Last week I spoke at one of the strangest conferences, in one of the most far flung places, I've ever been to - the Eurasian Media Forum
in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The conference brings together journalists,
business leaders, academics and politicians for two days of discussion
ranging from news coverage of global events such as the current
economic crisis to the implications of the Obama Presidency on
East-West relations.
I went, at least in part, in the hope that
by talking about the tools and techniques of blogging and social media,
I could encourage delegates to think about being more open, transparent
and direct in their dealings with audiences, consumers and, for the
politicians in attendance, the populaces they govern. It was my usual
sort of presentation but in unusual circumstances because, little did I
know as I was speaking, something rather unusual was going on outside
the building. Dan Kennedy covered the action outside, and what happened
in the subsequent panel which we both participated in, on his blog Media Nation:
"The InterContinental Hotel
in Almaty, Kazakhstan, is about as isolating an experience as you can
imagine. The luxurious surroundings — and the ever-present security
guards — effectively separated the several hundred journalists
attending last week's Eurasian Media Forum from whatever was going on outside.
So
it was something of a surprise when that separation was breached last
Friday afternoon. Between a panel on the global media crisis, which I
moderated, and a panel on blogging, in which I participated, several
people approached us with handouts, warning of proposed laws that would
crack down on Kazakhstan's burgeoning blogosphere. We exchanged
pleasantries, and that seemed to be that.
Then, during the
blogging panel, one of them — an audacious 24-year-old woman named
Yevgeniya Plakhina, wearing a shirt that proclaimed "SHHH!" — got up
and demanded to know why six of her friends had been arrested for
demonstrating against the proposals.
The moderator, Vladimir
Rerikh, a Kazakh journalist, clearly wanted the issue, and Plakhina, to
go away. But Danny Schechter, a well-known American progressive
journalist, spoke up on Plakhina's behalf, and she was able to continue
pressing her case. (Here is Schechter's account.)
The organizer of the conference, Dariga Nazarbayeva, the daughter of
President Nursultan Nazarbayev, could be seen talking on her cell
phone, leaving the hall and returning several times..."
Local campaigners fear that the law in question, explains Matthew Collin
[on the Frontline Club blog - a Headshift project] who reports for Al
Jazeera from Georgia and was another of the panelists in the blogging
session, would "put serious restrictions on internet journalists
and bloggers and potentially allow the authorities to block sites on
political grounds."
Danny Schechter reports that the arrested protesters were later freed by authorities, quoting an email he received from Plakhina, which read “I really appreciate your help. Thanx. My friends are OK. I guess the
authorities were afraid of international scandal, so an advisor to the
president took care of letting my friends out..."
Needless to say, the panel discussion didn't exactly go as those of us on it had planned, nor - I suspect - as the organisers had intended. But I'm glad it happened - the protest I mean - and hope that, by being one of the many foreign participants in the conference, just being there helped ensure that the protesters and their colleagues both reach a wider audience with their appeal and remain safe from arrest whilst doing so.
The whole incident reminded me that media freedom is a precious, and all to rare, freedom. And blogging is, I think, an important tool for helping those who are brave enough to fight for it to make themselves heard. It's a long long way from the worlds of media and corporate blogging which I usually inhabit to the scenes I at least partially witnessed in Almaty but I hope that, some day, when they've won their fight for rights, blogging will become as everyday and mundane - and safe - as it is for me and most of you reading this.
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