North African bloggers discuss ethics in journalism and tolerance

2006-10-04

This week, bloggers talked about perceived childish Arab journalism, patriotism and the new film "Indigènes ".

[Getty Images] The main cast and director of "Indigènes " at the Palme d'Or award ceremony.

After the publication of his article about the Pope's speech on Aljazeera.net, Tunisian blogger Tarek Kahlaoui was stunned by angry responses he received from some of the readers, "including a dawa'a [prayer] to be thrown in hell".

On his blog, Reflections on Islamic Art and Architecture, he complained about how his report was "factually-twisted … instead of saying that I simply mentioned reports that are already out there in the Arab media (not only in the Western media) … they simply attributed to me this very view as if I'm one of its sources ... Just another example of how classically-childish Arab journalism can be -- copy and paste and don't bother to seriously read and investigate."

Tunisian blogger Powered by napo has put forward some ground rules for the blogosphere.

"I’ve been scouring recent posts in the infamous Tunisian blog community and I can't believe how intolerant people have become with each other. One of the patterns I keep increasingly noticing is debate turning into personal attacks, intimidation or even vendetta," he noted.

"Attack the ideas and not the person," suggested the blogger.

Citoyen Hmida wants two Moroccan television channels to stop airing advertisements during ftour.

"They are making fun of us at the time of the day when we are supposed to be in a familial, societal and religious communion. At the Ftour time, RTM (Moroccan Radio and Television) and 2M sneak in a deluge of advertisements after 45 minutes of ibtihalat. No respect for that special moment of the day!" complained the Moroccan blogger.

In her post "Remise en question patriotique" (Patriotism Put into Question), Marocaine au Cair explains why the new Moroccan generation is the way it is.

"The problem is that as a Moroccan citizen, the institutions are not talking to me and do not communicate with me. And the little communication we exchange is disastrous … My country belongs to me, but it does not want to accept me … My country I love … I have the urge to leave it because it ignores me … but I am not going to leave it to others!" she explained.

Comme une bouteille jetée a la mer blogged about the new film "Indigènes" (Days of Glory) by Algerian director Rachid Bouchareb. Released on Wednesday (27 September) in Paris, the film has created discussion on the Maghreb blogosphere.

The film relives the events of the Second World War when the French Army, which included many recruited soldiers from North Africa, sought to avoid control by German commissioners and the Vichy authorities.

The film tells the story of the "Indigènes" (natives) through Abdelkader, Saïd, Messaoud and Yassir, a mobile corps sent to the front line to free France.

"Indigènes is a simple film, but very moving, very sad ... there are films that we should see and 'Indigènes' is one of them. A posthumous tribute in honour of all those who died for France," noted the Moroccan blogger.