The state of Arab Public Opinion

Until an objective claim is made regarding the Arab citizen’s access to information, it is as yet premature to speak of a representative public opinion or a true budding democracy in the region. There have been two recent and important roundtables touching on the issue of the formation of public opinion have taken place. The first was a conference held in Rabat, Morocco on ‘Fostering dialogue among cultures and civilizations through concrete and sustained initiatives, and the other a workshop in Beirut on ‘New media and socio political change in the Arab world’.  Having participated in both, I can say that the two three-day discussions contributed to the ongoing search for realistic means towards a more peaceful global interaction. Given the region – and particular country – in which we live, the discussions brought to the surface a pertinent question: to what extent is the Arab citizen allowed the ‘appropriate’