People remain main ingredient in reform efforts Thursday, 12 May 2011 03:58

DOHA: With much hype of the important role of modern media in the burgeoning revolution in the region, the people remain the main ingredient in a successful upheaval for reforms, say experts on the last day of the 11^th Doha Forum on Democracy, Development and Free Trade, yesterday at Doha Sheraton.

“The most important ingredient in these Arab uprisings is the people, they are showing courage not some computer application,” said Chris Doyle, Director, Council for the Promotion of Arab Relations, during the session on ‘Media’.

“Revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt would have happened without social networks, just differently. What such networks did was to accelerate these processes,” added Doyle.

He said the social network hype is undeniable with an Egyptian baby girl named Facebook, a street in Palestinian refugee camp of Askar named after a twitter handle and a former George Bush aide proposing to award Nobel Prize to Twitter after the Green Revolution in Iran.

In the case of revolution in Tunisia, Tarak Ben Ammar, owner of Tunisian-based Quinta Communications, said it was not done by Twitter or Facebook as Internet was shut down by the government that time.

“It was the voice of the people,” said Ben Ammar.

He recognised the positive impact of Internet to the people with bloggers turning into opinion-makers in the aftermath of the Tunisian revolution. He also acknowledged the big role television networks play in moving people to action as well as crystallizing public opinion.

Nessma TV, which was co-founded by Ben Ammar was the first TV station to air the Tunisian uprisings turning from an entertainment to a news channel, he said.

The Peninsula