al Manar has been banned in much of Europe and the Americas. I will discuss Al Manar TV’s Arabic programming in the following weeks but first wanted to delve into the website’s English content.

There are certain obvious features of propaganda: throughout the website, Israel is referred to as the Zionist entity. Additionally, at the very top of the page, website visitors are greeted with the words “Our Martyrs are Great Men” along with images of fallen leaders of Hezbollah. There are also peculiar polling questions, asking website visitors loaded questions about their opinion about the situation in Gaza.

However, much of the site content is characterized by balance and some semblance of neutrality, particularly when reporting on U.S. current events. Articles about Obama’s economic plan, the closing of Guantanamo, and the appointments of Hilary Clinton and Richard Holbrooke all provided multiple opinions when needed and lacked any obvious insertion of opinion. Even articles about Israel’s parliamentary elections are highly detailed and informative, with multiple viewpoints such as direct quotes from Israeli politicians as well as exit poll data.

In light of the fact that Al Manar’s English content is more moderate than expected, I will continue to monitor the English website to compare it with Al Manar’s Arabic television programming.

Ahmadinejad: 'Obama unlikely to succeed with his changes'

From Iran's PressTV:

"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says it is unlikely that US President Barack Obama will be allowed to bring change to the US." In a telephone conversation with his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez on Wednesday, Ahmadinejad said 'change' has been the motto of the new US President but it is unlikely that Zionist leaders and the main players in the world power structure would allow Obama to bring any change to the United States.

Does this mean PressTV does not think Obama is a main player in the world power structure?

Russia Today Roundup - February 11, 2008

Note:  Expect a weekly roundup of RT's headlines each Wednesday.  All articles selected will come from their homepage.  Hopefully over time this feature will aid in determining what the purposes of RT really are. 

• U.S./Iran.  Summary - RT relies on respected experts (Ben Cohen and Richard Bulliet) to report that Obama's focus on proliferation and terrorism risks undermining his campaign promise to begin dialogue with Iran.  Unlike many of the RT articles that cast the U.S. in a negative light, RT adopts a moderate approach to this issue.  This is most likely attributed to the fact that Russia's economy welcomes a rapprochement between the two nations since it would open more doors for trade. 
• Vegas Mayor beefing with Obama.  Summary - Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodwin is demands that President Obama issue a retraction for disparaging his city by criticizing Wells Fargo executive's plans for a corporate weekend in Vegas.  Now, this is more like it. Another example of a non-story being treated like a story.  Not much more needed to be said about this.
• Ukrainian White House is falling apart.  Summary - a Ukrainian mansion modeled after the White House is now a crumbling school building.  The article quotes students who hope that Obama will send funding to Ukraine to rebuild the school.  More pressing news.
• HRW on Guest Worker Abuse.  Summary - a new report from Human Rights Watch details increasing abuse directed towards guest workers in Russia.  This is an interesting read that details growing xenophobia in Russia, in large part due to economic decline.  It should be noted that the last word goes to a young Russian nationalist who criticizes HRW for being hypocritical since it is based in America and the U.S./Mexican border is far worse. This reporting is deceptive as HRW is one of the U.S. government's harshest critics.    
• Pentagon Public Diplomacy?.  Summary - $4.7 billion and 27,000 new employees to revamp the Pentagon's image.  This featured article contains the wit that I've come to expect from RT.  The article ends with the following,

This year, the Pentagon will employ 27,000 people just for recruitment, advertising and PR - almost as many as the total 30,000-person work force in the State Department.  Indeed, 27,000 more jobs is not bad news.  But the question is whether it is a sector where jobs need to be created and whether this news will be welcomed by American taxpayers.

NHK World? Not so much....

Recently re-launched NHK World (of the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation) may want to reconsider the "World" part of its name. While we had previously speculated about what NHK World niche would be, after spending some time on their website, I'm not sure if they know either.

I assumed that NHK World would try to focus on news related to the global economy given Japan's heightened interest and strength in economic issues. Think again. There is not a single story about the Congressional Bailout, which is making headlines on all other broadcasters (even Press TV thinks this is news worthy). Nor is their a reference to the state of the global economy more broadly, something that is of heightened relevance given the continued global economic decline.

The top story listed on the homepage, and I couldn't even make this stuff up if I wanted to, is an announcement for a European conference on protectionism that will take place in March. So much for "opening a new window on the world's most exciting region, Asia" (via the press release announcing the relaunching of NHK World).

Notably lacking from the top stories is any mention of anything going on the Middle East. Nothing. News of the Israeli election results is at least among the top stories at Russia Today, AJE, Press Tv, and everywhere else I've looked. Most broadcasters also are still keeping close tabs on Gaza (like the resumption of UN aid, BBC), general Arab reactions to the Israeli elections (VOA), and the possible warming of ties between the US and Iran (Russia Today), not too mention today's attacks in Iraq (AJE). NHK World? Not interested. Even after a thorough exploration of all of the articles posted on the website (don't give me too much credit, there really aren't that many), there is little mention of the Middle East, and when there is, the stories are less informative that a Reuters newswire. There certainly is not a unique Japanese perspective offered on global events, or a window opened to Japanese culture or society. Also lacking, sans a very short story about Sudan, is NHK World's coverage of the entire African continent. This is despite today's swearing in of Zimbabwe's new Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, which even the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation found interesting. Also, the website is about as high-tech as this blog (no offense intended to Blogger).


I'm not writing this to trash NHK World, or at least that wasn't my initial intent. NHK World claims to want to compete with global news giants such as CNN and the BBC, and I was thus genuinely intrigued to see what they would bring to the broadcasting table. It may be the case that the actual broadcasting is far superior to the content on the website, though that seems to beg some larger questions of NHK's understanding of today's media environment.