The Arab Spring marked a shift in news-gathering methods used by journalists. But how reliable was the information, and what problems did it pose for traditional journalists?
EPA/Julien Warnand
The Arab Spring protests have presented interesting examples of the complex power relations between traditional and new methods of social media reporting in times of crisis. Traditionally, global crisis…
Martin E Dempsey warns the fallout of the Arab Spring will take a long time to clear.
Glenn Fawcett
At a meeting at the Wall Street Journal this week, Martin E Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, noted that the United States’ ability to exercise influence in the Middle East had significantly…
International women’s day in Egypt.
Al Jazeera English
The release of a Thomson Reuters poll on women’s rights in the Arab world has been greeted with incredulity by many in Egypt, the country that ranked at the very bottom. When polls such as this emerge…
Morsi supporters after the savage crackdown.
Wikimedia Commons
The violent deaths of hundreds and the injury of thousands of peaceful pro-democracy protesters in a few short hours yesterday is tragic. What is the more tragic is that it could have been avoided. In…
Emir Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah at the 2012 elections. Kuwait is passing through an unprecedented period of instability, bringing relentless elections.
Kuwaitelections2012
Parliamentary elections for the 65 member Kuwait’s National Assembly (Majlis al-Umma) are set for this Saturday. Over 410 candidates are contesting the 50 seats elected by popular vote in the oldest and…
A new generation is raising a fist in anger.
Gert Bruininkx
Foundation essay: This article on the indignant generation by Simon Hallsworth, head of the School of Applied Social Sciences at University Campus Suffolk, is part of a series marking the launch of The…
With uprisings continuing to take place in Turkey, questions must now be asked over whether the ‘Turkish model’ for democracy is the way forward for the Arab world.
EPA/Evrim Aydin
The ongoing protests across Turkey, stretching from May 28, show there is ample evidence of a flourishing culture of democracy in the country. They also highlight a worrying counter trend. Last week, the…
A US flag lies among the debris of the US consulate in Benghazi.
EPA
The American delegation in Benghazi has been left reeling by the deaths of four of its staff, amongst them Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. The deaths occurred in an effort to evacuate the consulate…
A group of Iranian pilgrims captured by the Free Syria Army who claim are Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
Al Arabiya
This week the Islamic Republic of Iran made a blunt statement, reiterating its position in relation to the on-going conflict in Syria. According to Saeed Jalili, a senior advisor to the Iranian Supreme…
Supporters of president-elect Mohammed Morsi celebrate his victory in Tahrir Square.
EPA/Andre Pain
For the first time perhaps in all of Egyptian history, its citizens have chosen their own leader. The election of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammad Morsi as the president of Egypt is a major historical…
Mubarak’s demise may not mean the end of his regime for Egypt.
EPA
Symbols are important, but often deceiving. This is certainly the case of Hosni Mubarak, whose inexorable decline acted as a metronome for the Egyptian political crisis. In early 2011, Mubarak’s political…
In the face of the largest mobilisation Egypt has ever witnessed, President Hosni Mubarak stepped down on February 12, 2011. Facing an unlikely coalition of disaffected youth, labour workers, Islamists…
Iraqi security forces inspect a taxi in the wake of a deadly attack on the city of Kirkuk last month.
EPA/Khalil Al A Nei
Last week in Baghdad, 17 men were executed. Nothing special to note here in the conflict ridden, post-US withdrawal landscape of Iraq, except that this time they were executed by an Iraqi court. This was…
Many Syrians prefer the stability of the Assad regime to the chaos they saw after dictators were deposed in Libya and Iraq.
EPA/Youssef Badawi
The stench of hypocrisy is a hard one to wash out for the West in the Middle East. We shook Gadaffi’s hand and pretended we liked his outfits when he coughed up for Lockerbie and we snuggled with Mubarak…
The Arab League has repeatedly failed to effect political change in the region.
EPA/Amel Pain
This weekend, Syria witnessed some of its bloodiest days since political agitation began last year. Dozens were killed after the government launched a new military offensive against rebel group the Free…
Protestor in Cairo’s Tahrir Square behind a flaming barricade.
AAP/Mohamed Omar
Recent days have seen a return to Cairo’s Tahrir Square by thousands of Egyptians concerned by what they see as a delay by the ruling military council in implement full democracy in Egypt. With reports…
We need to make sure quality is more important than quantity in our online engagement.
Flickr/joshfassbind.com
Social media provokes some of the most voluminous and heated responses in two key areas of contemporary society – democracy and privacy. Promoting the first and threatening the second, social media is…
Gaddafi’s death raises moral questions about whether he should have been put on trial or not.
EPA/Rehan Khan
Muammar Gaddafi met his end after being cornered in a Sirte drainage pipe, having fled from a NATO air-strike on his convoy. Questions about exactly how he died - whether caught in crossfire or summarily…
The first free elections borne from the Arab Spring were held in Tunisia. Over 90% of registered adults voted.
EPA/Zacarias Garcia
It has been a tumultuous week in the life and times of democracy in the Mediterranean. Seven days punctuated by joyous hope and its ugly opposite, sullen despair. The promising news came from Tunisia…