IRevolution: Online Warriors of the Arab Spring

Last updated

iRevolution: Online Warriors of the Arab Spring is a documentary on Arab Spring in Bahrain (also known as the Bahraini uprising) prepared by journalist Amber Lyon and a team of producers for CNN. The documentary has aired only once on CNN US channel, to a positive reception. It has not been aired since, and it has never aired on CNN International. It has been claimed that Bahrain influenced CNNi to suppress it, and subsequently CNNi has been accused of biased coverage of the Bahraini revolution in general, and of suppressing (censoring) Lyon's critical documentary in particular. CNNi has denied those accusations.

Contents

Documentary

The documentary has been prepared by a four-person team with investigative correspondent Amber Lyon and producers Scott Bronstein and Taryn Fixel, and producer-cameraman Leon Jobe for CNN. [1] The group arrived in Bahrain in March 2011, to document the ongoing Arab Spring events there, the Bahraini uprising. [1] A number of individuals the team was posed to interview have been already arrested, others, such as activist Nabeel Rajab, faced arrests and persecution after meeting with the journalists. [1] The journalists themselves were subject to several hours of forced detention, and had some of their footage deleted. [1] The remaining Bahraini footage was edited into a 13-minute segment in the documentary. [1] The segment is highly critical of the Bahrain's authorities. [1]

The 1-hour documentary cost CNN about $100,000, which is said to be significantly more than the average cost of such a film. [1] As of 14 September 2012, the documentary has been aired only once, on 19 June 2011 at 8pm on the United States CNN channel. [1]

The documentary won a 2012 Gold Medal from New York Festival's Best TV and Films. [1] Amber Lyon and the documentary's producer Taryn Fixel, were also finalists in the 2011 Livingston Awards for Young Journalists. [1]

Controversy

The documentary has not been broadcast since its initial showing on US CNN; notably, it has not been shown on the CNN International, which has wide coverage in the Middle East. [1] Despite various inquiries, CNNi has not provided any explanation as to why it has not aired the documentary. [1] After Amber Lyon met with CNNi president Tony Maddox, she was eventually ordered not to discuss this issue any further. [1] According to Lyon, who remained an outspoken on-air critic of Bahrain's government, the Bahrain authorities has complained numerous times to CNNi about the documentary in general and Lyon activities in particular, although officially Bahrain has refused to confirm or deny that it did so. [1] [2] It has been alleged that CNNi has been influenced by Bahraini-funded public relations campaigns. [1]

In March 2012, CNN fired Lyon, officially as part of a reorganization of its documentaries division. [1] After Lyon made further comments about the documentary on her Twitter account, her agent has been contacted by CNN representatives who threatened to cut her severance payments and insurance benefits if she would continue discussing the documentary. [1] CNN has since refused to confirm or deny that it threatened Lyon in that way. [1]

CNNi has been accused of biased coverage of the Bahraini revolution in general, and of suppressing (censoring) Lyon's critical documentary in particular. [1] [3] CNNi has denied those claims. [4] CNNi denial has been criticized as misleading by journalists Glenn Greenwald and Cory Doctorow, [5] [6] who were in the forefront of bringing this matter to the public's attention through their coverage of the issue in September 2012. [1] [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cory Doctorow</span> Canadian-British blogger, journalist and author (born 1971)

Cory Efram Doctorow is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who served as co-editor of the blog Boing Boing. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons organization, using some of its licences for his books. Some common themes of his work include digital rights management, file sharing, and post-scarcity economics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CNN International</span> International news television channel

Cable News Network International or CNN International is an international television channel and website, owned by CNN Worldwide. CNN International carries news-related programming worldwide; it cooperates with sister network CNN's national and international news bureaus. Unlike its sister channel, CNN, a North American-only subscription service, CNN International is carried on a variety of TV platforms across the world, and broadcast from studios inside and outside the United States, in Atlanta, New York City, London, Mumbai, Hong Kong, and Abu Dhabi. In some countries, it is available as a free-to-air network. The service is aimed at the overseas market, similar to BBC News, France 24, CGTN, DW, RT, WION, NHK World, TRT World or Al Jazeera English.

