Citizen Journalism by Josh Mull

[The following post was published on Enduring America]

On April 9, President Obama sent his 2009 supplemental budget request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to Congress. Predictably, most of the media coverage was simply carried over and adapted from the previous battle over funding for the military.

For example, some attention has centered upon the stiff opposition to Secretary of Defense Gates’ decision not to order additional F-22 fighters. While this discussion is important, particularly on the usefulness of F-22 fighter planes in Iraq, there was something else in this supplemental budget that seems to have escaped notice.

We find this on page 6:

$0.8 billion to support the Palestinian people, strengthen the Palestinian Authority, and provide humanitarian assistance for the crisis in Gaza.

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[The following manifesto is reprinted from Small World News]

Award Winning Web Video from Small World News

I’d like to imagine a world where an alternative global video news and documentary network has been established. A network that enables those in the areas most at-risk from human-trafficking, destruction of the environment, availability of deadly weapons worldwide, and internal disputes due to ethnic rivalries, competition for resources, and others. Such a network might have enabled Iraqis to learn from Rwandans and others about the dangers of ethnic conflict, and alternate realities behind its origins. It could enable those at risk from genocide or ethnic cleansing to speak directly to the international community rather than, as in Darfur, forcing refugees to depend on NGOs and States with their own agendas at work.

But the best thing about such a network is that its possible now. The only thing that limits our capability to build such a network is a moderate amount of funding and a vision. With the affordability of DV equipment, and more and more, HD and mpeg4 equipment, a broadcast quality mobile production studio, with archiving capabilities, can be outfitted for well under $10,000.00.

I believe within a few years time we can create an international network, with community video units, aka “bureaus” operating in five regions or more, producing and distributing content for their local community. However, what gets me really excited, is knowing that utilizing the internet we can now broaden the reach of those teams to one that is truly global. We can create a new “60 Minutes” style program, where the stories are defined by those most affected, where using twitter and blog commenting and other outlets the viewers and community members alike can drive the discussion and offer questions and feedback.

But we can also broaden our reach beyond video, utilizing tools such as Utterli to enable members of the community to make radio reports on an individual basis(see our work on Alive in Gaza), or partner with Ushahidi to assist mobile phone users to contribute from areas where a video unit has worked recently or is preparing to travel.

We can utilize video to build a focus, a groundswell of attention, and then broaden to other social media tools that in some communities will be better suited for long-term and regular usage.

Alive in Baghdad, as one of the most award-winning, though arguably one of the least-funded, web video projects, has shown the viability, the strength of this medium. We can distribute the stories of individuals and communities in crisis across not only their community, country, or continent, but the globe. In so doing, we may be able to curb many of the great intractable issues of our day.

All we need to accomplish this is possess the will to do it and, as always, a little funding.

We need your support to make this happen. If you’re a grant writer, or you know grant writers, please write.

If you have suggestions about funding sources, or locations you’d like to see us put this model into action, please write.

If you have resources, whether funds, equipment, skills or otherwise that you’d like to contribute, please write.

Comment below or email us at smallworldnews at Gmail dot com, and let us know how you can help or give us your own testaments about our work.

Together we can imagine a world of many voices, a big world made small. Together we can build Small World News.

On behalf of my colleagues worldwide, from Kenya to Iraq, Mexico to Afghanistan, I look forward to working with you in the future,

Brian Conley

Director, Small World News

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[The following is an article written for the latest episode of the award winning web series Alive in Baghdad]

While westerners are busy wrestling with their own taboos of government intervention and racial politics, a different taboo is re-entering the consciousness of Iraqis. The improved security environment has allowed the alcohol trade to boom, and while Iraqis welcome the business momentum, they are once again forced to reconcile their dual identities as proud Muslims and vulnerable people grappling with the trauma and depression of war.

Even though it was commonly understood that Saddam Hussein and his inner circle regularly partook of alcohol, the sale of liquor was for the most part banned during his rule. The accepted reasoning behind this was to bolster Saddam’s image as a pious Islamic ruler. However, much like in the United States during its Prohibition period, liquor stores continued to operate in Iraq, albeit as unlicensed dealers on the black market. These underground liquor establishments suffered occasional harassment from Saddam’s security services, but after the American invasion and the anarchy that followed, the harassment escalated to new, hellish heights.

[Continue Reading at Alive in Baghdad]

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[The following is an unpublished blog for Alive in Baghdad]

Almost everyone in the West has an opinion about the media these days. Some say it is too biased toward one side or the other, others complain it downplays relevant issues in favor of the view points of politicians or corporate advertisers. What many in the West may not realize however is that these complaints wouldn’t be out of place in Iraqi society as well. Through authoritarian regimes and bitter civil war, Iraq’s media has emerged as a broad spectrum of ideas and information, and one not altogether unrecognizable to media consumers in the West.

