Bahrain Analysis: The PR Game, the BBC, and Alkhawaja's Hunger Strike

The surprise news that resonated throughout Tuesday was the five-minute visit of BBC reporter Frank Gardner to detained human rights activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja on Day 83 of his hunger strike. The photograph of the meeting and Gardner's article testified to a thin but alert Alkhawaja, who maintained that he had been force-fed during the previous week but that he would continue his fast.

Opposition activists were pleased to see that Alkhawaja --- cut off from his family, his lawyer, and the Danish Ambassador for six days until the ban was lifted on Sunday, briefly missing from his room in the military hospital, and feared near death --- was sitting up and coherent. (The BBC went even farther in its article, reporting that Alkhawaja said he had been walking for three days.) But at the same time, some of those activists noted the regime's game in allowing the interview.

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Palestine Feature: Communications Minister Resigns Over Blocking of Websites (BBC)

Mahmoud AbbasThe communications minister of the Palestinian Authority has resigned, claiming it was trying to silence its critics and curb freedom of expression.

Mashour Abu Daqa said senior officials had ordered several opposition websites to be blocked over the past six months.

He said the moves were bad for the image of the PA in the modern world.

Security forces have also recently arrested four journalists and an activist who had criticised President Mahmoud Abbas and other officials.

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Bahrain Document: Activists Appeal to BBC and Sky Not to Broadcast Grand Prix

A cartoon by Carlos Latuff is converted into a mural in Barbar village

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With pressure mounting on Formula One to pull out of the forthcoming Bahrain Grand Prix, activists are beginning to target the organisations around the race. Earlier today, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and other Bahrain activists wrote a letter to the BBC and Sky --- who hold the broadcasting rights for the race --- calling on them not to broadcast the events on moral grounds. Speaking to the Guardian, Dr Ala'a Shehabi said of the campaign:

Formula One is all about advertising, marketing, it's more about the commercial side than the actual sport itself.

So we know that in broadcasting, you're encouraging all of the commercial interests in the sport which puts finance over human rights. That is what the major moral issue is here. If we can target the broadcasters, we can at least cut some of the possibility of profits made from advertising, at least.

The full text of the letter:

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April 12 2012

Mark Thompson, Director General of the BBC
Jeremy Darroch, Chief Executive, Sky

We are writing to ask you to consider canceling your planned televised coverage of the Formula One race in Bahrain on moral grounds and in consideration of the thousands of victims of state atrocities over the past year. On this small island, 85 people have been killed by security forces, and there are around 600 political prisoners. The majority of the people will not be watching or enjoying the race. In fact they will see it as a provocation.

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Iran Audio Feature: Scott Lucas with the BBC about Attack on UK Embassy

Last night I spoke with BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight about Tuesday's events in Tehran. The interview was too brief to get out some points --- I think one development behind the pressure on Britain, the "punching bag" for Tehran's fight-back against Western pressure, is the Iranian regime's uncertainty over the recent explosions at a Revolutionary Guards base and in Isfahan on Monday --- but hopefully it offers a few pointers to what happened and what happens next.

The discussion begins at the 40:13 mark.

Reflecting on 9-11: An EA Special Collection

Today and Monday, EA will be presenting a series of articles to prompt thought and discussion not only about the events of 11 September 2001 but about the US and the world from then to today.

Joseph Stiglitz: "A US Response More Costly Than the Attacks"
Tom Engelhardt: "Let's Put 9-11 Behind Us"
David Dunn: "What the War on Terror Has Cost the US...and Us" 
Scott Lucas: "Why 9-11 Was Not a Turning Point for the World" 

Scott Lucas: "A Discussion on the BBC"

Afghanistan Latest: 12 Dead in Suicide Attacks on British Council (Pajhwok and BBC))

Twelve people, including four suicide bombers, were killed and as many others wounded after multiple suicide bombers stormed the Cultural Centre of the British Consulate Friday, officials said....

It was a three-phase attack: First, a suicide attacker detonated his explosive vest at a main square in western Kabul where police were guarding a key intersection shortly after 05:30 (01:30 GMT).

Ten minutes later, a suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle outside the front gate of the British Council.

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Media Feature: Al Jazeera English Makes It to the US...Well, New York City (Stelter)

Every cable news channel has its moment.

CNN had the gulf war. Fox News had the war on terror. And Al Jazeera English had the Arab Spring.

But six months after widespread protests erupted in the Middle East, the Qatar-based Al Jazeera has not gained distribution on any major cable or satellite systems in the United States. The channel’s supporters say they feel it has been blacklisted; the distributors say they have to contend with limited channel space.

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Afghanistan: NATO Helicopters Break Taliban Siege of Intercontinental Hotel; At Least 18 Killed (Pajhwok News)

Complementing this report from Afghanistan's Pajhwok News, the BBC emphasises that the insurgents were killed by a NATO aerial attack on the rooftop of the Intercontinental Hotel. Afghanistan officials say one insurgent, hiding in a hotel room, subsequent blew himself up, also killing two police and a Spanish tourist.

Eight civilians, two policemen and eight Taliban fighters were among 18 killed in a suicide attack on the Kabul Intercontinental Hotel, the Ministry of Interior said.

The attack began around 10:30 PM Tuesday and lasted until 3:00 AM Wednesday morning.

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Iran Flashback Video: "Neda: An Iranian Martyr" (PBS/BBC)

Two years ago today, dozens of protesters were killed when Iranian security forces cracked down on public marches challenging the legitimacy of the 2009 Presidential election.

One of those slain was a philosophy student named Neda Agha Soltan.

This is the PBS/BBC documentary, from November 2009, on her death and on the post-election conflict in Iran.

See also The Latest from Iran (20 June 2009): From Rally to Street Fighting

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Explaining Iran (in Less than 5 Minutes): Scott Lucas on the BBC

Can the current political conflict in Iran be set out in less than five minutes? I attempted it this evening on the BBC's The World Tonight. 

The discussion starts at the 33:23 mark.