Boing Boing is a website, first established as a zine in 1988, later becoming a group blog. Common topics and themes include technology, futurism, science fiction, gadgets, intellectual property, Disney, and left-wing politics. It twice won the Bloggies for Weblog of the Year, in 2004 and 2005. The editors are Mark Frauenfelder, David Pescovitz, Carla Sinclair, and Rob Beschizza, and the publisher is Jason Weisberger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Gregory (journalist)</span> American television journalist and presenter

David Michael Gregory is an American television personality and the former host of NBC News' Sunday morning talk show Meet the Press. Gregory has served as a CNN political analyst since 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nic Robertson</span> British journalist

Nic Robertson is the international diplomatic editor of CNN.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hala Gorani</span> American-Syrian journalist (born 1970)

Hala Basha-Gorani is an American journalist, working as a correspondent for NBC News. Previously she was an anchor and correspondent for CNN International, based in London. She is also a war correspondent. She previously anchored CNN's Hala Gorani Tonight weeknights at 8 p.m. CET. Gorani co-hosted Your World Today with Jim Clancy until February 2009 and then International Desk until April 2014 from CNN's Atlanta headquarters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human rights in Bahrain</span>

Bahrain's record on human rights has been described by Human Rights Watch as "dismal", and having "deteriorated sharply in the latter half of 2010". Their subsequent report in 2020 noted that the human rights situation in the country had not improved.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ajam of Bahrain</span> Ethnic group

The Ajam of Bahrain, also known as Persians of Bahrain or Iranians of Bahrain, are an ethnic group in Bahrain composed of Bahraini citizens of Iranian ancestry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinema of Bahrain</span>

The cinema of Bahrain is small as its lacks support from the government and the private sector. There are many short films produced by individual filmmakers, and about five feature films in Bahrain's history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bahrain</span> Country in West Asia

Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island which makes up around 83 percent of the country's landmass. Bahrain is situated between Qatar and the northeastern coast of Saudi Arabia, to which it is connected by the King Fahd Causeway. The population of Bahrain is 1,501,635 as of May 14, 2023, based on elaborations of the United Nations data, of whom 712,362 are Bahraini nationals. Bahrain spans some 760 square kilometres (290 sq mi), and is the third-smallest nation in Asia after the Maldives and Singapore. The capital and largest city is Manama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ayman Mohyeldin</span> Egyptian political commentator and former journalist

Ayman Mohyeldin is an Egyptian-born political commentator based in New York for NBC News and MSNBC. Previously the anchor of an MSNBC weekday afternoon show, Ayman Mohyeldin Reports, he currently hosts Ayman on weekend evenings on MSNBC, and Fridays on Peacock. He previously worked for Al Jazeera and CNN. He was one of the first Western journalists allowed to enter and report on the handing over and trial of the deposed President of Iraq Saddam Hussein by the Iraqi Interim Government for crimes against humanity. Mohyeldin has also covered the 2008–09 Gaza War as well as the Arab Spring.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ali Abdulemam</span> Bahraini blogger

Ali Hassan Abdullah Abdulemam, widely known as Ali Abdulemam is a Bahraini liberal blogger and contributor to Global Voices. He is the founder of Bahrain Online, a popular online forum and pro-democracy news website, and a member of the research and advocacy group Bahrain Watch. Although he went into hiding in March 2011 to escape the Bahraini Government's crackdown on protesters, he was convicted in absentia for plotting to overthrow the Government, and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Global human rights organizations are unconvinced of Abdulemam's guilt and have voiced opposition to the persistent censorship and obstruction of journalists in the region. In 2013, Abdulemam escaped to the UK where he was swiftly granted political asylum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2011 Bahraini uprising</span> Anti-government protests

The 2011Bahraini uprising was a series of anti-government protests in Bahrain led by the Shia-dominant and some Sunni minority Bahraini opposition from 2011 until 2014. The protests were inspired by the unrest of the 2011 Arab Spring and protests in Tunisia and Egypt and escalated to daily clashes after the Bahraini government repressed the revolt with the support of the Gulf Cooperation Council and Peninsula Shield Force. The Bahraini protests were a series of demonstrations, amounting to a sustained campaign of non-violent civil disobedience and some violent resistance in the Persian Gulf country of Bahrain. As part of the revolutionary wave of protests in the Middle East and North Africa following the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia, the Bahraini protests were initially aimed at achieving greater political freedom and equality for the 70% Shia population.