Though its difficult to imagine in today’s “on demand” media rich environment, the number of Iraqi newspapers during the government of Abdul Karim Qasim in the 1940s and 1950s, and continuing through Saddam’s Ba’ath party, was no more than five. All of which were, of course, only favorable and never critical of the regime. Saddam enforced his control over the media aggressively and brutally, controlling newspapers, radio stations and at the top, the publishing companies. Journalists in Iraq today tell stories of their friends and colleagues kidnapped, tortured, or worse. Some journalists attempted to resist this control, even joining the Sadr Movement in its 1990s rebellion. Beyond the violence, Saddam’s iron grip on the media caused other problems as well. Iraqi citizens were more often than not left completely in the dark on important issues affecting them, instead left to suffice with Ba’ath party propaganda. Even the major Sports papers were under the direct control of Uday Hussein, Saddam’s son.

After Saddam was ousted by the American invasion, the number of Iraqi newspapers, television and satellite stations, and radio journalists did skyrocket from their pre-invasion level of five to over 200, operated by corporations and local political parties. Some were even completely independent publishers, such as Al-Sabah, a favorite among Iraqis for its excellence in covering the government. However, Iraqis soon found that a diverse and open media environment came with its own set of problems. Where once there was only four newspapers presenting one point of view, that of Saddam’s, there were now hundreds of news outlets for Iraqis to choose from, each with its own unique bias and point of view. Political parties such as Tareek Al-Sha’ab (the population path) compete openly with other outlets like Al-Basha’er newspaper, for better or worse.

The similarities with Western media go beyond the wild diversity of news outlets, the “tyranny of choice” as its often called. Many Iraqis also complain that news outlets are untrustworthy. Often a newspaper or radio station will only carry political propaganda at the expense of valuable information needed by the citizens. A common complaint focuses around the surging cholera epidemic. Iraqis are given very little helpful news on prevention or care for cholera outbreaks, instead left to choose from an assortment of political, corporate or sectarian propaganda.

Unfortunately, this is where the similarities to western media end. The backbone of this media industry is the Iraqis running the news stands, and they pay a hefty price just to remain in business day to day. Under the chaotic security of Iraq, sometimes simple transportation to and from work can be an exorbitant expense for Iraqi newsmen. These expenses are on top of the regular overhead like taxes paid to state and local governments. In addition, journalists and media workers often find themselves the targets of militias or gangs. For instance, Muntader al-Zaidi, the infamous Iraqi journalist “Shoe Thrower,” was himself a victim of the Mehdi Army’s torture chambers. Dangers like this are beyond comparison with the relative inconveniences faced by western media in their daily operation.

This week we bring you interviews with only a handful of Iraqi media insiders just to give you a glimpse of not only how startlingly similar Iraqi media is to the west,  but also how frighteningly different. See what it’s like to operate inside a flourishing media ecosystem, all while enduring tyrants, civil war, and occupation in this week’s episode of Alive in Baghdad.

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Just over a year ago, Ali Shafeya Al-Moussawi, a journalist and correspondent for Alive in Baghdad, received a knock at his door. It was just after 11:30 at night, outside Ali was greeted with an Iraqi National Guard convoy. Hearing gunshots, Ali’s neighbors frantically tried to reach him by phone, to no avail. When his cousin Amar finally arrived a few hours later, Ali was dead, shot to death in his own living room.

Horace Greeley once wrote that “journalism will kill you, but it will keep you alive while you’re at it.” No one understands this twisted fate more than the journalists of Iraq. From Saddam’s police state through the American invasion and occupation all the way through the darkest days of the civil war, Iraqi journalists have endured all manner of peril and treachery in their quest to deliver truth to the people, and in some cases, truth from the people.

After Saddam took control of Iraq in 1979, journalists lost all freedom to express their own views. Saddam’s Ba’ath party dominated all media – radio, newspapers, television, everything. Behind his long winded speeches on personal hygiene and endless slide shows of exotic flowers, Saddam ruthlessly persecuted any journalist he suspected of treason. Many were imprisoned, tortured or executed. Even after Saddam’s deposing in 2003 however, journalists in Iraq still found themselves on the wrong side of the powers that be.

During the American invasion, coalition forces had an unofficial policy of targeting journalists who were unwilling or unable to report from Iraq exclusively through it’s system of “embedded” reporters. While the US military viewed the process of embedding as simply one means of controlling battlefield information, many journalists questioned the ethics of siding so closely with one source, some even calling it propaganda. The response from coalition forces was not kind. Occupation forces weren’t the only threat they faced however. With the invasion came the civil war, and journalists were exposed to yet new terrors.

Though print and radio journalists were sometimes able to operate in relative anonymity, journalists in the booming satellite television news industry found themselves vulnerable to all manner of militant and criminal groups in Iraq. With their faces broadcast directly into the homes of millions of Iraqis, they quickly became a favored and convenient target for even the most unsophisticated militants in Iraq. Even without the exposure of satellite television Iraqi journalists still found little shelter from the violent chaos of the civil war. Ali is one such case.

On this first anniversary of our brave correspondent Ali Shafeya Al-Moussawi’s passing, we offer you this week’s episode in his memory. Hear the tales of just a handful of the Iraqi journalists fighting every day to report the truth from Baghdad, and in some cases, fighting just to stay alive in Baghdad.

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