|
First Arab Bloggers Meeting
Beirut, 22-24 August,2008
Blogs are becoming ever more important as catalysts for previously unlikely political mobilization and activism in the Arab world. They constitute public forums that help citizens practice and bolster their right to freedom of expression and enhance their argumentative and analytical skills. Blogs have in some cases clearly allowed for more diversity, greater acceptance of plurality, and accountability and transparency. Especially for young people, blogs represent an outlet for their thoughts and emotions and a sphere that they can freely navigate and where tangible results might even be possible.
It is therefore paramount to keep supporting this essential tool of expression and activism in a region plagued by authoritarian rule, repression of freedom of opinion and numerous other serious grievances, and to assist bloggers in raising their voice and optimizing their outreach and impact.
The meeting was an opportunity for bloggers to exchange experiences, forge alliances, pinpoint obstacles faced by bloggers and ways to overcome those, in addition to gaining tools that maximize impact and outreach of blogging and that advance a blogger’s cause.
30 participants from Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Palestine, Iraq, and Syria attended the meeting - a colorful potpourri of voices that enriched the discussions and yielded fruitful results for everyone.
Download the Event Program |