<i>Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark</i> Bahraini TV series or program

Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark is a television documentary film produced by Qatar-based news channel Al Jazeera English about the 2011 Bahraini uprising. The film was first screened on 4 August 2011, featuring footage recorded during protests and police crackdowns, interviews with activists and physicians, as well as footage broadcast by Bahraini state television.

The following is a timeline of events that followed the Bahraini uprising of 2011 from April to June 2011. This phase included continued crackdown, lifting of the state of emergency and return of large protests.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of the 2011 Bahraini uprising</span>

The following is a timeline of the Bahraini uprising from February to March 2011, beginning with the start of protests in February 2011 and including the Saudi and Emirati-backed crackdown from 15 March.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amber Lyon</span> American journalist and photographer

Amber Elizabeth Lyon is an American investigative journalist and photographer. She is known for her work reporting human rights abuses against pro-democracy protesters in Bahrain and police brutality against protesters in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in the Arab Spring</span>

Women played a variety of roles in the Arab Spring, but its impact on women and their rights is unclear. The Arab Spring was a series of demonstrations, protests, and civil wars against authoritarian regimes that started in Tunisia and spread to much of the Arab world. The leaders of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen were overthrown; Bahrain has experienced sustained civil disorder, and the protests in Syria have become a civil war. Other Arab countries experienced protests as well.

Ryan Gallagher is a Scottish investigative journalist. He writes about security and civil liberties for Bloomberg News, and previously worked for The Intercept reporting on classified documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. He has previously worked for The Intercept, The Guardian, Slate, and the Financial Times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">YouTube copyright strike</span> Website policy action

YouTube copyright strike is a copyright policing practice used by YouTube for the purpose of managing copyright infringement and complying with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The DMCA is the basis for the design of the YouTube copyright strike system. For YouTube to retain DMCA safe harbor protection, it must respond to copyright infringement claims with a notice and take down process. YouTube's own practice is to issue a "YouTube copyright strike" on the user accused of copyright infringement. When a YouTube user gets hit with a copyright strike, they are required to watch a warning video about the rules of copyright and take trivia questions about the danger of copyright. A copyright strike will expire after 90 days. However, if a YouTube user accumulates three copyright strikes within those 90 days, YouTube terminates that user's YouTube channel, including any associated channels that the user have, removes all of their videos from that user's YouTube channel, and prohibits that user from creating another YouTube channel.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Glenn Greenwald (2012-09-04). "Why didn't CNN's international arm air its own documentary on Bahrain's Arab Spring repression? | Glenn Greenwald | World news | guardian.co.uk". Guardian. London. Retrieved 2012-09-14.
  2. ↑ "Producer Claims Bahrain Kept Her Documentary Off CNN – Global". The Atlantic Wire. 2012-09-05. Retrieved 2012-09-14.
  3. 1 2 Doctorow, Cory (2012-09-05). "CNN suppresses its own award-winning doc on human rights abuses in Bahrain; has commercial ties to the regime". Boing Boing. Retrieved 2012-09-14.
  4. ↑ "CNN International's Response to the Guardian – Update – CNN Press Room – CNN.com Blogs". Cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com. 2012-09-05. Archived from the original on September 8, 2012. Retrieved 2012-09-14.
  5. ↑ "GGSideDocs: Reply to response from CNNi". Ggsidedocs.blogspot.com.br. Archived from the original on 2012-09-14. Retrieved 2012-09-14.
  6. ↑ Doctorow, Cory (2012-09-07). "Glenn Greenwald replies to CNN's attempt to discredit story about compromised Bahrain coverage". Boing Boing. Retrieved 2012-09-14.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.