On Sun, Jan 30, 2011 at 12:20 PM, Kevin M. <[email protected]> wrote: > Not only has the internet been switched off for the majority of > Egyptians (I think it is ironic that the antiquated dial-ups still > work), but now the popular "arabic" network has been blocked from > Egyptian TVs. When Al Jazeera is considered too progressive and > supportive of free speech, your government might be in need of a > revolution. > > http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110130/media_nm/us_egypt_jazeera
I think this part of the story, the crackdown on technology and media, is the most interesting for outsiders to observe. In learning the history of Europe in the last century, it was pointed out that the rise of totalitarian regimes accompanied the rise of the mass media. Mussolini, Stalin, and Hitler could take control of the mass media in their countries and make it a tool of their power. As mass media has been fragmenting it is becoming harder for small authoritarian regimes to control the information flow (with the exception, so far, being North Korea). When faced with unrest, Egypt tried to suppress it by cutting off internet communication. I've read that when people couldn't keep up with events through twitter or web forums, that's when a lot of them went out into the streets, to find out what was happening as well as protesting. Blocking Al-Jazeera seems an act of desperation as some in the government seem to think that if they can cut off peoples' access to what's going on, people will decide that nothing is going on and pretend nothing happened and go back tot he way life was before the eruption of action in Tunisia. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
