By Samih Toukan

Blogging has taken its place as a notable news and opinion activity in the Arab world over the last three years. Though Arabic blogging is still at an early stage, it is rapidly becoming an important medium and a public opinion shaper in the region. Many now describe it as the alternative media and see it as a strong future contender to the mainstream media.

Maktoob.com launched its blog service in December 2005 with a core of early adopters, mainly journalists who already used the Internet.

Today Maktoob Blogs boasts over 100,000 bloggers and is growing at a fast pace. Beyond numbers alone, our Blogs community now embodies bloggers from all countries and nationalities. The subject matter varies as much as the participants, ranging from simple writings like diaries, cooking, fashion, jokes, caricature, and general writings to specialized writings in different scientific, literary, technical, social, economical, and political fields.

There is also a notable increase in interaction between bloggers themselves on their blogs as measured by comments, posts and diversity of discussed topics.

A WAY TO TAKE THE ARAB PULSE

In scanning, searching and surfing Maktoob blogs, one can feel the interaction of community interests in the Arab Middle East. One can, in effect, feel the pulse of the Arab world.

Blogs are succeeding in conveying the citizen's voice and thoughts, attitudes, opinions, reactions and experiences in all aspects of life. A major reason why is the high level of freedom of expression that blogs allow.

Authorities have been slow to see this and, accordingly, slow to crack down on the freedom of expression allowed. Signs that this is changing are beginning to emerge.

Maktoob bloggers come from decidedly different demographic groups in terms of age, gender and educational levels. The very interactivity and community-building that can be done online and across the vast geographical area of the Arab world offers a new dimension to bloggers and readers that is not offered by traditional media.

The high growth of Maktoob blogs can be attributed variously to the increase in Internet penetration in the Arab world as well as rising awareness of the importance of communication and freedom of speech. The attention of the Arab street and Arabic public opinion to public affairs due to the current political situations in the region, particularly in Iraq, Iran and Israel, is also essential. The effect of these ongoing political crises on the Arab individual’s daily life has also brought blogging as a prime tool of communications to the fore.

The success of a core of well-known journalists who published writings and views left untouched by traditional media has further whet the public appetite and con-tributes to increasing the number of bloggers and readers day by day.

The most important characteristics of blogs are freedom and absence of censorship. Yet these very traits are, ironically, the most important difficulties that we at Maktoob face.

The concept of accepting other people's opinions is new to Arab societies, causing some bloggers to push to ban blogs that raise controversial political, religious or social issues which differ from their own beliefs and loyalties.

As blogs spread, bloggers are learning to become more democratic and to absorb, if not accept, another’s perspective.

Unfortunately however, some bloggers in the Middle East have taken to misusing their freedoms. Taking advantage of the absence of censorship, they utilize their blogs, online chat rooms and affinity groups to promote illegal or unethical topics or encourage terrorism. This has given rise to a new form of blog community-monitoring led by other bloggers who survey the electronic traffic and take spontaneous steps to effectively police what they view to be illegal or irresponsible postings.

However, the most serious issue facing the blogging revolution in the Arab World today is not the irresponsibility of bloggers but unnecessary and unneeded block-ing and censoring of blogs by some governments. This is not an uncommon occurrence as Arab governments react in traditional ways to what they see as nontraditional transparency-based threats.

Maktoob blogs, for example, have been blocked in Yemen and Syria. The Yemeni government responded to an outcry of protest from bloggers and supporters of freedom of thought and speech by unblocking the website after a few days, but the Syrians held fast with their blocking for weeks on end.

As a service provider, Maktoob is stuck in the middle. We encourage freedom of speech and free flows of information. At the same time, we need to protect the service and the bloggers from being blocked. This is an occupational hazard of our business.

Despite the blocking and the attempt by governments to censor the Internet in general and blogs in particular—as they were accustomed to with traditional media—it is unlikely that the spread of this medium can be effectively arrested.

The trends are clear in our part of the world as much as elsewhere. The Internet and its ever-changing applications are a key part of the present and, no doubt, of the future. It can be a central tool in encouraging and enabling the democratization of Arab societies.

Samih Toukan cofounded Maktoob.com in 1998. With degrees from London and Paris, he previously worked for Andersen Consulting, Jordan.

Maktoob's Most Influential Bloggers

Previous | Next