Syria Feature: The Life and Death of a Citizen Journalist (Hanano)

On April 25, 2011, a man held up a video camera in Deraa. He was not an experienced videographer and he did not have a tripod.

He stood in front of a group of Syrian army soldiers with tanks and filmed them shooting their machine guns towards civilian targets. Each time he watched the clip on his laptop, he noticed the footage was shaky due to his trembling hand, so he would go back to his exposed vantage point to film once more.

He did this 24 times before he made this passably stable clip:

His name was Mohamed “Abu al-Nimer” Masalmeh.

On January 18, 2013 --- after 22 months of reporting as a citizen journalist from Deraa --– he was killed by army snipers in the village of Busra al-Harir

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Iran Video Special: The Fire Under the Ashes

Al Jazeera journalists secretly film inside Iran, interviewing the families of those slain in the protests since the 2009 Presidential election and the activists maintaining the hope for change:

Tunisia Latest: Today's Election

See also Tunisia Video: What Happens If No One Votes? The Return of Ben Ali....

UPDATE 1645 GMT: The head of the electoral commission, Kamel Jendoubi, has announced that the turnout is approaching 70% and is near 80% in some districts. He said results would be declared on Tuesday.

UPDATE 1015 GMT: Two videos from today's voting --- Al Jazeera English correspondent Nazenine Moshiri outlines the system and talks to a voter:

Rached Ghannouchi, the leader of the al-Nahda Party, is told to get in the queue for voting after he apparently tried to cut into the line. Some in the crowd shout "Degage (Get out)!", the chant used against former President Ben Ali during the January uprising:

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Syria Video Special: The Assault on Lattakia

Since Friday, the Syrian regime seems to have a new target, Lattakia, on the coast of Syria, where larger and larger protests have been forming since the start of Ramadan, or even before. On Sunday, between 23 and 25 people have been reportedly killed.

See Also, Libya, Syria (and Beyond) Liveblog: The Fight for Zawiya

Verifying Sources in the Era of Amateur Video (Zalman)

Yemen Special: Al Qaeda Making Ricin? (Schmitt/Shanker)

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Security forces are reportedly surrounding the Almhati mosque:

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Egypt Special: EA's Scott Lucas on Inside Story on Al Jazeera English

UPDATE 1730 GMT: Inside Story has been postponed. I think that's a fair decision in the circumstances.

I will be appearing at 1730 GMT on Inside Story on Al Jazeera English, discussing the latest situation in Egypt. More details when I get back from the recording, but the programme will be available via the live feed on the EA site.

Newsflash! Al Jazeera Turk is Coming...

On 1 February, Al Jazeera Turk placed a $21 million bid  to take over a national TV station, Cine-5, known primarily for showing football matches to paying customers. The bid was put to the side as the Saving Deposit Insurance Fund set a minimum of $40 million for tenders, but on Thursday, Al Jazeera Turk's revised offer of $40.5 million was accepted.

Turkey has also CNN Turk, which was founded in 1999. For some, the entry of Al Jazeera Turk into the national arena is welcomed for increased competition and the quality; for others, it is a sign of Ankara's rising importance and autonomy in the region. 

Egypt Special: A Lesson Learned About Twitter From Al Jazeera

Twitter is just another communication tool, there to be leveraged by anyone with the will and the ambition. Yet just as Al Jazeera’s coverage of Egypt would sound ridiculous if described as "Television Revolution", so do straw=man notions of a "Twitter Revolution" in Iran, or indeed anywhere else. The Twitter of 2011 looks like it will become a mature, integrated part of the media landscape: if protesters in Tahrir Square did not have access, it still had a role to play in bringing the story to the outside world.

The jury’s still out on what Al Jazeera’s rise in prominence meant for the people of Egypt. As with Iran in 2009, we may never know just how many people inside the country were getting their information from these sources. But the jury is definitely in on how the channel has benefited greatly from positioning itself as the source of information from Egypt among mainstream news outlets, and it can thank social media for a pivotal influence in this rise.

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Egypt Snap Analysis: Into the Week of Revolution

Al Jazeera English summarises Friday in eight words: "No Sign of an End to the Confrontation".

The anti-regime movement appears to have consolidated its immediate position. After Thursday's deadly attacks by pro-Mubarak forces, Friday passed relatively peacefully. The anti-regime demonstrators established a cordon of barriers around Tahrir Square in Cairo, the centre of the resistance to President Mubarak, and these plus the bolstered presence of the Army kept pro-Mubarak groups at bay. There was still fighting in the side streets, but only a couple of dozen injuries were reported by Friday night.

Inside Tahrir Square, more than a million (how many millions?) people --- after lining up for hours to get through security checkpoints set up by the protesters --- were in the Square, offering dramatic images of mass chanting and a Friday Prayer that awed even the most jaded of observers.

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Egypt (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Towards the Day of Departure

0540 GMT: Now see Thursday's LiveBlog: "The Battle of Tahrir Square".

0536 GMT: The pro-regime protesters and thugs have not left Cairo yet. Some of them have taken over tall buildings and are throwing Molotov cocktails and rocks at democracy protesters below outside of Tahrir Square. 

This has not stopped hundreds of protesters from continuing to join democracy protesters in Tahrir Square, swelling up their numbers.  

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Egypt (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Will a Million March?

0522 GMT: We can now confirm that there will be a countrywide protest in Egypt on Friday. The day has been dubbed the "Friday of Departure" and it aims to force President Hosni Mubarak to once and for all quit and leave the country. 

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