The Kishtainy response

Khalid Kishtainy was presented The International Media Award at a ceremony organised by the International Council for Press and Broadcasting on 11 May 2009 for his life long contribution to Arab journalism and work for peace. The following is Mr. Kishtainy’s response:

This is quite a surprise for me. But as it is, I want to give a warning to the organisers.
A few months ago a foreign businessman asked me on his first visit to London. He said to me “Khalid, what is this MAT . GBT, DDT? What is this? I said, I don’t know. What is it? How did you come across that? What was the occasion?
He said that he was spending a night with a woman for an agreed price of £500. In the morning, he gave her her breakfast and counted the money for her. She put the money in her handbag and then turned to him and asked him for a further sum of seventy six pounds and fifty pence. “ What is this for?” My friend asked her. She replied this is for MAT, GBT, DDT ... Something like that.
I said “ Oh she meant VAT. She was charging you VAT.”
‘ And what is this?’ My friend asked.
‘ This is a tax in England for Value Added.’
The man went pensive for a few moments, wondering what was the value added she gave him, or he gave her. I did not know him well to ask him what went on between him and the lady in question during that night to assess the matter properly. But it was certainly the first time I heard of a VAT registered prostitute.
Now , you may ask, why am I relating this story to you? Certainly not just to entertain you. No. Not to give you an idea either about the scale of charges of a London prostitute. Some of the lady journalists here in this hall may really consider changing their jobs.
I related this story because we, Arab journalists are often described by our people as no more than semi-prostitutes. As such I want to give a warning to Mr.William Morris. Don’t be surprised if you receive from me tomorrow an invoice with the VAT charge on this award. I am a law abiding citizen. So should you be. Start by calling this award ‘ The International Media Award plus VAT.’

Jamming ANN

Something really disturbing is going on. First Khaddam's satellite TV station is jammed by person or persons unknown on hotbird. Then Ribal Al Assad's ANN satellite TV is jammed on Nilesat forcing it to switch to hotbird. Then ANN is jammed on hotbird forcing it off the air. These are Syrian opposition channels being jammed from Libya. If this continues we will see Iranian opposition channels forced off the air next - or Lebanese opposition - or whatever. This goes beyond sick - it is dangerous. Something has to be done about it as the very freedom of the press is at stake. I am not sure what the Libyan government is playing at but it is very unhealthy.

Bloggers and Journalists gather for the Annual International Media Awards at the London Athenaeum, Monday 11th May 2009.

Journalists and Bloggers from the across the Middle East and the West gathered on Monday evening for the 5th International Media Awards ceremony hosted by Lord Stone of Blackheath. The awards were founded by The Next Century Foundation which works principally to support peace initiatives across the Middle East. This year the Awards also included a category for bloggers to acknowledge the growing influence of the blogosphere on the reporting of events.

The Next Century Foundation established the awards in 2005 to publically recognise journalists whose work has contributed to a better understanding of conflict zones, in particular the Arab/Israeli conflict, and of the Middle East region as a whole. The awards recognise the work of journalists whose high standards of analysis and reporting have helped to break down barriers and promote understanding. They also recognise the efforts and courage of individual journalists and bloggers, who are often placed at risk when reporting stories from areas of conflict or political repression.

The categories were as follows:

Four Peace through Media Awards. Each winner received an olive tree for their individual outstanding contribution to understanding.

• Dr Badrakan Al-Sindi, Editor in chief of Al-Ta’akhi Newspaper ( Iraq )
• Mark Urban, Diplomatic Editor, Newsnight, BBC.
• Mick Fealty, Editor and writer of Slugger O’Toole Blog ( Ireland )
• Paul Staines, aka Blogger Guido Fawkes.

Two Peace Through Media Lifetime Achievement Awards.

• Khaled Kishtainy, Iraqi journalist of Sharq Al Awsat newspaper.
• Kamran Karadaghi, Iraqi journalist of Al Hayat newspaper.

Four Cutting Edge Awards. Each winner received a £1000 cash prize for their oustanding coverage of events in the Middle East .

• Oren Yakobovich of Israel's B'Tselem's "Shooting Back" programme.
• Shlomo Eldar of Israel's Channel 10 whose live broadcast many believe contributed to the end of Israel’s recent Gaza campaign.
• Faisal Abbas Saudi Arabian journalist of Sharq al Awsat and blogger for the Huffington Post.
• Jaafar al Ahmar Lebanese journalist of Al Hayat.

Two Breakaway Awards for most promising new talent.

