eu dem newsletter 2

7/27/2019 Eu Dem Newsletter 2

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Jean Monnet

Information andResearch Activityon EU ForeignPolicy andDEMocracy

Promotion(EUDEM)

EUDEM

Academic Coordinator

Prof. Stefania PANEBIANCO

Academic Research Staff

Prof. Federico CRESTI

Prof. Fabrizio SCIACCADr. Daniela MELFA

Tutor

Dr. Rosa ROSSI

Faculty of Political ScienceUniversity of CataniaVia Vittorio Emanuele, 4995131 Catania (ITALY)

[email protected]

http://www3.unict.it/eudem/eudem/

EUDEM NEWSLETTER No. 2 May/June 2011

Media and the Arab SpringPag. 1

Media in North Africa: from court pressto freedom of expression? The results ofan interdisciplinary researchPag. 2

Morocco and democracy promotion:a self-promoted process?Pag. 4

Algeria and the immutable status quoPag. 5

Women and youth: two topics to investigatedemocracy promotion process in TunisiaPag. 6

From Ettounsi to Bouazizi: fifteen years ofopposition between web and streetsPag. 6

Libya: Al-Qathafi, an artful player on theinternational scene.The potential of oil resources and migrationsPag. 7

Facing a scared society and the Staterepression: the Muslim Brotherhood in EgyptPag. 8

The Egyptian religious question as aninternational issue

Pag. 9

EUDEM conference reportPag. 10

In the next issue:a glimpse on civil society projectsPag. 12

In this issue

Stefania Panebianco

Daniela MelfaandGuido Nicolosi

Giuseppe Maimone and Chiara Pane

Elisa Orofino

Antonella Licitra

Giovanni Sciolto

Giuseppe Belluardo

Giuseppe Spadaro

Alessia Melcangi

Andrea Ciambra and Angela Pennisi

Rosa Rossi

The EUDEM network - set up inS e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 0 w i t h i n t h eframework of an IRA Jean MonnetProject funded by the EuropeanCommission through the LifelongLearning Programme - has conductedinformation and research activities onEU foreign policy and democracypromotion. Since January 2011 the so-

called Arab Spring and the roleplayed by media during the Arabrevolts have mostly attracted theEUDEM research attention.Therefore, a research group hasfocused entirely on media andfreedom of expression in the MENAregion. This issue of the EUDEMNewsletter is devoted to the researchgroup which dealt with media andfreedom of expression in the MENAregion. This research relied primarilyupon a press review and wasconducted by the students' research

team coordinated by Daniela Melfaand Guido Nicolosi.Undeniably, free media is one of themost crucial features of a democraticregime and the granting of freedom ofexpression and free press representsan essential aspect of any democratic

reform process. Assuming that thereduction of, or ultimately theabolition of, censorship is one of themost tangible political changes of ad e m o c r a t i c t r a n s i t i o n , t h i smultidisciplinary research teamfocused upon the restrictions tof r e e d o m o f e x p r e s s i o n a n dinformation in many MENA countries,

the use of media made during theAra b revo lts, the practice ofcensorship traditionally made inmany authoritarian Arab countries.Already in 1970 Robert Dahlconsidered free media among theessential requirements of democracy.Why is freedom of expression and ofpress still so important? Authoritarianregimes have traditionally controlledthe circulation of information toartificially construct politicalconsensus and portray the image of a'good authoritarianism'.

But technology and global circulationo f i n f o r m a t i o n h a ve d e e p l yc h a l l e n g e d t h e s t r u c t u r e o f authoritarianism. If the authoritarianleaders Ben Al and Hosni Mubarakhave been defeated through a net-revolution is still arguable.

MEDIA AND THE ARAB SPRING


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MEDIA INFROM COURT PRESSTO FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION?THE RESULTS OF AN

INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

NORTH AFRICA:

The reformist thinker and statesmanKhayr ad-Din, in his Essai sur lesr for me s n ce ss ai res au x Et atsmusulmans (1867), considered thepress an equivalent to consultation(shr) in Islam, and therefore thefreedom of the press a guarantee foran enlightened government.Although Khayr ad-Din is mentionedin the Tunisian National Pact of 1988 asthe inspirer of reforms, neither the

Tunisian republic nor the other NorthAfrican States are today distinguishedby press freedom. According to theFreedom of the Press report of 2010,edited by Freedom House, Morocco

th th(66 in the ranking), Algeria (64 ),

th thTunisia (85 ) and Libya (194 ) areconsidered, at different degrees,not

thfree, while Egypt (60 ) is ratedpartlyfree.The history of Arab journalism ischaracterised by a close relationshipto and dependence on the politicalsystem. Only a few experiences (like

Lebanon before 1975 or Kuwaitbefore the invasion of Iraq) can beconsidered successful. In the Arabworld control over information hasalways been the rule rather than theexception. Colonial powers such asFrance and Great Britain were the firstthat exercised control over Arabpublic opinion by rigidly discipliningt h e i n f o r m a t i o n f l o w s . T h e yintroduced both the press and thecontrol over it in the Arab world,sharing this power with localgovernments. Subsequently, in the

independent States, new regimes,frequently linked to or supported bythe army, were set up over time.Albert Hourani,Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1789-1939,Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1988.http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=251&yea

r=2010.

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They continued the practice ofcontrolling the media directly andindirectly. In 2004, William Rughdefined a fourfold typology in orderto represent the range of differentkinds of dependence of Arab mediaon political systems:

The mobilization press (Syria, Iraq,Libya, Sudan): countries whererevolutionary military regimesimposed reforms; they are often

characterised by the State ownershipof media, or absolute control overthem; no criticism of policy allowed,sanctity of leaders, no diversity ofopinions, media as a tool for regimemobilization;

The loyalist press (United ArabEmirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabiaand Palestine): private ownership ofmedia but compliant pressdefendingthestatus quo and private interests ofbig players; the tone is lessaggressive and less aligned with therevolutionary rhetoric of regimes, but

there is a serious lack of investigativejournalism;The transitional system of print

(Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia and Algeria):these countries are characterised bypolitical systems in perpetualtransition; the press is frustrated bya complex mix of freedom andrepressive actions and laws;

The diverse print media: temporarilyoasis of freedom (Lebanon, Kuwait,Morocco and Yemen).We had a similar situation in the caseof broadcasting before 1991. The first

Iraq war caused a dramatic shift. TheCNN and satellite television changedradically the mediascape and

William A. Rugh, Arab Mass Media: Newspapers, Radio, andTelevision in Arab Politics, Praeger Publishers, Westport 2004.

