Reporting on the "Arab Spring"
Jon Snow, Jeremy Bowen and Dr Zahera Harb discuss media coverage of the Arab revolts at an event held by the Olive Tree Forum at City University, 21 March 2012
Big names passing on their wisdom @jfjbowen @jonsnowC4 and the good Dr Harb #mediaOTforum http://pic.twitter.com/d0ro2gfh
Dr Zahera Harb: not just the west shocked by the revolts, we in the Arab world were also shocked #mediaotforum
The only truth in Syria is that civilians are victims and human rights abuses are occurring on both sides-Dr Zahera Harb #mediaotforum
#mediaOTforum in Syria both govt and rebels are competing to gain narrative supremacy says Zahera Harb and finishes to large applause
Proof that #mediaotforum influences things - Jeremy Bowen trending on Twitter tonight. @cityjournalism http://pic.twitter.com/Y1lxBXT7
"no country is immune to these changes" Jeremy Bowen. He says we have entered a period of change that may well last a decade #mediaOTforum
Bowen: Even the organisers of the Tahrir Sq protests had no idea how big it was going to be. Took everyone by surprise #mediaOTforum
RT @georgielw: Tahrir sq a perfect media event...dramatic, important and importantly short says @jfjbowen #mediaOTforum
J Bowen: BBC budgeters wanted Arab Spring to be over by summer, after Egypt a sense of "where do we go next"? #mediaotforum- Bowen: in Tahrir Sq ppl intoxicated with the thought of speaking freely to the cameras, asking "why aren't you filming it" #mediaotforum
You want to get a good clip from someone coherent - so you pick people who think the same way that you do. Bowen #mediaOTforum- J. Bowen - the only way I got the last interview with Gaddafi was because of my friendship with Marie Colvin. #mediaOTforum
Guy in the audience asks for advice on going to Syria in a few weeks. Awkward silence #goodluck #mediaOTforum- J Bowen: Reporting in Syria was less restricted than I expected. "I felt I got a 360 degree view of what was going on" #mediaotforum
I started a queue after #mediaOTforum to get a picture with my hero @jonsnowC4. Here I am with the legend :) http://pic.twitter.com/ZoJk6FWb
Snow: We didn't do terribly well in coverage of Arab Spring. Each story was unique. The temptation to roll each story into one #mediaotforum- Jon Snow: on arriving at Tahrir Square assumed it would be a committed religious uprising but soon realised the mix of people #mediaotforum
@jonsnowC4 recalls moment an Egyptian expat cried in the c4 studio while on a two way with his son in Tahrir square #mediaotforum- .@jonsnowc4 regrets how western media failed to cover revolts in Saudi Arabia - didn't really understand what was going on #mediaOTforum
- Jon Snow: Bahrain covered badly because difficult to cover and brutal set up for press #mediaotforum
Jon Snow #mediaOTforum London putting pressure on media to find those wanting to impose Shahria law and scare the pants off us
