Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Gulf online journalism workshop shows divide between bloggers, mainstream media

Yours truly, center, with Katharine Zaleski, senior
news editor at the Huffington Post, standing,
at the IREX workshop in Dubai.



Last week I was a panelist at a Gulf online writers and journalism workshop in Dubai that brought together the leading GCC online journalists to discuss whether bloggers and mainstream media can co-exist. In other words, can we all just get along.


The two-day workshop was sponsored by IREX-MENA and the United Arab Emirates Journalists’ Association. IREX is a non-profit journalism research and development organization committed to strengthening independent media. Attending were online journalists from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the UAE and Qatar. Jordan, Belarus, Malaysia and the United States also were represented.


The workshop was surprise because I had failed to appreciate just how hard these guys work at a craft that pays nothing, yet they feel such passion for.

And by passion, I also mean courage. Ali Abdulemam, editor at BahrainOnline, was arrested and jailed on charges of defamation for his blogging. Charges are still pending against him.

For the complete article please click here.

4 comments:

Ali Abdulemam said...

thanks for your nice words, it was my pleasure to meet you and all other bloggers and journalism
Keep it up

ratherdashing said...

He's not a GCC blogger, but Kareem Amer is still in jail for his words written on a blog. He's another example of courage.

http://www.freekareem.org/

Muawiya Alrawahi said...

:)

Finally you wrote about it. I like the way you put sentences

Ahmed said...

The Baharainis, Kuwaitis, Omanis, Qataris and Emiratis that I met are the future of GCC journalism.

What about the Saudis? Why not the Saudis?