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However, the local population whogathered spontaneously in the Arabstreets to complain against theirauthoritarian leaders and ultimatelyo v e r t h r e w t h e i r r e g i m e sdemonstrated that the sharing of

information is an important politicaltool. In the interdependent globalpolitical system authoritarian powersshould find new tools to survive.The EUDEM research group haspresented its preliminary resultsduring the international conferenceon Winds of Democratic Change inthe Mediterranean? Actors, Processesand Possible Outcomes, which took

th stplace on 19 -21 May in Catania at theFaculty of Political Science.This EUDEM conference addressed alarge group of people interested in

the topic of EU international actionand the political changes which aretimidly taking place in someMediterranean Arab countries.On e h u n d r e d o f p r o f e s s o r s ,researchers, BA, MA and PhDstudents primarily from the Universityof Catania, the University of Palermoand LUISS University (Rome),t o g e t h e r w i t h c i v i l s o c i e t yrepresentatives and practitioners,attended the Conference live or viaw e b - s t re a m i n g. T h e p a p e r spresented at the conference will be

published in edited books aimed atnational and international circulation.

Stefania Panebianco (EUDEMAcademic coordi nator, Prof . ,University of Catania)

2 http://www3.unict.it/eudem/eudem/

EUDEM Newsletter No. 2 May/June 2011


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Nothing will be as before. But thereal point of no return was the launchof Al Jazeera in 1996. Al Jazeera's styleof reporting was a new experience

that changed public opinion in theArab world (the BBC model of news,the reporting-from-the-field, the roleof female journalists, the practice ofshowing different opinions andviewpoints, etc.). In the variegatedand changeable North Africancontext, the observation of traditionaland new media, through deeperqualitative inquiries, is not fruitlessdue to political restrictions, but, on thecontrary, it allows a glimpse of theinternal dynamics of Muslimsocieties. The research on Media in

North Africa was realised fromOctober 2010 to May 2011 by a groupof PhD, MA and BA students enrolledat the University of Catania under thesupervision of Daniela Melfa andGuido Nicolosi. It took into accountonline press with available freearchives, and, in a comparativeperspective, Tunisian dissidentwebsites and blogs. In both cases, theanalysis was restricted to sources inFrench and English languages. Thismaterial is, of course, accessible to aEuropean public, but domestic

readers remain the main target of thepress. In this respect, the Tripoli Post,addressing explicitly foreigners,represents an exception. The surveysample included pro-governmentand opposition newspapers, allsubjected, on the whole, to tightgovernmental control or even to auto-censorship. Attention has beenaddressed to the Berbers and Copts'standpoints, by examining theAlgerian El Watan and the EgyptianWatani, both significantly insisting ontheir attachment to thenation(watan).


http://www3.unict.it/eudem/eudem/ 3

The analysis combined two differentmethodological criteria: after adetailed research focused onquarters randomly chosen, articleshave been selected by key words. Therange of newspapers analysed, aswell as the subjects privileged, reflect

the different country profiles. Twofundamental topics have beenexamined: firstly, the process ofdemocratisation through selectedsalient aspects, such as the situation ofminorities (the Berbers, the Copts),women and youth condition, politicalopposition (the Saharawi in Morocco,

the Muslim Brothers in Egypt), pressfreedom and migrations; then, theinternational relations and the role ofinternational actors, especially theEuropean Union as democracyp r o m o t e r . A l t h o u g h t h e

chronological framework has beenextended back to 2004, the main focushas been the current transition phaseafter the ousting of Tunisian andEgyptian presidents. A realignment ofpro-government newspapers may beobserved in Tunisia and Egypt,whereas journalists in Morocco,Algeria and Libya covered the eventswith a mixture of prudence anddetachment. Silence over internalprotest in the Algerian case is striking.The analysis of Tunisian blogshighlights the gap between the lively,satirical debates involving youngpeople, and the established press.Finally bloggers and net-surfers havebeen a driving force in changingtraditional media. References tod e m o c r a c y a r e c o p i o u s i nnewspapers, revealing institutionaladhesion to formal democracy. Whilethe media admit that a full democracyis far from being realised in theircountry, an autonomous way todemocracy is often claimed. Basicallythe press review showed a vibrantsociety that enacts democracy-b u i l d i n g b y i t s e l f . E x t e r n a linterference aiming at supportingdemocracy attracts criticism.

Daniela Melfa (Assistant Professor,University of Catania)

Guido Nicolosi (Assistant Professor,University of Catania)

EUDEM TransnationalAcademic Board

Prof. Leonardo Morlino(Jean Monnet Professor of PoliticalScience, Luiss - Rome, Presidentof IPSA);

Prof. Houfaidi Settar(Jean Monnet Professor of PublicLaw, Dean of the Faculty of Social,Economic and Juridical Sciences,Universit Hassan II Mohammedia-Casablanca);

Prof. Marco Mascia(Responsible of the Jean MonnetCentre of Excellence on Inter-cultural Dialogue, Human Rightsand Multi-Level Governance,

University of Padua);Dr. Patricia Bauer(DAAD visiting Professor forEuroMed Studies, Cairo University);

Dr. Charalambos Tsardanidis(Director, Institute of InternationalEconomic Relations, Athens);

Dr. Federica Bicchi(Lecturer, LSE);

Dr. Andreas Marchetti(Research Fellow, ZEI Bonn)


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and demonstrations are representedmore as requests of economicreforms than of institutional ones.Then, articles about the Arab springwere always accompanied by othersabout Morocco and its uniquestability, often asserted by importantfigures like scholars, internationalprofessors and historians. Despiteeconomical problems, corruption andinternal issues related to WesternSahara, Morocco is safe from thecontagion of the North Africanuprisings. The Western Sahara issueoccupies most of the articles in all theMoroccan newspapers. They have thesame approach: it is a part of thecountry and some autonomy is themaximum that can be given toWestern Sahara, where issues arematter of police control against thePolisario and its connection with

terrorism and not of democraticinstances advanced by the Saharawipopulation. Our study has noted thatthe term Polisario occurs twice asmuch as the term Sahraouis, used toidentify the Saharawis, and sahraouisoccurs more as an adjective whichidentifies territorial aspects than as aterm correlated to an ethnic group.

