All through elementary school my parents imposed a very strict rule of going to bed by 8 PM; there was very little room for discussion or talk about it.. Bedtime meant bedtime back then..
8PM was when the “main news bulletin” of the day was aired, I clearly remember being dragged to bed while the TV showed people walking up to the Amir (at the time) kissing him and moving on, I don’t recall making it to the rest of the news bulletin when the real news was aired.

Little changed since then, local newscasts still start with news of “exchanged cables of good wishes” and “visitors for his majesty the King” no matter what mess the whole world is going through.

As absurd and witty as this might sound to anyone exposed to international media, it is totally acceptable by local audience. The local government exercised a monopoly on the local TV, radio and press until the early 2000 and it continues to control it closely till today under the guise of protecting national unity and making sure to minimize public dissent, the situation in the rest of the Arab world isn’t of much different with a few exceptions.

The mindset of those in charge are still stuck back in the 1970s, still believing that they can control and limit the exposure of news by blocking websites and turning a blind eye to stories that isn’t in line with the country’s political standpoint.

The latest events of Tunisia and now Egypt revealed to the world the amount of aired propaganda aimed at keeping the people subdued. I watched with astonishment how the language of the TV stations changed from calling the protesters “mobsters and hooligans” to suddenly “brave youth who are desperate for change” in a couple of days.

While AlJazeera showed millions in Tahrir Square chanting “Down with the regime” local news channels showed quite streets with normal orderly traffic, while AlJazeera showed protestors sleeping in tents determined not to leave until the president is out of the office, local news channels showed people standing in line at banks to withdraw their salaries.

It took the regime a while before it wakes up to the situation and realize that their barricade was infiltrated by International news agencies, and responded with the imprisonment and attack of the news reporters and their cameramen all the way to dropping the AlJazeera channel out of their satellite.
Our suffering doesn’t end with blocked websites, blogs, youtube clips, facebook groups and local forums, but has now extended to online trolls and propaganda websites and threatens to impose even more control on social networking sites .. boy is it fun to live in a country where the big boys fear free press!

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Image Courtesy Of: R. Motti