Category Archives: Uncategorized

Bush meets with international bloggers

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On the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, President Bush met with eight bloggers and new media users from China, Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, Egypt and Belarus.

The White House said Bush planned to discuss “the challenges they confront in overcoming censorship.”

Six of the individuals met with Bush at the White House; participants from Egypt and Venezuela joined by teleconference.

The White House also highlighted the efforts of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to aid citizen journalists. BBG oversees international radio broadcasters such as Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Radio Farda, as well as television networks like Alhurra and TV Marti.

BBG news outlets are getting reports out of heavily censored countries by getting citizen journalists to submit information from cell phones, SMS feeds and e-mails, and encouraging participation in its radio, television and blog discussions.

Partnering with nongovernmental organizations, BBG also has developed free anti-censorship software and technical tools that are available in English, Persian, Kazakh, Mandarin and Vietnamese. A BBG spokesperson said users can go to one of those language sites and sign up to get updates, which include information “alerting people to work arounds” for the ongoing battle with the state censors.

Pirate to Reporter: “Arghhhh! Next Question.”

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The importance of good media relations has long been understood by politicians, corporate leaders and philanthropists, but it seems pirates, even from an impoverished country like Somalia, are becoming media-savvy in the 21st century, with prepared talking points and authorized spokesmen (spokespirates?).

After the Ukrainian vessel Faina and its crew were hijacked in Somali waters on September 25, the New York Times’ Nairobi-based reporter Jeffrey Gettleman obtained the pirates’ satellite telephone number from a high-level Kenyan contact involved with efforts to bring the incident to a peaceful end.

Gettleman recalled, “It was probably my 50th call. The line had always been busy. Or the phone had been shut off.  But on Tuesday [September 30] morning, someone actually picked up.”  The reporter asked, “Can I speak to the pirate spokesman, please?”

He was actually able to talk to several pirates but was told “in no uncertain terms” that Sugule Ali “was the only pirate allowed to be quoted. Or else.”

For everything Gettleman asked, Sugule seemed to have a ready answer, comparing his band of pirates to a sort of Somali “coast guard,” whose goal is simply $20 million in cash which they claim would be used to buy themselves food.  “[W]e have a lot of men and it will be divided amongst all of us,” Sugule said.

Piracy has been a growing problem off the Somali coast for years, with nearly 30 hijackings in 2008.  But the Faina incident has heightened international attention and prompted the intervention of both the U.S. and Russian navies because the vessel is loaded with armaments, including tanks and grenade launchers.  Sugule was able to turn the cargo into a talking point by claiming the hijacking aimed to inhibit arms trafficking and prevent the weapons from reaching war-torn Somalia.  (See transcript.)

Mark Fitzgerald of Editor and Publisher said the notion that pirates now have public relations flacks who can set the rules over who can and can’t be quoted “deserves a place in the history of journalism.”

“And just what are the ethics of dealing with a pirate? … Aren’t the rules turned upside down?” he asked.   But Gettleman “played fair, and that’s probably all to the good for next journalists who have to deal with, you know, pirates.”

The situation certainly says something about the power of the press, but where do journalists draw the line between informing the public and providing a public platform for criminal activity?

The handbook oppressive regimes don’t want you to read

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In a recent interview with an Iranian journalist and blogger who now lives in Canada, I asked how Iranian bloggers protect themselves from government authorities that are increasing restrictions, intensifying scrutiny, and raising the cost of getting caught.   (See “Heretic” Bloggers Risk Execution Under Iran’s New Restrictions.)

He said many bloggers use “anonymizers” to hide their Internet protocol (IP) addresses, but lamented that there was no online manual to instruct new bloggers on how to change their IP address, get around filtering, and create closed blog communities.

I’m sure he will share my delight in discovering that Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has put together a Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents that covers everything from getting started to blog ethics to defensive strategies. It’s available in English, Persian, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic and French.

“Bloggers cause anxiety,” it reads. “Governments are wary of these men and women, who post news without officially being journalists. Worse, they frequently raise sensitive issues which the media, now known as ‘traditional,’ dare not cover.”

The handbook advises those who wish to blog anonymously to set up their accounts under pseudonyms from a public-access computer. It gives instructions on the use of proxy servers such as Tor and advice on how to cover your tracks.

If you live in a country that censors parts of the Internet, RSF also has a section on circumvention systems and how to “tunnel” to a computer in a unfiltered location. All this information is accompanied by plenty of warning that users might soon find themselves dealing with very unhappy government authorities.

For a laugh (or a cry), check out the 2008 “Golden Scissors” awards at the very end for the most effective authoritarian regime actions against the online activities of their citizens.

So many reporters, so little news?

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In 2008, the U.S. cities hosting the Democratic and Republican conventions are being overrun with about 15,000 journalists.

Major American networks are sending their finest correspondents, bloggers will be out in force, and smaller outlets are finding hotel vacancies a distant memory and wireless-equipped workstations scarce.

Despite what the media frenzy might suggest, conventions don’t tend to be newsworthy. We already know Barack Obama and John McCain will be their parties’ nominees; we’ll know their running mates before the conventions convene; and we know the party platforms will be written broadly and probably blandly. The news media traditionally complain about conventions, using terms like “empty ritual,” “staged” and “choreographed.”

In 2004, The Weekly Standard’s Andrew Ferguson theorized each city actually is hosting two separate conventions – one for the delegates and political activists, and another for the journalists. As the political side has grown “wan and meaningless,” the media presence has become “larger, more elaborate, and more robust.” Journalists are expanding coverage for their own purposes, Ferguson argues, stating, “The parasite has consumed the host.”

In 2008, Slate.com’s Jack Shafer urged the news media either to limit its coverage to the bare-bones feed from the government/public affairs channel C-SPAN, or else hire effervescent sportscasters who “know how to make a game with a foregone conclusion seem entertaining.”

To which many journalists respond, “Wait – this year it’s different!” Ted Koppel, the former ABC anchor who walked out of the 1996 Republican convention in bored frustration, will be an analyst for BBC America. He told Courant.com blogger Roger Catlin, “This has been one of the most remarkable political years we’ve ever seen.”

CBS’s Jeff Greenfield says much of his coverage will focus on the supporters of runner-up candidates. “In both conventions, I would guess roughly half the delegates wanted somebody else,” he said.

Based on polling data from four years ago, Americans enjoy the media fixation on national conventions. The Vanishing Voter Project at Harvard University reported 63 percent of respondents said conventions are important because they provide an opportunity to get to know the candidates better.

For an inside look at what’s going on at the convention, check out our elections blog, Campaign Trail Talk.