Except for some criticism for the waythe government has managed its lastcrisis in Layoune, the capital of theWestern Sahara region, Moroccannewspapers never doubted theterritorial integrity of the country anddenounced the Algerian support tothe Polisario. Moreover, journals alsounderlined how the Spanish pressused the issue of human rights inWestern Sahara to hide the Spanisheconomic relations with Algeria andthe regret for its colonial past in thata r e a . M o r e o v e r , M o r o c c a nnewspapers condemn the EU upheldof a motion proposed by the SpanishPPE in which it claimed Moroccanviolations of human rights inLayoune and gave evidence to the

versions of those events formulatedby some NGOs, like HRW, thatunderlined the collusion betweenPolisario and Al Qaeda andconsidered most correct the work ofthe Moroccan forces.

In conclusion, it is possible to affirmthat, despite different politicalorientations, the Moroccan pressprovided an image of a country which,despite some difficulties, goes on byitself along the path of democracypromotion, fighting against both itsinternal and external enemies.

Giuseppe Maimone (PhD candidate,University of Cagliari)

Chiara Pane (MA student, Universityof Catania)

This work of press review hasanalysed how democracy promotion,and, in particular, EU democracypromotion policy, is seen by theM o r o c c a n w e b p r e s s . E i g h tfrancophone newspapers werechosen among the most popular, bothon paper and on the web, as referredby OJD Maroc, Organisme dejustif ication de la dif fusion , withvarious political orientations. Twonewspapers Audjourd'hui Le Maroc( Independent) and L e Mat i n(Monarchical) and two weeklies

MarocHebdo International and TelQuel online, both close to theopposition have free archives with allthe articles available, whileLibration(Independent), Albayane (Socialist),L'opinion (Conservative) and theweekly La vie co were analysed bythe use of keywords. Newspaperswith free archives had been analysedby reading all the articles related todemocracy promotion publishedfrom October 2009 to January 2011,when riots in North Africa took place.No time limit for analysis by keywords

used for other newspapers, which hadno web archives or available only for afee. Concerning the topic ofdemocracy promotion, we haveobserved three points which therelated articles were mostly focusedupon: democracy promotion as anational and self-promoted Moroccanpolicy; the exclusion of Morocco in theriots for democracy in North Africa;the refusal to recognize anyd e m o c r a c y i n s t a n c e s o f t h eSaharawis. Although there were a fewdifferences, all the newspapers had

the same approach to the threequestions. Regarding democracypromotion, Moroccan press articlespresented it always like an internalissue, not influenced by EU policy.Depending on their different politicalorientations, the press releases

emphasized the role of the monarchy,o f the government , o f loca lassociations or of the Moroccanpublic opinion in democracypromotion. However, the result is quitethe same: Morocco promotesdemocracy by itself. Even if realreforms were not considered enough,journals refused to promote an imageof a country which needs help fromWestern and European countries.Democracy promotion is an internalissue, a national affair, a Moroccanquestion. EU democracy promotion

policy has no role in it. Just one articlein Tel Quel online wrote about a caseof institutional conflict between theMinister of Justice and two judges,caused by some promotions madeinside the High Council of theMagistracy. The article criticised theJustice Reform and said it wasapproved just to receive the relatedEU funds and not with any real intent ofrenewal. The article also mentionedthe King's role in sanctioning the twojudges for their revelations to thepress, but did not highlight this fact. It

is important to remember that clearcriticism against the King is notpossible. Reforms and stability ofinstitutional structures were targetedin the second part of our analysis ondemocracy promotion in Moroccoand its exclusion from the 2011 ArabSpring for democracy in NorthAfrica. In ef fect, despite somed e m o n s t r a t i o n s a g a i n s tgovernmental policies, Morocco hasnot been involved in any political andinstitutional revolts such as thosewhich caused the fall of Ben Ali or

Mubarak, the war in Libya or thestrong demonstrations in Algeria,Syria and Bahrain. What is the cause ofthis Moroccan case? All thenewspapers agree: the Moroccanmonarchy is the cause of stability. Theking ensures the unity of the nation



MOROCCOAND DEMOCRACYPROMOTION:

A SELF-PROMOTED PROCESS?


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civil war Shock is still alive in people'smemory), the lack of effectiveo p p o s i t i o n f o r c e s a n dd i s e n c h a n t m e n t t o w a r d sinternational actors. In addition, all ofthem were quite silent on the protestwaves taking place in the country.Both El MoudjahidandHorizonsdepict

Algeria as a democratic modern state.President Boutefl ika and hisgovernment have worked hard toimprove some basic democraticconditions, such as the rule of law andthe level of electoral representation.In fact, they quote many importantreforms: the adoption of a new councilcode (granting a higher degree ofpopular participation), investments insocial policy and the environment.With regard to freedom of the pressand media in general, those journalsdefine Algeria as a very pluralistic

country, with more than 60 parties and27 newspapers. Finally, they invitetheir readers not to take democracyas a panacea and not to focus on theAmerican democratic model, since ithas many shortcomings. They believein an Algerian democratic path whichhas to be followed in an Algerianway, far from Western stereotypes.The same issue is dealt with in acompletely different way byEl Watanand Le Quotidien d'Algrie. Algeria isfar from being democratic. Bouteflikaand his entourage have worsened the

already precarious situation of thecountry. Corruption, unemployment,censorship and personification ofpublic power are just few meaningfulexamples . In addi t ion , bothn e w s p a p e r s a s s e r t t h a t t h epopulation is unable to react.

E l i s a O ro f i n o ( M A s t u d e n t ,University of Catania)

This research on the Algerian press

focuses on a four-month period, fromNovember 2010 to February 2011.

