Category Archives: Media Access

Egyptian Reporter is Detained

Posted on December 9, 2013 by | Leave a comment

The Egyptian constitution claims that it has a free media system, however this is not the case because there have been many situations in the past going against what a free media system stands for. Reporters know not to report on controversial issues for the fear of getting in trouble. Recently, a Coptic Christian activist and journalist was arrested on suspicion of instigating religious strife.  A Coptic Christian describes someone who is a member of The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, which is the largest Christian church in Egypt and all of the Middle East. The most practiced religion in Egypt is Islam so this reporter was creating some red flags for authorities from his religious standpoint alone.

BishoyArmia

The reporter’s name is Bishoy Armia and he is described as the most well known person from his nation to publicly convert from Islam to Christianity. It is rumored that he was working for a US-based Christian television station. When he was arrested, sources say that he had a camera and four flash drives in his possession. The reason authorities gave for arresting him was that Armia was supposedly taking footage back to the United States to portray the image that there is violence against Christians in Egypt. He was taken to jail and was order a two-week detainment for questioning. Authorities claim that the reporter took footage of Christian churches being torched back in August.  Although the authorities have claimed they arrested him for creating religious strife, many citizens think that it has more to do with him changing his religion. Many people fear for Armia’s safety and are certain that he will be beaten and tortured during his detainment.

It seems that the culture in Egypt is very attached to its Islamic roots and feels threatened by people who test the boundaries. Whether this man is being persecuted in Egypt due to what he was reporting on or what his religious beliefs are, it is definitely interesting and sad to learn about.

Sources:

http://www.mfs-theothernews.com/2013/12/noted-christian-convert-in-egypt-bishoy.html

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2013/Dec-06/240154-egypt-detains-coptic-christian-reporter-state-media.ashx#axzz2n2H5Yy00

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Mobile Phones in Morocco

Posted on December 9, 2013 by | 4 comments

Morocco Cell Phone

New studies show that with a population of 32 million, Morocco as 36.55 million mobile phone users. Despite the statistics showing a 100% penetration rate, that number is impossible. Many citizens in rural areas have no means to use or acquire a cell phone, and there are many Moroccans who are either too young or too old to need a mobile device, let alone operate one. The answer to this intriguingly high number; the high use of pre paid sim cards on multiple networks make its very hard to track when a device becomes inactive and the user switches to another. This leads to the appearance of singular customers operating multiple devices.

Still, these numbers are incredibly impressive considering Morocco only recently joined the mobile phone boom. Despite having only relatively recently been exposed to mobile phone use, Moroccans seems to have skipped over television and radio in favor of mobile news; so much in fact, that in Morocco, mobile phone users account for 81% of all internet users. Experts project that the mobile phone boom will only continue in Morocco, leading to a stronger emphasis of mobile news through Northern Africa.

Source:

http://riadzany.blogspot.com/2012/01/morocco-mobile-phone-mania.html

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Posted in Media Access, Morocco

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Egypt and Morocco among Top 5 Tweeting Nations in Africa

Posted on December 7, 2013 by | 12 comments

How Africa Tweets

In a recent study done by the blog Portland, Egypt and Morocco ranked 4th and 5th, respectively, in Africa for number of twitter users. Egypt tallied 1,214,000 tweeters, while Morocco recorded 745,000. In all of Africa, 68% of people said they used twitter primarily to monitor news and events in their region. In contrast to much of the West, however, most of those who use twitter in Africa are in their twenties. This highlights the overriding youth moment in media technology that is sweeping across much of Northern Africa.

As social media becomes a bigger and bigger platform for dialogue to take place, young adults throughout Northern Africa are using there mobile phones as a way to communicate with the rest of the world. Adding to this young average age is the surprising discovery only a very small percent of public figures in North Africa use twitter. Those who do, however, have attracted very large followings, as the activists of North Africa hope to begin to use twitter as a means to engage in dialogue with their regions most influential leaders. As twitter has begun to play a larger and larger role in the liberation of Egypt and other North African countries, Africans are beginning to flock by the masses to the social media network as a means to more closely connect the people of Africa and to eventually progress the continent further into the digital age.

