The BOBs: A Tunisian blog wins
For the past several years 27-year-old Tunisian Lina Ben Mhenni has been commenting in French, English and Arabic on her country’s social and political developments in a blog called atunisiangirl.blogspot.com. An instructor at Tunis University, Mhenni has been documenting Tunisia’s journey towards democracy following the revolution. During the protests in December 2010 and January 2011, she traveled to Sidi Bouzid and Kasserine to report on the repressions and violence there. Her blog was banned by the government for a long time and was only accessible outside the country. In October 2010, just three months prior to the revolution, Lina Ben Mhenni had taken part in the DW-AKADEMIE bloggers conference, the Young Media Summit, in Cairo.
This year DW-AKADEMIE and the German Information Center Cairo (Deutschland-Zentrum Kairo) will again be organizing a conference for bloggers in the Egyptian capital. Eighteen Arab and German bloggers will meet from May 24 – 26 for the second Young Media Summit to discuss and blog about “New Media and Reform in the Arab World.” The Arab participants come from Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Syria, Bahrain, Palestine, Lebanon and Yemen.
The participants will write about their discussions on the summit’s online platform as well as on their own blogs. They will also research specific topics, such as the changing role between Egyptian citizens and the state, and the role of women during the revolution and thereafter.
“The situation in Egypt has completely changed since the last conference so participants will be able to speak even more freely than the last time,” says DW-AKADEMIE project manager Jens-Uwe Rahe. “Many bloggers and Internet users are now asking themselves how they can contribute in the long run to the changes in their country and society.”
During the closing podium discussion, which will be open to the public, the Young Media Summit 2011 participants will present their results and discuss them with members of the audience. The event is to be held May 26, 2011 at Cairo University’s Faculty of Mass Communication and is entitled “Between Tahrir Square, Facebook and Al Jazeera: People and Media in the Arab Revolution”. Deutsche Welle’s Arab-language broadcaster, DW-TV ARABIA, will also produce a one-hour talk show in which Arab and German conference participants will discuss these and related issues with a young audience. The program will be broadcast May 27, 2011 on DW-TV ARABIA.