First of all, a sample of government-friendly and independent press wasselected. Among the great variety ofnewspapers from both factions, twofor each kind were selected: on theone side,El Moudjahid,notably knownto be very close to the FLN since the1960s,and Horizons;on the other side,El Watan, which means fatherland inArabic and represents one of the mostindependent journals connected withKabylia Berbers, and Le Quotidien

d'Algrie. Secondly, within thisframework two dimensions have beendistinguished: domestic politics andforeign affairs. This approach and thematrix structure allowed to make acomparison between different issuesand the way they were dealt with,according to the stance theybelonged to (i.e. government-friendly or independent press). Thestudy aimed to grasp Algerianperceptions towards democracy andthe international actors' role. To thispurpose, the different newspapers

were examined through a key-wordsanalysison democracy, human rights,US and EU interventions. All thearticles taken into consideration gavea lot of importance to these themes,although their approach wassubstantially different.

Still shocked by the civil war, they are

reluctant towards every form ofviolence and rebellion, even against aselfish president whose way ofadministrating the country definitelyrecalls French colonialists. Moreover,human rights are continually violatedand no one is able to react. The lack ofeffective opposition forces has ledmany citizens to give up all hope forchanges. As regards the internationalactors' role, independent andGovernment-friendly press stillpresent different opinions. Theformer harshly criticizes both the US

and EU: they act in a selfish and unfairway, paying no attention to thepopulation's suffering in order not todamage their economic relations withthe government. Algeria is the thirdoil producer in Africa and the eighthworld natural gas reserve. These aretwo good reasons not to interfere inthe domestic affairs of the country. Onthe other hand, the latter underlinesthe Algerian role as a valuable tradepartner and stresses American praiseto President Bouteflika for the removalof the state of emergency.

In conclusion, Algeria appears as amutilated state. People really wantchanges but, unlike Egypt, Libya andTunisia, there are some Algerian-specific elements that seem to fosterthe actual status quo. In particular, Imean the psychological element (the

ALGERIAAND THE IMMUTABLESTATUS QUO


Jean Monnet EuroMed Center


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This press review aims to analyze theprocess of democracy promotion inTunisia and is based on the analysis oft h r e e T u n i s i a n f r a n c o p h o n e

newspapers, chosen among the mostpopular journals.

Le Tempsand La Presse, which werepro-government newspapers until

thBen Al's regime fell on January 14 ,and the weekly newspaper Attariq,journal of the Ettajdid Party, whichrepresented one of the mostimportant voices of the opposition toBen Ali, former president of Tunisia.The different approach to information,as well as the different politicalorientation of these journals, ensureda more objective view of Tunisian

politics and society.The research focuses on thedemocratic transition of recentmonths, and concentrates on thecategories ofwomen andyouth, whichhad been two central propagandatools of the Tunisian regime. Boththese categories had a leading role inthe uprisings that have taken place inTunisia.

Thus, this study revealed threeelements: first, the existence of apolitical limit of the process ofTunisian democracy promotion which

showed the ambiguities of the statesystem buil t up by Ben Ali ,represented as a democracy but,indeed, just a formal one; second, theexistence of a cultural limit whichemphasized how the patriarchalmentality prevents the developmentof equality in Tunisian society, andfinally the existence of a gap betweencivil society and the Ben Ali's regime.

Regarding the political limit, the pressanalysis showed a society stronglyframed by structures with no space forfreedom. In fact, the Tunisian regime

created an associative network tocontrol civil society and formalizecitizens' rights and, at the same time,maintained a strong control over allthe associations which tried to beindependent from central power.

It was June 2002 when ZouhairYahyaoui was arrested in a CyberCaf in Ben Arous, a suburb of Tunis.The year before Yahyaoui, akaEttounsi, had created an e-magazinewhere he openly took sides againstthe authoritarian regime of Ben Ali. Inthose years, piazzas, schools,universities and all major gatheringplaces belonged to the eyes and the

truncheons of the police; in responseyoung people began to meet on theweb: anonymity against breaches ofprivacy, satire against torture, skilland courage against censorship.

The shift of the democratic arena, from


WOMEN AND YOUTH: TWO TOPICSTO INVESTIGATE DEMOCRACYPROMOTION PROCESS IN TUNISIA

FROM ETTOUNSITO BOUAZIZI:FIFTEEN YEARS

OF OPPOSITIONBETWEEN WEBAND STREETS

Furthermore, it tried to influenceyoung people by reducing unionspaces to professors and universitystudents and by censoring blogs and

facebook. In addition to politics, thepress review highlighted a culturall i m i t t o g e n d e r e q u a l i t y , afundamental requirement fordemocracy.

Despite the process of femaleemancipation, social transformationsand female claims for an egalitariansociety, we found the persistence of areally conservative and, in some waysauthoritarian, patriarchal mentality.

That mentality has supported somearchaic legal institutions (such as theinheritance law) - which continue to

give a leading role to males - anddelays the reform process of thoseinstitutions.

Concerning the third aspect,Attariqunderlined the detachment of civilsociety from the Ben Ali's regime andillustrated the inability of governmentto understand the real needs of youth.The pro-government newspapers,instead, naturally hid this topic,although they sometimes expressed aminimal form of freedom ofdiscussion. The governmental LeTemps presented an interview with

the president of an independentassociation in which the female rolepromotion carried on by thegovernment is shown as a politicalritualization and a sort of feminismpromoted by the State.

In conclusion, it is important toremember that the analysis of theTunisian press revealed that the worddemocracy, mostly present in thenewspapers' headlines before therevolts, is now less used, thus showinga sort of caution in approaching thetopic ofdemocracy.

This aspect raised the question of there-appropriat ion of the termdemocracy, because its abuse by theTunisian regime emptied it of its realmeaning.

It also induced to reflect on the

definition of democracy in differentpolitical contexts and that its use is notalways connected to the realexistence of freedom and equality.

Antonella Licitra (MA, University ofCatania)


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even the biting satire of his cartoonsand in 2009 blocked the blog. Thesocial situation in Tunisia was alreadydegenerated for most of populationwhen Mohammed Bouazizi set himself

thon fire at 11:30 a.m. on December 17 ,2010. The web had something morethan in 2008, instead: Facebook. News

spread quickly on the social network,r e a c h i n g m i l l i o n s o f u s e r s .Communicative immediacy ofFacebook and Twitter was a veryvaluable relief valve for anger andsuffering of citizens.

The organization of the protests onth

January 14 , 2011 at Place de laKasbah was impeccable. On February

th25 another event at the Casbahforced Mohammed Gannouchi andthe transitional government to resign.The victory of the web, which ledpeople to the streets, is clear. After

January 14 bloggers began towrite steadily, providing acomprehensive information service.Social networks complete thisprocess, spreading the news to abigger audience, obtaining real-timefeedbacks from users in addition tospeeding the flow of information.

