Digital-divide issues blindside ethnic communities

By Jehangir Khattak;

Jehangir Khattak (3rd from L) at a panel at the National Conference for Media Reforms in Boston.

Participants of the forum at the National Conference for Media Reform in Boston.

NEW YORK CITY—When AT&T started capping customer’s Internet usage on May 2, one person paying closer attention than she might have before was Aleksandra Slabisz, a journalist at the New York-based Polish Daily/Nowy Dziennik. 

AT&T’s decision to charge extra fees to customers who use more gigabytes per month over certain capped limits means that many of Slabisz’s Polish-language readers--and countless other ethnic and community news consumers--will get hit in the pocketbook with little warning for new overage fees of $10 for every additional 50GB of data. That may not sound like much, but the fees can mount and hit lower-income people hard.

AT&T will offer its subscribers an initial two grace periods so they won’t actually be charged more until the third month after going over the cap, but the additional cost will catch many unaware soon enough. That’s why ethnic and community news outlets need to begin reporting on media policy developments, such as these new fees—and translating their complexities and impacts in terms anyone can understand.

Learning how to humanize the widening stream of complex media policy issues for ethnic and community audiences will be critical to closing the digital divide between media haves and have-nots, according to journalists and media-reform advocates, who attended the National Conference for Media Reform in Boston last month.

Slabisz is among numerous ethnic media journalists exploring how to cut through the jargon and complicated tech-talk for their audiences. Community voices will be lost in vital media debates unless readers in all languages learn about issues, such as Net neutrality (keeping Internet access open as possible without gatekeepers controlling cost or content), broadband access or crucial decisions being made by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

“I think the participation in the Boston conference further encouraged me to dig in the topic,” Slabisz said. “I think I have a better understanding of many problems, not to mention that media policy issues are important for our community.”

The Boston conference, which drew thousands of media professionals and advocates nationwide, was organized by Free Press, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to reform the media. 

Free Press made special efforts to bring the ethnic and community media into the national debate by facilitating participation of ethnic media journalists from across the nation and including several conference sessions on diverse media policy issues. Especially significant for Slabisz and others attending the conference was its "Information Exchange Forum for Ethnic Media and Media Advocates."

Attended by more than 50 journalists and advocates, the Information Exchange addressed steps ethnic and community media can take to increase coverage of media policy issues and how to improve the quality of current reporting. They also examined the role of media policy advocates in crafting the best course for effective messaging on these issues and what steps they should take.

The information exchange was developed with Free Press by the New York Community Media Alliance and G.W. Williams Center for Independent Journalism, a San Francisco-based nonprofit, which develops national reporting projects to support more ethnic journalists, women and youth. 

“I plan to write more stories on media policy issues,” said Jessica Xu, a senior reporter at theWorld Journal, New York’s biggest Chinese daily. She said the event convinced her that journalists from ethnic and community media need more training, resources and access to experts for writing well-framed stories grounded in the communities.

Xu stated, “We need to learn how to explain these technical terms to normal people. They care about how much money it costs and what functions it has. We need to translate these terms into plain English, and that’s the biggest challenge for reporters.” 

“I have no idea what media policy means to me and to my readers,” Mohsin Zaheer, editor ofSada-e-Pakistan, told participants. He noted communities face language barriers—on top of such confusing jargon as “net neutrality” and “digital divide.”

At the exchange session, John Rudolph, executive producer of the radio show Feet in Two Worlds, advised, “If you approach media policy as a policy story, every body’s eyes glaze over. I think we have to humanize it.” 

Ivan Roman, executive director of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, observed that ethnic community reporters need to break policy stories for their readers into fragments focusing on personal or local effects of an issue.

Freelancer Victor Merina, a former Los Angeles Times reporter and correspondent for the Native American news website Reznet, said, “I think there is a real opportunity for advocates, when there is a national story, to actually localize it for the community.” He also suggested that the reporters think about stories in multiple layers, the political, human and economic story. 

Joshua Brietbart, senior field analyst for the Open Technology Initiative at New American Foundation and formerly the policy director at People’s Production House, noted, “People think it’s amazing that advocates can follow policy.” 

But, alluding to an article in Sada-e-Pakistan about unusual ways New York’s Pakistani community is finding to close their digital divide, Brietbart continued, “I think it’s amazing that Mohsin Zaheer can go to Coney Island and find the tax attorney who has the Internet connection an entire community uses. There are so many pieces to the [media] ecosystem, and they are all critical to getting the story out.”

Joe Torres of Free Press encouraged participants to learn complicated media issues through continuous coverage: “Over time it’s going to start making sense. It just takes time; it’s not an easy issue at all.”

Jehangir Khattak, Communications Manager of New York Community Media Alliance (NYCMA), wrote this article as part of a partnership between NYCMA, the G.W. Williams Center for Independent Journalism and New America Media, in a media policy reporting fellowship sponsored by The Media Consortium.

American Muslims feel elated at Osama bin Laden’s elimination

By Jehangir Khattak

Muslim community in the United States has received the news of death of Osama bin Laden in a military operation in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad with a sense of relief and in the hope that it will turn a new page in U.S. relations with Muslims at home and overseas.

Leading Islamic organizations and civil rights groups are calling the death of the Al Qaeda leader as the evil face of global terrorism who met justice. American-Muslim community organizations were quick to welcome the killing of world's most wanted man. Blogs and social media were filled with reactions from the community. Their wording was varied, but the message was identical – bin Laden did not represent the Muslims in any way. Muslim organizations also welcomed President Barack Obama's declaration that America was not at war with Islam.

