November 14, 2015, Boston, MA. Peace Islands Institute (PII) in Boston organized a conference in conjunction with the Boston College Islamic Civilization and Societies Program to discuss the Freedom of Press in the Middle East. The three panels focused on topics such as media censorship, ethics and safety as well as social media.
The keynote speaker, Dr. Noam Chomsky, Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology highlighted the challenges and conditions of press freedom in Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. He also discussed the recent events regarding of the Turkish government’s shutdown of media outlets, the takeover of Ipek Media Group as well as the war in Syria.
Stephen Kinzer, Fmr. Istanbul Bureau Chief of New York Times and Pulitzer award-winner, discussed the freedom in Iran and Turkey, in particular, the regression of the Turkish democracy under the current regime. Mohamad Elmasry, an analyst, explained the transitions Egypt has experienced in recent years and Kerim Balci, Columnist and editor-in-chief of Turkish Review focused on the power of the Turkish government and its control over the media.
In the second panel, Hasan Cemal, Founder of P24 Media shared his vision of Turkey upon hearing the raids of the Turkish government on BugunTV and other critical newspapers. Dr. Maggy Zanger, Professor at University of Arizona and Nada Alwadi, a journalist at IREX, gave lectures on journalism in and press freedom in Bahrain.
The third panel discussion was presented by Lina ben Mhenni, 2011 Nobel Peace Prize nominee; Dr. Chris A. Bail, Assistant Professor of Sociology in Duke University and Nate Schenkkan, Project Director for Nations in Transit at Freedom House highlighted the role of social media in the Middle East. Mr. Bail, explained how anti-Islam organizations drive their campaigns while Ms. Mhenni explained the state of media freedom in Tunisia.