Giovanni Sciolto (BA student,University of Catania)


This press review on Libya seeks todepict some domestic and someinternational features of the Libyanauthoritarian regime. As pointed outby the Freedom House report,Freedom of the Press 2010, freedom ofinformation doesn't exist in Libya,

thwhich is classified in the 194 place as

a NOT FREE country. Each kind ofmedia , f rom newspapers , totelevision, to Internet websites, arecontrolled and censored by thepervasive political control of theregime in addition to the influentialphenomenon of self-censorship.Therefore, searching, studying andanalyzing some on l ine freenewspapers published on theinternet provides a clearer vision offreedoms' violations perpetrated inLibya. After a general screening of theLibyan press on the web the Tripoli

Post, the only English-languageweekly addressed to a foreign public,appeared to be an interesting sourceof information. A two-step researchwas carried out: with the reading ofevery article published on the

stwebsite from November 1 2010 to

stJanuary 31 2011, about 100 articleswere selected; then a thematicresearch of the art icles was

conducted by focusing on key wordssuch as migration and Berber-s.About 70 articles were selected forthe first topic, not finding anythingabout the second one which is a verysignificant outcome di per s.

the real world to the virtual world,took place gradually and in thes h a d o w o f t h e u n d e r g r o u n d movements which were led by youngpeople of the wealthier classes.Among these there is the noteworthywebsite and e-magazineTakriz, whichwill become a pirate party in the

upcoming years. TAKRIZ main raisond'tre is to oppose the erosion ofFreedoms in general and those ofSpeech and Expression in particular bythe corrupt and undemocraticg ov e r n m e n t o f T u n i s i a [ ] (Takriz.net). Today Takriz is closelylinked to the Anonymous cybermovement which was involved inactions against the regime at the endof 2010. The language used by thesecyber-dissidents is full of taboo wordsin Muslim countries. A clear exampleis the way the government is called:

group of pigs.Takrizwas one of the few voices ableto bypass the censor's sword withwhich the dictator cut the veins of freeinformation. Ettounsi had joinedTakriz before creating his personalwebsite Tunezine.com. Tunezine wasbanned several times until Yahyaoui,anonymous until then, was arrested.While in prison Yahyaoui, sufferingfrom a serious kidney disease, beganto refuse medical treatments as a wayto protest. His health conditionworsened and in March 2005, Zouhair

Yahyaoui passed away. The web hadno doubts: Ettounsi was the firstmartyr of a revolution that lays its rootsin the virtual network. Publicresentment was growing, not only onthe web but also on the streets.

The anger exploded in Redeyef when,i n J a n u a r y 2 0 0 8 , t h e y o u n gunemployed of the area wereexcluded from the selection of eightyjobs in the phosphate mines. Therepression was bloody.

The images of the lifeless bodies oftwo boys were uploaded on the web

and made their way around thenetwork.

Even on the web repression washarsh. YouTube and Dailymotion wereblocked. Young people and dissidentscontinued to access these sites byusing proxies. Ben Ali in front of theinternational community minimized.But the web lied in wait for him.Contre les douleurs et les troublesp e r s i s t a n t s d e s e s r g i o n spostrieures, la patiente Tunisie secontente de traitements superficiels def l i c o t h r a p i e l a c r y m o g n e

(debatunis ie .cana lblog.com).Debatunisie, the blog of a Tunisiancartoonist, represents the other sideof the virtual protest. His language isnot as violent as the language of

Takriz. The government did not like

LIBIA: AL-QATHAFI, AN ARTFULPLAYER ON THE INTERNATIONALSCENE. THE POTENTIAL OF OILRESOURCES AND MIGRATIONS

U R Ifficio elazioni nternazionaliFaculty of Political Science


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U n d e r t a k i n g a r e s e a r c h o nanglophone Egyptian press, one maybe disoriented by the impressivenumber of newspapers, available alsoonline. Faced with this flowering, a

systematic analysis is made difficultby heterogeneous, not alwaysaccessible, newspapers' archives.

In order to have the widest possiblesample of the Egyptian press, thisstudy has been addressed to Al-Ahram weekly,partly state-owned andconsidered pro-government; Al-M a s r y A l - Yo u m , c o n s i d e r e dindependent; Egyptian Gazette, abiased state-owned newspaper,Watani,a weekly set up by the Copticcommunity; Ik hwa nweb, MuslimB r o t h e r h o o d 's L o n d o n - b a s e d

website. At a superficial glance, thereseems to be a certain degree ofpluralism and freedom of the press.Also minority groups, like the MuslimBrotherhood, officially banned duringMubarak's regime, or the Copticminority, have the possibility ofmaking their voice heard. The focuson both these communities offers aprivileged point of view for studyingsignificant intersections betweenreligious issues and political freedom.A backwards analysis, from 2005 to2010, allowed us to grasp events in

their course and, if present, the seedsof the recent uprising. Even in theasphyxiating and clearly non-competitive elections, the press isused to pay great attention to theperiodical rounds of voting. Articlesgive voice to worries raised by theMuslim Brotherhood's strength, as theregime and the Copts are notreassured by its deliberatelymarginal role. Many opinion leaderstend to consider the MuslimBrotherhood as an influentialmobilization force, thus probably

overestimating its manoeuvringability, with the effect of fuelling animage of threat to State stability.

On December 2005, the news that theMuslim Brotherhood had gained 88seats in parliamentary elections

frightened the Coptic community.The result also caught the journalistsunawares, who tr ied to f indexplanations and work out thepossible consequences in the short

and medium term. After the 2005election, various sectarian clashesbroke out. The Copts, often victims ofviolence, used accidents to presenttheir claims for a real political andsocial participation. Usually theirrequests remained unheeded,because a security approachprevai led. A l - Ma sr y A l - Yo u mcriticized State strategy, demandingto solve confessional issues on apolitical, religious, cultural andeducational level. The MuslimBrothers were assumed to be involved

in such troubles and an upsurgeoccurred on December 2006, whenhundreds of students, who supportedthe Brotherhood, made a paramilitaryparade. In 2007, the government partyhad to face a different kind of issueswhen some American representativesheld several official meetings withs o m e B r o t h e r h o o d m e m b e r sbelonging to the pragmatic wing. TheBrotherhood did not seem veryinterested in this mild opening, whileit aimed to keep control over tradeunions and professions. The general

conference for Citizenship held on25 November 2007 in Cairo gave theCopts the opportunity to denouncediscrimination. They asked for theremoval of religious information fromidentity cards and a common lawregulating the construction of placesof worship. In 2008, the focus wasinstead on interfaith marriages,because the Christian and Muslimcommunities accused each other ofkidnapping and forced conversion.