The nation's leading Muslim civil rights group, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), said bin Laden "never represented Muslims or Islam." In a statement issued hours after President Obama announced bin Laden's death, it said: "We join our fellow citizens in welcoming the announcement that Osama bin Laden has been eliminated as a threat to our nation and the world through the actions of American military personnel."

Plainfield, Indiana-based Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) in a separate statement said the ideology of bin Laden is incompatible with Islam. It hoped Osama's death would bring some relief to all the families, of every faith and walk of life, who lost loved ones on 9/11 and in every other terrorist attack orchestrated at the hands of Osama. 

Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), a New York-based Muslim community organization, called Osama "a serious threat to the security of America and the world" and termed his removal "a significant turning point in the post-9/11 global War on Terror." ICNA hoped that the Obama administration will use "this pivotal moment as an opportunity to rapidly end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and ensure the safe return of our troops."

Washington DC-based Muslim Public Affairs Council, a public service agency working for the civil rights of American Muslims and for the integration of Islam into American pluralism, said Osama's actions and those of Al-Qaeda had violated the sacred Islamic teachings upholding the sanctity of all human life. "We hope this is a turning point away from the dark period of the last decade, in which bin Laden symbolized the evil face of global terrorism," said MPAC President Salam Al-Marayati. He pointed out that Osama's senseless terror "had been met with moral outrage by Muslims worldwide at every turn in the past decade." 

Americans of Pakistani origin, the country where bin Laden was hiding, also expressed their elation at the news. Some in the community recalled the humiliation that they had to face in the post 9/11 period in the West, especially in the United States, while others questioned the Administration's wisdom of not releasing the photos of Osama's corpse.

"The Pakistani community is very happy. But everyone is in suspense wondering if he is really dead or not because photo of his dead body has so far not been released by the U.S. authorities," said Mujeeb Lodhi, Publisher ofPakistan News, a New York-based Urdu language weekly. Lodhi said he heard many in the Pakistani community questioning the hurry that was displayed in burying Osama's body in the sea. "We have yet to see if the dead Osama will be more dangerous than when he was alive," he added. According to Lodhi, many Pakistanis felt unhappy at the growing hostility towards Pakistan in the mainstream media without recognizing the sacrifices that Pakistanis made in the war against terror. Pakistan says 30,000 of its citizens have fallen prey to terrorism since 9/11 and the country has sustained losses to the tune of $68 billion.

Mohsin Zaheer, another New York-based senior community journalist and editor of Sada-e-Pakistan, reminded those questioning the death of Osama in a Pakistani garrison town not to forget that his death on Pakistani soil proved "that Pakistan was not a safe place for bin Laden."

The Pakistani American Leadership Center (PAL-C), a Washington DC-based Pakistani community organization that lobbies on Capitol Hill, termed Osama's death as "a successful outcome of the U.S.-Pakistan security partnership." In a statement, it also referred to the growing criticism of Pakistan in the U.S. media by saying: "As we demand justice we must ensure that we do not act unjustly."

Goatmilk, a California-based blog run by playwright, journalist, attorney and humorist Wajahat Ali, was one of several Muslim community blog sites that carried mixed reactions to Osama's killing.

"With the passing of a man who came to represent violence and hate overseas, incite ignorance and misunderstanding within our own nation, and become the face of an agonizing war, I pray that our leaders turn this into a turning point in our history, bring our brave troops back home to safety, and allow for the suffering peoples of Afghanistan and Pakistan to establish the peace and security they have been longing for," wrote Hammad Moses Khan from Sacramento, CA.

"I'm Egyptian American and when Mubarak fell, it was one of the happiest days of my life, and today is too," wrote Aya A. Khalil.

Another commentator, Art Balaoro wrote: "Though I am not Muslim, I was happy to hear President Obama reiterate in his global statement that it WAS NOT a war against Islam. Very happy to hear the promotion of racial, religious, and ethnic tolerance in a critical moment."

Maleeha Haq wrote: "I cannot bring myself to celebrate for the death of any person, even one as hateful as OBL. The celebrations of his death at Ground Zero and the White House etc. strike me as macabre. I think OBL was largely irrelevant at this point. I fear for the reactions of the terrorist groups he inspired, especially how they will affect the people of Pakistan."

Bin laden's death reminded Zahir Janmohamed of the post 9/11 discrimination against Muslims: "Like all Americans, I am elated that Osama bin Laden is dead. This is indeed a day to celebrate and Americans deserve this day.  But I am also reflective on all that occurred in the name of 9/11. I am thinking about watching my friends lined up in humiliation for "special registration" at a U.S. government office in 2003 because they were born in Iran. I am thinking about greeting my cousins from Pakistan at the LAX airport in 2002, who were in tears because of the questions they were subjected to by the DHS staff. And I am reflective of the tragedies the Bush administration created in the name of 9/11: the prison at Guantanamo and the Afghanistan war. The pain of 9/11 will endure, just as the pain of what was created in response to 9/11 will also endure."

While the American-Muslim community was quick to celebrate bin Laden's elimination, reports of hate attacks on Muslims in California and vandalism at a mosque in Maine sent new fears amongst pockets of Muslim communities across the nation about a possible backlash.

The Portland, Maine police are investigating the anti-Islam graffiti, which included: "Osama today, Islam tomorrow (sic);" "Long live the West;" and "Free Cyprus," painted on the exterior of the Maine Muslims Community Center sometime between late Sunday night and Monday morning (May 2).

"We ask Americans of all faiths to reject intolerance and to send a message of national unity to the rest of the world," said CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper. "We urge state law enforcement authorities and the FBI to investigate this incident as a hate crime."