The Real Net Effect: The Saudi Regime Tries to Control Social Media (Mutter)

Hamza KashgariMedia monitoring, as practiced by governments in Libya, Bahrain, Egypt, Syria and Iran (to name a few), is not so much enforced by datacenters, wiretaps and informants but by searches of TV stations by police, days in a holding cell and the warrant officer's truncheon. The technology, of course, plays an increasingly vital role, not least because it makes it so much easier to prepare a mound of "evidence" to the prosecution's satisfaction. As Sultan Al Qassemi notes, governments and their supporters are becoming more social media savvy too.

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The Real Net Effect and Libya: The Information Campaign against the Qaddafi Regime (Pollock)

Watch live streaming video from libya17feb at livestream.com

The last broadcast of Mohammed Nabbous on Libya Alhurra TV on 19 March 2011 --- he was killed later that day, recording a firefight in Benghazi

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The war against Qaddafi was fought with global brains, NATO brawn, and Libyan blood. But it took brains and blood to get the brawn. On February 18, three days into the protests that would swell into the successful revolt against the regime, Libya went offline. Internet and cell-phone access was cut or unreliable for the duration, and people used whatever limited connections they could. In Benghazi, Mohammed "Mo" Nabbous realized he had the knowledge and the equipment, from an ISP business he had owned, to lash together a satellite Internet uplink. With supporters shielding his body from potential snipers, Nabbous set up dishes, and nine live webcams, for his online TV channel Libya Alhurra ("Libya the Free"), running 24/7 on Livestream.

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Syria Video Special: Interview of Paul Conroy, Survivor of Baba Amr

Sky News interviews The Sunday Times photographer Paul Conroy, injured in the attack in Baba Amr, Homs, that killed American journalist Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik.

See Also Syria Opinion: "There Are Many Others Who Await Homs' Fate"
Friday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: "Assad Will Have to Kill Us All"

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The Guardian partially transcribes the interview:

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From Libya to Bahrain to Syria: Anthony Shadid on Conflict, Protest, and Humanity

Anthony Shadid has died on assignment for The New York Times in eastern Syria.

Shadid was one of the international correspondents whom we most admired. In November, we posted a report from his previous undercover travels in Syria, "The Spectre of Civil War in Homs". In September, he had analysed, "Ankara Offers Itself as the Answer in the Middle East". And in October, he had interviewed people in Sitra in Bahrain --- including an EA correspondent to offer their thoughts, "We Are Still Here. We Are Demanding. We Exist."

This was Shadid's last despatch, "Libya Struggles to Curb Militias as Chaos Grows", published by The Times on 8 February:

As the militiamen saw it, they had the best of intentions. They assaulted another militia at a seaside base here this week to rescue a woman who had been abducted. When the guns fell silent, briefly, the scene that unfolded felt as chaotic as Libya’s revolution these days — a government whose authority extends no further than its offices, militias whose swagger comes from guns far too plentiful and residents whose patience fades with every volley of gunfire that cracks at night.

The woman was soon freed. The base was theirs. And the plunder began.

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James Miller speaks to Al Jazeera about the Free Syrian Army

See Also, Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Conflict In the Capital?
Syria Video Feature: How Can You Get News Out of the Country? (Al Jazeera English)

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EA Worldview's US Editor James Miller was interviewed by Al Jazeera's Meenakshi Ravi for an episode of The Listening Post. The topic was the Free Syrian Army's emergence into media and propaganda, and the realities of covering the crisis in Syria.

Other guests included Foreign Policy editor David Kenner, Al Jazeera correspondent Anita McNaught, and author Marwan Kraidy.

Also featured in the programme is a story about the media in Bahrain, and a feature on a video game that simulates war reporting.

Syria Video Feature: How Can You Get News Out of the Country? (Al Jazeera English)

On Saturday, EA's James Miller will appear on Al Jazeera English's Listening Post, discussing the task of obtaining and assessing reliable video of events in the Syrian conflict.

In the meantime, we feature the latest episode of Listening Post, detailing the difficulties for journalists inside the country.

The Real Net Effect: The Paid Bloggers and Trolls for Russia's Putin (Elder)

The existence of on-line fronts, of fictional individuals or of people paid to post, has long been suggested but seldom proved. Howver, as more and more corporations, governments, and organisations keen to shape public perceptions, further evidence of such online manipulation may be left behind. Writing for The Guardian, Miriam Elder looks at a campaign in Russia to inflate the status of Vladimir Putin, seeking the mirage that he is very, very popular amongst Russian citizens.

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Polishing Putin: Hacked E-mails Suggest Dirty Tricks by Russian Youth Group
Miriam Elder

A pro-Kremlin group runs a network of internet trolls, seeks to buy flattering coverage of Vladimir Putin and hatches plans to discredit opposition activists and media, according to private emails allegedly hacked by a group calling itself the Russian arm of Anonymous.

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EA Audio: Scott Lucas with BBC on SOPA & Wikipedia's 24-Hour Strike

In a protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), now working their way through Congress, Wikipedia and hundreds of website are going "dark" on Wednesday.

Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of the on-line encyclopedia, said the legislation would make "something like Wikipedia essentially impossible...if the provider has to police everything that everyone is doing on the site."

Speaking with BBC West Midlands, Scott Lucas explains why SOPA is being proposed and why it is considered by many as a threat to freedom of expression on the Internet.

The discussion starts just after the 1:42.00 mark.

The Real Net Effect: How States Fail at the Manipulation of Social Media (York)

When a state --- be it Bahrain, Israel, Syria or China --- needs to stoop to the level of paying citizens to fight its public relations wars, it has already lost.

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Meet EA's Newest Correspondent: Dear Leader Kim Jong Un on the Iowa Caucus

We were all very sad at EA WorldView when we heard the news that Glorious Leader Kim Jong Il of North Korea would be looking at things no more.

However, we were soon cheered up. Kim Jong Un, the new Dear Leader, has joined EA in embracing social media to comment on all the news that is fit to satirise, taking to Twitter like a Republican no-hoper to a Presidential election year. This week, between sharing his love for the band Creed and the actress Jennifer Love Hewitt, Kim Jong Un --- or @KimJongNumberUn to his followers --- offered the following rather acute overview of the Iowa Caucus and ongoing Republican campaign:

We promise more nuggets of analysis from this brilliant, youthful, dictatorial mind over the coming months.