A spiral of violence marked 2010,which started with the violent attack

in Nag Hammadi. Clampdown on theB r o t h e r h o o d 's a f f i l i a t e s w a sconstantly reported, in spite of theireffort to dialogue with other socialand political forces.

The relationship between religion


Although further elements could be

taken into account, it may be assumed

that the Tripoli Post is a regime

controlled newspaper. Great

attention is given to foreign policy

and international events, while

domestic events, with the exception of

migration policy, are neglected.With regard to Libyan foreign policy,

the review of the trimester November

2010-January 2011 shows that Libya

r e m a i n s a f r e e - r i d e r i n t h e

international political system. Thanks

to its petrodollars, colonel

Muammar al-Qathafi has always had

ample scope for maneuver in his

foreign policy choices. He expressed

his anti-colonialist rhetoric in very

important international meetings, like

the UN General Assembly or against

WTO or IMF judged neo-colonialistinstruments of the West. Similar

considerations may be made as for his

anti-Zionist policy. From the official

readmission into the international

community in 2004, Qathafi returned

to his usual foreign policy, apparently

without changing and concretely

modi fy ing or d is turbing the

international order: as much rhetoric

in words as pragmatism in facts.

In line with this general portrait of

Libyan foreign policy is the migrationpolicy adopted by the regime,

especially in the relations with Italy

and the European Union. In his own

words, Qathafi declares that African

people, like everybody in this world,

has the right to freely move

everywhere. Yet paradoxically Libya

has become in the last decade the

guardian of the Fortress Europe,

vi ol at ing hu ma n right s of the

migrants, especially of those coming

from sub-Saharan and eastern Africa,

many times imprisoned, tortured or,as currently is happening, forced to

leave Libya to hinder the international

community's action against him.

Giuseppe Belluardo(MA student, University of Catania)

FACING A SCARED SOCIETY AND THESTATE REPRESSION: THE MUSLIMBROTHERHOOD INEGYPT


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The presence of different religiouscommunities inside a country hasmade the issue of interfaith dialogueand the protection of human rightsand individual freedoms, animportant component of globalpolitics and Euro-Mediterraneanrelations in order to promote policiesof partnership and democracybuilding in the Maghreb. Speakingabout the 'Coptic question' in Egypt,the political, social and religiousparticipation of this communitybecomes often a subject of daily news

because of frequent discriminations.In order to understand how thereligious question is dealt with inEgypt, we focused on the analysis ofsome news articles drawn fromvarious newspapers in English and inFrench:Al-Ahram Weekly;Al Masry Al-Youm; The Egyptian Gazette; Watani.We tried to highlight the role playedand the policies enacted byinternational political actors, such asthe European Union, the United Statesand local organizations, such as theNational Council for Human Rights

(NCHR). Moreover, we can findrelevant associations of Copts livingabroad, the most important of which isthe US Copts Association; these areinvolved in increasing awareness ofinternational public opinion on thereligious problem in Egypt.

On the occasion of a sectarian conflictwhich happened in Alexandria inOctober 2005, Al-Ahram Weeklyr e p o r t e d t h a t t h e U S C o p t sAssociation, through its presidentMichael Munir, exploited the unrest toask Congress to place additional

p r e s s u r e o n t h e E g y p t i a ngovernment, and press its allegationsof 'Coptic-targeted hate crimes' in thepredominantly Muslim country.

M. El-Menshawy, Too Late for denials, in Al-Ahram Weekly, 2-9 November 2005.

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T h e f o l l o w i n g N o v e m b e r acontroversial US-based conferenceended with calls for greater USpressure on Egypt, and restrictions onWashington's aid to Cairo, in the lightof alleged persecution of CopticOrthodox Christians. According tothis, the US might want to reconsiderits aid package; in fact, Egypt is thesecond largest recipient of US foreignaid. In December 2007 WataniandAl-Ahram Weeklyfocused their attention

o n t h e G e n e r a l C i t i z e n s h i pConference held in Cairo under the

auspices of the National Council forHuman Rights (NCHR) which resultedin the Egyptian Declaration ofCitizenship (EDC). Important optionswere offered to combat religiousdiscrimination where identitydocuments are concerned. The headof the NCHR, Boutros Boutros Ghali,said that particular problems faced byreligious minorities, such as CopticChristians and Bahais, had beencarefully examined. At the beginningof 2008 an article published in Wataniunderlined how an European

th

Parliament resolution, adopted on 17of January which criticised Egypt'shuman rights record, especially withregard to the status of religiousminorities, provoked a far-reachingnegative effect on Egyptian-EUrelations. The dramatic situation wasconfirmed by a series of sectarianconflicts which happened during2008; in July 2008 Al-Ahram Weeklyhighlighted an important question:while a chorus of Coptic foreignactivists protested against theconditions of Copts in Egypt, those at

E. Mekay, Copts mix cards, in Al-Ahram Weekly, 24-30November 2005; E. Mekay,Empowering the Copts, in Al-AhramWeekly, 16-22 August 2007.

Y. Sidhom, Declaration of citizenship rights in Watani, 2December 2007.

G. Nkrumah,Celebrating human rights, in Al-Ahram Weekly13-19 December 2007.

M. Malak,Furore over human rights, in Watani, 27 January2008.

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4

5

3

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home tended to play down the Coptic'crisis' propagated by Copts who liveabroad. Many Coptic laity believedthat their interests would becompromised if the Copts abroads t e p p e d u p t h e i r a n g r ydemonstrations and protests. Copts,like their Muslim compatriots sufferfrom the sharp rise in the costs of food

and fuel and many are unemployed,said Milad Hanna, a leading Copticintellectual and community leader toAl-Ahram Weekly.

