CAIRO: The advent of blogs and other free online tools has created a state of integration between the internet, human rights organizations and the media, agreed Egyptian and Arab bloggers, activists and media representatives Thursday evening. A workshop organized by the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information from Feb. 20 to 21 concluded a series of workshops held earlier on the integration between the internet and human rights organizations. The workshop recommended conducting courses on the utilization of online tools to serve the human rights cause, documenting success stories of bloggers, and building a portal to act as a regional community, making use of the Korean model "Oh My News International . It was also decided that a task force be formed to carry out the idea. According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Communications and IT, there are 8.62 million internet users in Egypt. "This number is likely to be far bigger if we calculate the people who don't own computers and go to cyber cafes and others who [illegally] share the broadband subscriptions within buildings, said award-winning blogger Wael Abbas. For the past few years, the Egyptian online community has been acting as a virtual megaphone for Egypt's burgeoning opposition movement. Bloggers have become important sources for media outlets. "Even those who don't use the internet hear about the news the media derive from blogs on satellite TV channels, newspapers, SMS and through the word of mouth, Abbas explained. In the concluding session, meanwhile, participants engaged in a debate over each party's role, and the relationship between the media on the one hand and the human rights organizations and bloggers on the other. While journalists believe that bloggers have to differentiate between reporting news objectively and writing their own visions, the online writers say they are not meant to serve the media. "This is nonsense because, for example, on opposition and independent newspapers, you find the writers' opinions inside the news item, while on state-owned papers, reporters express the government's stance and achievements, Abbas argued. Alarabiya.net reporter Anas Fouda called on human rights organizations and bloggers to format their press releases and posts based on the journalists' mentality. "Human rights activists are required to write their messages in a way attracting the media's attention, not just a statement condemning an act, Fouda said "We are not seeking to turn bloggers into journalists. Rather, we are talking here about a blogger who chose to act as a public or a citizen journalist. However, Gamal Eid, legal researcher and executive director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information is of a different view. "I am free as a human rights activist or a blogger in the way I write information, while a journalist can tackle the case the way he or she wants, Eid argued. "Some cases we publish are interesting to the media while others aren't. Blogger Manal Hassan believes that "media organizations should exert effort to derive the information they need from a blogger's post.
