Where Is The Media Attention?

Earlier this month, Khaled Abu Toameh wrote a very interesting article for Hudson New York, in which he points out that media coverage of the violation of press freedoms in Arab countries is more than underwhelming. He cites rather unheard-of cases in Saudi Arabia and Morocco, and the Egyptian government's wide-spread suppression of media voices that it doesn't like to hear - the case of Abdel Karim Suleiman comes to mind - and notes that in the mean-time, Israel's flirtation with rather milder versions of the same in regards to certain Al-Jazeera journalists in the past has received international outcry.

Here's the money-quote:

"Such practices against the media have always been commonplace in the Arab world. But the feeling among Arab journalists is that the Arab dictators have decided to step up the campaign against the media. As long as the West continues to turn a blind eye to such practices, independent and brave journalists will become an endangered species in the Arab world."

Khaled raises an excellent point. There are repeated violations of freedom of speech and assembly in some parts of the Middle East. They deserve much more coverage than they receive.

Walker Morrow is a Contributing Writer for The Propagandist