In conclusion, although this analysis ofdifferent newspapers shows only aspecific point of view on the religiousissue in Egypt, we can understand theimportant and difficult role played bythe international community in orderto promote a new policy that couldhelp to create a climate favourable tochange.

Alessia Melcangi (PhD candidate,University of Catania)

G. Nkrumah,Race against time, in Al-Ahram Weekly, 17-23July 2008.

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and politics in a modern State becamea moot point. Although protestsagainst the long-standing regimehave occurred since the first years ofthe new millennium, and the lastparliamentary elections took place ina tense atmosphere, signs leading tothe popular uprising passedunnoticed by the Egyptian press. Noinkling if not after the facts.

Giuseppe Spadaro (MA student,University of Catania)

THE EGYPTIAN RELIGIOUS QUESTIONAS AN INTERNATIONAL ISSUE


10/12


than a stronger Union (D. Dinan).Moreover, the EU capability todevelop an actual actorness in theCFSP field seems to be decreased by

member states, which are not willingto give up their sovereigntyprerogatives. The second criticalaspect concerns the EU's toolsdevoted to the promotion of politicalreform processes. For instance, theconditionality policies used within theEuropean Neighborhood Policy(ENP) are not very effective, neither inthe creation of adequate incentivesnor in the resources distribution (M.Comelli). Moreover, the US as wellpresents some weaknesses infostering democratic transitionprocesses in the MENA region. Infact,many doubtful initiatives wereintroduced during the last threep r e s i d e n c i e s : a d e m o c r a t i cenlargement policy (Clinton), afreedom agenda (Bush) and Obama'spragmatism which was not enough toencourage the stability of the area (M.Do Ceu Pinto). As a result, it seemedmore appropriate to talk about anoverestimation of external actors'influence (S. Panebianco). Forinstance, the new media used duringthe revolts (such as TVs, mobilephones and internet) created newpowerful platforms able to aggregateand stimulate transition processes

which brought the individual at thecenter of these political changes (D.Melfa & G. Nicolosi).

On this purpose, Stefania Panebianco

introduced a new interpretativeperspective concerning the recentrevolts in North-Africa, focusing onthe individual as the key actor duringthe first phase of the reform process.

Panel 2 on From iron fist to popularprotests : the Southern shore ofMediterranean mainly dealt with thelocal actors' role in the reformationprocess taking place in the Southernshore of the Mediterranean and theinfluence of Islam. A great variety ofcase-studies and perspectives ofanalysis was provided.

The international Conference onWinds of Democratic Change in theMediterranean? Actors, Processes andPossible Outcomes, which took place

th st

on 19 -21 May in Catania at theFacul ty o f Po l i t ica l Sc ience,represented the major event of theE U D E M p r o j e c t . T h e t i t l emeaningfully illustrates the focus ofthis Jean Monnet Information andResearch Activity funded by the LLPand represents thefil rouge linking allthe papers presented at the EUDEMConference. There is currently a livelydebate on the recent events affectingthe MENA (Middle East and NorthAfrica) region and there is a commonview that scholars should advance theexisting democratization literature.

Actors, processes and possibleoutcomes of the so-called ArabSpring have been discussedanalytically during this two-dayconference. The Conference wasopened with a quotation of FernandBraudel, who is one of the most famousscholars defining the Mediterraneanas a region. By quoting Braudel, boththe Dean of the Faculty, prof. Barone,and the Director of the Department ofPolitical Studies, prof. Ligresti, wishedthe creation of a common area based

upon close political, cultural andeconomic relations among the twoshores of the Mediterranean.

Two important aspects emergedduring Panel 1 onDemocratic changein the Mediterranean area: the EU'srole. First of all, it was stressed theexternal actors' difficulty to promotedemocratic regimes in the area. Greatattention was devoted to theEuropean Union (EU), which mightstand as the most relevant actor in theregion. The institutional changesintroduced by the Lisbon Treaty -

namely the creation of a PermanentPresidency within the EuropeanCouncil, a new role for the CommonForeign and Secur i ty Pol icy(CFSP)High Representative and thecreation of an External Action Service- seemed to reflect a more ambitious


EUDEM CONFERENCE REPORTWINDS OF DEMOCRATIC CHANGE IN THEMEDITERRANEAN? ACTORS, PROCESSES AND POSSIBLEOUTCOMES - CATANIA, 19-21 MAY 2011

EUDEM


11/12

Laura Guazzone focused on therelationship between Islam and theEgyptian transition, which has beenhardened by the ambiguous roleplayed by the Muslim Brotherhood. Infact, the movement has preserved hislinks with the regime renouncing todirect opposition and to a clearpolitical project. The Tunisian casewas treated by Beatrice Hibou, whotalked about an imaginative andauthoritarian reformism as adistinguishing feature of the countryduring the XX century. An exceptionwithin this framework is representedby the Turkish case (J.F. Bayart). Itstands as a viable compromisebetween Islam and a modern statestructure, economically dynamic andpolitically democratic. However,Turkish features are strictly Turkish-specific and can be hardly foundelsewhere. Finally, the issue of theItalian colonial legacy in Libya wasaddressed. Federico Cresti illustrateda schizophrenic relationship whichstarted in 1943 and came to an end in2008 thanks to the Friendship Treaty -rooted on contrasting interpretationsof the colonial period.

Day two of the conference addresseda fundamental issue of democraticchange: why is this processhappening? What is the driving forceo f t h i s c h a n g e ? P a n e l 3 o nPhilosophical perspectives on rights,justice and democracytouched on thephilosophical and ethical roots of thishistorically complex bond. Thepanelists questioned the idea that we-as European, as academics-hold ofthe EU-MENA relationship. We cannothelp thinking of the EU-MENArelationship through the lenses ofhierarchy founded on a misleading



'tolerance' of diversity. While thisargument leaves room for anoptimistic agenda of growing mutual'respect' (I. Carter), the EU suffersfrom an inner 'liberal' bias that makesit think of its southern partners insheer terms of utility. Accordingly,every time the EU decides whether ornot to help a neighbor in developingits own democratic process, the roomfor 'joint ownership' decreases.Tolerance, that is, can become ameans of exclusion (F. Sciacca). Thediversity underlying the EU-MENArelations needs to become not aproblem for the EU to solve, butrichness for the whole Mediterraneanto harness. The inconsistency of thishypocritical conditional approach is,unfortunately, a structural deficiencyof EU policy in the areaclimatechange policy in the African ofcontinent (F. Cerutti) and theliberation vs. liberty contradiction ofthe NATO armed intervention in Libya(B. Spoto) being just two notoriousexamples.