• Abdulrahman Abdulla, Al Sharqiya Satellite TV.
• Potkin Azarmehr, Blogger for a secular democratic Iran .

It is with much regret, and for a second year running, that several award winners were unable to attend and receive their awards due to border closures. Four winners, all of whom were based in Gaza, received accolades for their work. It is hoped that next year they will be able to pick up their awards in person.

The awards are given by The International Council for Press and Broadcasting part of the Next Century Foundation. It has worked in cooperation with the International Communications Forum, St Brides Forum, and The Department of Journalism at City University.

The Award Patrons: The Patrons of the International Media Awards this year were: Mr Ribal Al Assad of ANN Satellite TV; Ms Dalia Salaam Rishani of Hood Hood Books; Mr Walid Issa Taha of Taha Associates in Baghdad ; Ms Annie Henschal of Olives et al.

For further information contact Ms Deborah Pout, the convenor of the awards ceremony, on d.pout@btinternet.com

Repression of freedom by religios

Faisal sent this. I think it's important - and sad:

Please find the link http://www.huffingtonpost.com/faisal-abbas/how-religions-were-united_b_194540.html to my latest submission to The Huffington Post, 'How Religion Were United by Faith Fighter'.

Here are some excerpts from the piece, hope you find it interesting:

It was both ironic and interesting to see how a video game titled 'Faith Fighter', where players control characters that are meant to represent: Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, God and the Hindu god Ganesh and fight in a one-on-one competition, managed to bring followers of different religions and beliefs together... in a matter of days!

However, it must be fascinating to see that believers of different faiths were united to stop a 'blasphemous' (though virtual) 'Street Fighter II'-style online game, while the very same people probably are continuing to engage in 'mortal combat' in real life!
Well... now that the job is done and the faiths of the world are finally united, somebody might want to check what is up with the freedom of speech lobbyists... they seem to be pretty upset about what has happened.

I guess when it comes to religion vs. freedom of expression... the game will never be 'over'!

Blog Conference Latest

VOICES ONLINE: BLOGGING CONFERENCE
Monday 11th May
Venue: City University, Northampton Square, London EC1V 4DB

The Next Century Foundation in association with the Department of
Journalism at City University London is holding a one day conference on Monday
11th of May entitled Voices Online: Blogging Conference. The
conference is looking at the role of blogging and micro-blogging
and will bring bloggers from the Middle East to debate and interact
with their Western counterparts in a series of panel discussions.

Speakers to include:

• Professor Adrian Monck - Head of Journalism and Publishing at City University.
• Guido Fawkes - Political blogger of the day - received wide recognition for breaking the news of leaked e-mails from Damian McBride.
• Karim Arafat - Co-founder of Watwet, the Arabic twitter and Tootcorp.
• Slugger O'Toole - Northern Ireland Politics Blog and Head of Political Blogs, Telegraph Group.
• Badrakhan Al-Sindi - Editor in Chief of Iraqi Al -Ta'akhi newspaper.
• Andrew Miller - Political Editor and Bagehot columnist, The Economist.
• Mark Jones - Reuters Global Community Editor.
• Mona Eltahawy - Egyptian/US Columnist, Analyst & Blogger.
• Andrew Sparrow - Senior Political Correspondent, Guardian website & Orwell Prize 2009 shortlisted Blog.

Session 1 9.30am - 10.30am - State of the Art Technology.
Session 2 10.45am - 11.45am - Blogger to Blogger - The Political Blog.
Session 3 11.45am - 12.45pm - Journalist Bloggers.
Lunch 12.45pm - 13.30pm
Working Groups 13.30pm - 15.30pm

The Conference is open to all but if you wish to secure a place please
e-mail:

ncfpeace@aol.com or PowellDR@state.gov or Deborah Pout
at d.pout@btinternet.com

Organised by The Next Century Foundation and held with support from The US Media Outreach Centre at the US Embassy.

The Arab online

The Arab magazine has gone online - a commendable effort. To view click on this link

Bloggers with Bloggers conference

The Next Century Foundation will be hosting a "bloggers" conference entitled "Bloggers with Bloggers" on Saturday 9th May.

The one day conference, sponsered by the U.S. media outreach of the state department, will be recognising three particular types of blogger on middle-eastern current affairs: Journalistic bloggers (bloggers from various news organisations), bloggers in crises (bloggers in countries such as Iran), and bloggers in civil society (bloggers from the West writing about the Middle East).

A special additional category of "Middle East bloggers" will be presented at the 2009 International Media Council Awards to be held on the 11th May. A short-listing meeting for the media awards will be held on the 18th March at 6:30 at the Next Century Foundation.