Sources:

http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2012/02/25246/morocco-5th-most-active-twitter-user-in-africa/

http://www.portland-communications.com/publications/the-quarterly-issue-6/how-africa-tweets/

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Posted in Egypt, Media Access, Morocco

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A Decade for Education: Raising literacy rates in Morocco

Posted on December 3, 2013 by | 10 comments

Literacy Reform
In the late months of 1999, the Moroccan government came face to face with a huge problem; its nation’s education system had reached an all time high in gender disparity, and dropout rates. This, combined to a severe lack of leadership, had lead to increased exodus of skilled workers, and threatened to bring the Moroccan market to its knees, and as 1999 came to a close, action was more necessary than ever. The government responded by launching possibly its most successful enterprise to date, the “decade for education.” From 2000 to 2009, education was established as a national priority; equity was established, investments were made, and educational infrastructure was rebuilt.

Thirteen years later, Morocco’s education system is as successful as ever. Enrollment rates have almost doubled, and the gender gap has been narrowed to just 3.5 percent. In the last year alone, more than 735,000 Moroccans have benefited from literacy and education programs established during the Decade of Education, a record in Moroccan history.  In fact, Morocco’s reforms have been so successful that last year UNESCO awarded Morocco honorable mention for the 2012 UNESCO Confucius Prize, given to nations who show outstanding improvement in advancing literacy rates.

The Education reforms have centered on rebuilding the infrastructure of Morocco’s education system, and allowing for greater access, especially at the lowest levels. Between 10,000 and 40,000 teachers were trained every year and several NGOs were instructed in project management. The Moroccan government closely monitored these trainings, maintaining a solid standard throughout the country. The result, a rise in primary education rates from 52.4% to 98.2%.

Recently, World Bank lent its hand toward continuing the progress made in Morocco, offering a $100 million loan to support the policies of the education reform. After receiving a report from its Sector Team, World Bank has decided to deliver yet another $100 million finance to Morocco in efforts to finish the job that has been started.

Sources:

http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2013/09/11/maintaining-momentum-on-education-reform-in-morocco

http://magharebia.com/en_GB/articles/awi/features/2013/01/08/feature-04

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Egypt: The growing role of Twitter

Posted on December 1, 2013 by | 12 comments

It was not too long ago that Egyptians saw their access to twitter and Facebook blocked under the regime of Hosni Mubarak. Throughout the civil unrest of 2011 and 2012, Mubarak revoked access to Twitter and Facebook in an attempt to prevent social media from stimulating unrest, even going so far as to restrict blackberry internet aces throughout the country. Much has changed in the years following, as access to social media in Egypt has grown, allowing coverage of recent revolts to go viral across the Internet, perhaps most prominently through Twitter.

In the summer on 2013, Twitter “coverage” of the strife in Egypt became so widespread that Twitter began using a “tweet translation” service that allowed users to read highlighted tweets by notable Egyptian accounts in the users own language. Twitter ran the tweets through the @Egypt2013 account, which had been created to streamline the highly demanded coverage of Egypt.

Among the Egyptian accounts included in the translation service belong to Egyptian President Muhammed Morsi (@MuhammedMorsi). Unlike his predecessors, Morsi supported the use of Twitter, and often used the social media site as a tool to connect to Egypt’s youth. In April of 2013, Morsi went so far as to use Twitter to respond to criticism of his lack of democratic reforms. Through a tweet on the Egyptian Presidency’s twitter, Morsi offered to answer question from twitter users sent to his personal account.

Muhammed Morsi's twitter account

Muhammed Morsi’s twitter account

In just a few years, Egyptian government moved from imposing heavy restrictions on social media to embracing those same social media sites as a means to communicate with citizens. Despite government efforts to increase social media usage in Egypt, on 35% of the population have Internet access and an even smaller percentage (14.5) use social media.

 

Sources:

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/10/17693090-egypts-morsi-uses-twitter-to-talk-to-youth

http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/follow-egypt-unrest-using-experimental-twitter-translator-6C10551493

http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats1.htm

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