One of the key elements of our original blog question was to investigate the relationships between improving media freedom and new digital technologies. Global Voices Online started as a simple blog, but has trancended into an online medium for groups all around the world, who might normally be ingored by the mainstream media.
One of the projects facilitied by this website is Blog about Jordan day which was celebrated on March 12th. Typically , Jordan rarely features positively on the global news agenda, but this day encouraged Jordanian bloggers to post words, pictures and videos of their country.
March 12th saw Jordanian bloggers coming together to tackle tough political questions about the country, as well as celebrating it's culture and natural beauty.
With only 16% of Jordanians having access to the internet and heavy government restrictions on Internet content, such a day as this one is important in that it allows bloggers to air their views on the country in a way that would not normally be allowed in print or broadcast media.
A high proportion of bloggers participating in the day were Jordanian ex-pats, but many of the contributors were residents of the state, one of whom Princess N tells of the political and criminal unrest within the country She says:
Since when does a brother kill his brother for raping his own sister? Since when does a girl kill all her family members for 30 Jds? Since when do we accept prostitution? Since when do we accept Jordanian Gays Blogs? Since when do we accept seeing our youngsters every Monday and Thursday night drunk in bars? Since when is Jordan filled with such amount of fraud cases? Since when do you see such amount of beggars at the traffic lights? Since when does a sentence that says “the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer” describes our beloved country Jordan? Since when do neighbors do not know each other? Since when do our children compete about who’s dad has more money? Since when does Jordan get bombed? Since when do we get checked when entering a mall or a hotel? Since when does with every new assigned prime minister comes a petroleum raise? Since when do we have 3 people dying everyday from car accidents? Since when are we rated the most expensive Arab country? Since when do we not care?
Global Voices Online uses it’s sister arm Rising Voices to set up projects which give people in countries where media is restricted a voice or an outlet to air their views. In January, over 270 applications were made for media grants, the highest number in the charity’s two years of operation. Out of the applications, the folliwing five projects were chosen:
- Blog camps in Abidijan on the Ivory Coast
- Ceasefire Liberia-a new transatlantic blogging community
- Shenyang digital documentary-training local sexworkers to manage blogs in order to raise the profile of the issues in this part of China
- An environmentalist online network in Mongolia-highlighting desertification and farming issues
- Female media training in the Yemen
It is clear by the demand for project grants, that social media and citizen journalism can help to bring about social change, which could ultimately improve and defend media freedom across the world, however, in only giving five grants, it would seem that there is a lack of capital funding for the multitude of potential projects, meaning that there is still more scope for different voices to be heard within the global news arena.
Fair Comment 