A moment in history, a MULTICAST!
30 Apr, 2007 
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The next session, which I am part of, is supposed to make history in that it is going to be broadcast on Al-Jazeera live, Abu Dhabi TV, on BBC radio and streamed on bbcarabic.com and will accept not only audience participation but also through email.
The interesting thing is that Egyptian judge who is suing 21 Egyptian blogs is supposed to make an appearance via satellite. Other than the plagiarism issue, do you have any other issues you would like to put to him?
Send your questions (and plenty of them!) to hewar@bbc.co.uk
Somebody go and tell the Egyptian bloggers about this please!
It should be interesting. Obviously I’ll blog about them later.
update: the guy chickened out and sent his lawyer in his stead who successfully epitomised and justified all those jokes about lawyers.
What Egyption bloggers are left to tell? Even Sandmonkey hung up his keyboard!
Mahmood, I am going to post this on FreeKareem.org, and I hope that the issue of Kareem is raised, and possibly Monem as well though I am not sure if this judge played a role in Monem’s arrest. But definitely played a significant role in Kareem’s trials and his sentence, so it’s a very big issue.
http://mahmood.tv/2007/04/30/a-moment-in-history-a-multicast/
this should be interesting now that you decided to quit blogging
best of luck in everything :sideways:
wanted to send that to a friend
loooooooool
something is totally wrong with me!
is it ADD or What?!
somebody help :w00t:
no problem, it happens!
If he knew he was right he wouldn’t be so scared. But the opposite is true – since he knows he’s so unbelievably wrong at this point and that the evidence against him is overwhelming… of course he doesn’t want to make an appearance! But he’s embarrassed enough as it is and didn’t feel like having others prove him wrong, yet again, like they did in the past and like they will in the future. He needs to swallow his pride and admit his mistakes for once and for all. This is putting the lives of innocent people at stake – it’s no laughing matter, he should realize this.
It’s such a shame he wasn’t willing to do this… but at least now we know that he’s scared. And that’s more than enough to prove those against him right.
I hope the judge (or his representative) gets an earful. He needs to know how limiting speech is limiting progress in Egypt. A country that treats it’s own poorly will never treat their neighbors well. We should stop being concerned with a nation’s external foreign policy if they are still subjogating their people. This is the thinking that the US had in the past while turning a blind eye to tyrants. Nothing changes internally and the abuses continue. The US aid to Egypt (like $1.7 billion per year) should be tied to internal reforms.
Arab information ministers recently adopted a “Charter of Principles” seeking to regulate satellite broadcasts, raising fears among media circles of a concerted move to muzzle stations. Some implications are already visible: Clock TV — owned by Lebanese and Libyan investors — canceled plans to start a new talk show called “Hour by Hour,” after the Egyptian government objected to it, apparently because it feared it would become a new voice of criticism. “Free speech in Egypt will not be the only victim here, it’s the whole Arab world,” said Khairi Ramadan, who was to host “Hour by Hour,” dubbing the charter a “huge step backward.” “There are serious fears of this charter and the bigger danger is to come.”
Launched in this backdrop in a week when the OIC summit is held, can BBC Arabic with its 70 years engagement with the Arab audience signal a huge step forward?
One wonders how in its interaction with the OIC leaders it upholds, promotes and strengthens the cause of free speech through raising awareness and prompting mobilization.