A round up of world news in the week ahead from journalist resource ForesightNews.
Monday 17 December
Monday marks two years since Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation, an act of protest that that inspired millions to challenge the status quo across the Middle East. Two years on, despite regime change in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen, the continuing unrest in countries such as Syria, Egypt and Bahrain suggests the region’s upheaval has some time to run yet.
In North Korea, they will be marking the first anniversary of the death of Kim Jong-Il. The successful satellite launch last week means there is considerably less pressure on his son Kim Jong-un as he completes his first year at the helm of the secretive communist state.
Meanwhile, a hearing is due to take place in Milan in Silvio Berlusconi’s trial over his alleged sexual exploits with Moroccan dancer Karima el Mahroug. Ruby, as she is also known, was supposed to be testifying at the hearing but is in Mexico with no plans to return until next month.
Gujarat in Western India holds the second and final phase of its assembly elections. The state is led by Narendra Modi of the BJP and his expected re-election would bolster his case for one day becoming India’s Prime Minister. Counting takes place on 20 December.
Finally, in Washington DC, the IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde is due to submit a report to member’s of the fund’s board on actions taken by Argentina to address serious concerns about the reliability of its official growth and inflation data. The fund has warned Kristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s government that failure to adequately address concerns could result in ‘additional measures’ being taken by the fund.
Tuesday 18 December
On Tuesday, imprisoned former Ukranian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is due back in court facing charges of embezzlement dating back to the 1990s. Convicted of abuse of power in October last year, she is currently awaiting the judgement of an appeal lodged with the European Court of Human Rights, which may be handed down as early as this month.
In The Hague, the International Criminal Court is scheduled to hand down its judgement in the case of Congolese militia leader Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, who stands accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Lastly, in the United States, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is due to speak at the National Press Club about challenges facing America’s military.
Wednesday 19 December
Wednesday is election day in South Korea. Leading candidates to replace Lee Myung-bak are Park Geun-hye of the incumbent New Frontier party, and Moon Jae-in of the liberal Democratic United party. Whether North Korea’s successful launch has an impact on the presidential poll remains to be seen; both figures have vowed to take a more conciliatory approach with Pyongyang than that taken under President Lee.
In France, an appeal court is due to decide whether or not pursue its investigation into suggestions that Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former IMF head and one-time French presidential contender, was involved in a prostitution ring. This follows last week’s settlement in New York of the civil case brought against Strauss-Kahn by Sofitel employee Nafissatou Diallo.
French President Francois Holland is due to begin an official a two-day visit to Algeria, where he is to meet his counterpart Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
In New York, the UN Security Council will have plenty to talk about at its regular monthly meeting on the Middle East.
Finally, there are further protests planned in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires against Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s policies.
Thursday 20 December
On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to hold an annual press conference where is likely to face questions on a raft of issues, not least his position on Syria as Russia appears to be distancing itself from Bashar al Assad’s regime.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, still holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, is due to speak to supporters.
Friday 21 December
On Friday, US President Barack Obama is scheduled to head to Hawaii, where he plans to spend the holidays with the First Family. However, it remains to be seen whether the impasse over fiscal cliff negotiations ends up forcing the president to stay in DC. As the New Year deadline looms, partisanship in the US capital shows no sign of abating.
In Italy, Mario Monti is due to hold his end of year press conference. He has vowed to step down as Prime Minister once he has pushed through next year’s budget, with elections now expected in February. It remains to be seen whether Silvio Berlusconi’s announcement that he plans to seek to lead Italy once more is enough to change Mr Monti’s mind.
Finally, Vladimir Putin is due to travel to Brussels for the EU-Russia summit.
Saturday 22 December
On Saturday, Egyptians are due to vote in the second phase of a referendum on the country’s new constitution, with opponents of President Mohamed Morsi urging people to reject the new constitution. Regardless of the result, more unrest seems certain.