This ethical concern was apparent inthe contributions to panel 4 on Ademocratic contagion in the MENAregion?. The contributors haveinvestigated the process leading fromthe Euro-Mediterranean Partnership(EMP) to the ENP, highlighting acontroversial move from an idealisticperspective to a more pragmaticstandpoint, from ethics towardsinterests (P. Bauer). The recentdevelopment of the Union for theMediterranean (UfM) somewhatc o m e s f u l l c i r c l e w i t h t h i s'hypocritical' trajectory (P. Seeberg).Beginning with the 1972 GlobalMediterranean Policy through theestablishment of the UfM in 2008, EU

Member States have pursued specificinterests that, at times, have been bestachieved behind the curtain ofauthoritarian regimes.

The panels also provided insights intothe bottom-up dimension of thisrelationship. As the EU proved anunreliable and incoherent examplefor democratic 'exports', peoples inthe Mediterranean countries havebeen exploring ways to grow

democratic from the inside of theirown societies. Open communicationand the exchange of information andknowledge via internet and socialnetworks, for instance, have proved tobe powerful means of socialisationwith democracy, civic dialogue, andemancipation (K. Ebermann).Significant field data, moreover, haveshown that the perception ofdemocracy in the MENA countries-asa complex concept includingparliamentarism, tolerance, andequality-is much stronger than EU

policy makers had predicted (D. DiMauro). Besides the need for anefficient institutional machinery, theu r g e f o r d e m o c r a c y i n t h eneighboring countries of theMediterranean basin is-first of all-acall for equity and involvement.

C a s e - s t u d i e s a n d r e c e n tdevelopments in the region were alsoaddressed by the students' reports onthe role that the media and non-governmental organisations playedin the recent events in the region, aswell as on the prospects for human

rights and democratic development.The EUDEM project offered to aselected group of MA students thepossibility to carry out first-handresearch, ideally linking theirfindings to the more analytically

University of Catania

Faculty of Political Science


12/12

democracy in the MENA Region andthe distinctive contribution of civilsociety actors. The Newsletter willpresent also the main results of the

EUDEM students networks researchfocused upon civil society, inparticular the results of a survey onSicilian NGOs, and a report on EUDemocracy Assistance (EIDHR II).

The entire EUDEM project, in fact, wasbased on the assumption that theactive involvement of both civilsociety actors and young people is aneffective approach to politicalchange. Active participation of non-governmental actors represents asignificant experience of pluralismand political participation, key factors

of democratic practices that arisefrom local and diversified arenas. Theyouth involvement may indicate thatd e m o c r a c y h a s b e c o m e awidespread request and politicalchanges will be backed also in thenext future. The NGOs widecooperation strategies with MENAcountries and the different ways usedby civil society actors to establishdialogues with political institutionswere observed mainly through thelenses of an empirical surveyconducted by young researchers.

Also the dire ct pract ices o fcooperation experienced by somestudents involved in the EUDEMproject revealed to be fruitfulresources for promoting politicalchanges which should be furtherdeveloped.

The Arab Spring has shown that youthand the grass-roots network can playa significant role in blowing the windsof democratic change.

Rosa Rossi (PhD, EUDEM Tutor,University of Catania)

The Round Table (RT) on HumanRights and Democracy Promotion: theRole of Civil Society and the Bottom-UpStrategies that ended the EUDEMCatania Conference of last May 2011gave voice to many civil societyrepresentatives. The RT, withoutneglecting the pitfalls of internationalcooperation projects, drew theattention on civil societys concreteexperiences and their potentiality inthe democratization process.

These projects will be illustrated inthe next EUDEM Newsletter, whichwill be a thematic newsletter devotedto bottom-up strategies promoting

IN THE NEXTISSUE:

A GLIMPSE ONCIVIL SOCIETY

PROJECTS

-sound and scholarly contributionsof junior researchers and PhDcandidates from all over Europe andthe Mediterranean.

The PhD sessions spanned from thetheory of shared internationalgovernance, to the economics ofdemocracy promotion; from thec r u c i a l i s s u e o f e n e r g yinterdependence between Europeand the Mediterranean partners tothe religious cleavages that the EU isunable to sedate in the area. Finally, aRound Table RT on bottom-upapproaches including voices, actors,and testimonies from civil societyconcluded the works o f theconference. The RT participants camef r o m d i v e r s e b a c k g r o u n d s( i n t e r n a t i o n a l N G O s , l o c a ldevelopment projects, religiouscharities, advocacy groups) anddescribed a lively portrait of bottom-up actions of democratisation in theMENA region. Stories of localdevelopment projects; best practicesof coordination between the twoshores of the Mediterranean; storiesof immigration and integration ofcultural roots and families, all provedthat, besides the high politicsinvolved, an actual and matureprocess of democratisation still has tospring from the people engaged in it,at all levels. Moreover, great thrustcame from the audience: challenging

questions were raised, replies fromthe contributors often transformedinto gripping debates that once andagain emphasized the tight linkbetween the languages of theacademia and practitioners, and thefeedback from the public. Theanalysis of several case-studieshighlighted important aspects.

The reformation process in theMediterranean must be analyzedthrough a broad perspective takinginto account the religious, the local,the regional and the international

a c t o r s ' r o l e a s w e l l a s t h emultidimensional tools they use topromote democratic change.

By giving for granted that the recentevents have altered the so called A r a b e x c e p t i o n a l i s m a n dauthoritarianism as persistent andunchangeable conditions, we cannotassume a prioria clear path towardsdemocratization since the outcomesof this process depends on a greatmultitude of internal and externalfactors.

The analysis of the actors influencingthe contemporary transition processtaking place in the MENA regionshowed that the final outcome is stillunknown. Yet it is too early to predict

whether a democratic path will follow.

Andrea Ciambra (PhD candidate,University of Trento)

Angela Pennisi (PhD candidate,University of Catania)

EUDEM Newsletter No. 2 May /2011

eu dem newsletter 2

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