| Renowned Middle East journalist and author Robert Fisk delivered a talk in downtown Tunis this week, touching on subjects ranging from nuclear weapons in Iran to the growing influence of Al Jazeera in the Middle East. The talk concluded the first project of the Journalism Foundation, a non-profit devoted to promoting free press around the world and headed by Simon Kelner, former editor-in-chief of British daily The Independent. The project featured experts from the City University of London, who attended the conference to train young Tunisian journalists on the subject of, 'how to report in a democracy.' Fisk, never one to shy away from a controversial issue, took advantage of his time in the country, widely regarded as the birthplace of the Arab Spring, to lay out his theory that the movement, or the "Arab awakening" as he preferred to call it, actually began in Lebanon in 2005. Fisk saw a continuity between the 2005 revolt against Syrian influence in Lebanon, the protests against the fraudulent elections in Iran in 2009, and the series of uprisings following Tunisia's ouster of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. Addressing the crowd, Fisk acknowledged Tunisia's contribution: "Of course, you have the spark, Mr. Bouazizi." To a room filled with Tunisian reporters comprising both the old guard and the new post-Ben Ali cadre, Fisk issued an impassioned plea for journalists to go beyond the official discourse of governments and give voice to the powerless. He accused, in particular ... |