Sunday 23 December
Finally, Japan’s Emperor Akihito turns 79 on Sunday. He traditionally meets with reporters on his birthday, and may be asked about regional tensions.
Some images courtesy of fotostory / Shutterstock.com.
]]>We will be discussing Kashmir’s future, the changing role of the foreign correspondent with The Guardian‘s Jonathan Steele, torture and the Arab Spring, and the coming presidential elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
A series of Film Africa documentaries look at the people of the Western Sahara and a community of women living in exile after being accused of witchcraft. There’s a film about the street vendor Mohammed Bouazizi who, by setting himself on fire, sparked an uprising in Tunisia, and another tells the story of the brother of Private McKinley Nolan and his quest to find out the truth about what happened to the missing G.I.s in Vietnam.
Following on from this month’s #fcbbca discussion on Israel, we will be discussing women and the Arab Spring at Westminster College’s Paddington Green Campus. The focus of our November First Wednesday discussion will be announced on Wednesday 26 October.
Follow us on Twitter and catch up on any events you missed on the Forum blogor download our podcasts on iTunes.
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A panel of experts and a packed audience discussed this at last night’s event, which was chaired by author and broadcaster Tom Fenton and in association with the BBC College of Journalism. You can listen to the podcast here or download from itunes.
Dina Matar, senior lecturer in Arab media and political communication at SOAS, said it would be difficult for state media to gain trust and credibility, particularly if they are associated with the old guard. It will take time before these questions can be answered and they will have to take place as part of wider institutional change, Matar said, adding that in countries like Tunisia and Egypt there have already been changes that were "sincere and quite deep":
In Egypt we have seen a change in the editors at some. of the state media, including Al-Ahram and we have seen a change in the language that is used by the old state media, which is now still under the same name but perhaps under a new editorship.
Other key problems that face the state media, and actually media in general in the Arab world, is the question of ethics, social responsibility, the question of what to write about, how to say things and I think there is a need for some form of regulation.
Faisal J. Abbas, who is a blogger for the Huffington Post, said "the simple answer is that there’s not going to be a future for Arab state-owned media":
I’m not with the notion that this is what many people are calling the social media revolution or a Facebook revolution, I don’t think it is. If you compare internet usage in the Arab world you find that 40 million Arabs used the internet last year, which is the equivalent of what Al Jazeera Arabic gets in one day. I think it’s a mixture of both.But if competition doesn’t take out the state-owned media the dictators which use them will soon dismantle them because they’ve proven useless.
Hugh Miles, award-winning investigative journalist specialising in the Middle East and North Africa, said the media in the Arab world was struggling with the same "technical" problems as the media in the West, including the rapid advances in the internet, changes in the way media is consumed which mean the old news model no longer works:
They also have another problem, which is a crisis of credibility, they are completely discredited. For years they’ve been trailing in popularity stakes behind Al Jazeera and also other private commercial channels.
State media in Tunisia and Egypt needs a large overhaul, it needs to reinvent itself and has a very large hill to climb in order to become competitive again [in the satellite market]. To be competitive they need to have the same ingredients as Al Jazeera has, which is a backer with bottomless pockets, a political environment which will tolerate freedom of speech and they need to be able to compete to attract the best staff.
Ayman Mohyeldin, Middle East-based correspondent for Al Jazeera English, said he was not a fan of the "marketing gimmick" of calling it the "Facebook" or "Twitter revolution but subscribed to the notion that the revolutions were "fuelled by information" which allowed Arab citizens to overcome fear:
]]>If it weren’t for the family of Mohammed Bouazizi, the fruit and vegetable seller who set himself on fire, if it weren’t for his family and friends who went to the streetsand protested that night and uploaded the video on the internet for other people in nearby villages to see, and if it weren’t for Al Jazeera thousands of miles away in their studios noticing and putting that image on and broadcasting it to the 40 million or 50 million people watching, other people in Tunisia would not have known that this happened.
The reason why is because they would have been watching state media and we all know that state media would have painted rather a different picture of Tunisia.