This week on The Listening Post an edition devoted to media coverage of one of the most tragic and misunderstood crises in Africa: the humanitarian disaster in the Darfur region of Sudan.
After five years of conflict, thousands dead and millions displaced, the ongoing conflict has become a touchstone issue for humanitarian campaigners in the West.
The human drama that has unfolded has struck a resonant chord in the western psyche, thanks in no small measure to emotive coverage in the media.
This has been amplified by a slick and celebrity-filled campaign to pressure the wider world into taking on the Sudanese government over their culpability in the disaster. But have the media over-simplified the problems of this troubled country? And is the media’s advocacy of intervention emboldening the rebels and prolonging the suffering of those caught in the crossfire?
In part two, we look at the coverage of the crisis in the Arab media. The Arabic-speaking government of Sudan are very much seen as the bad guys by the western media, but this is an uncomfortable framing of events for those in the Arab world, many with close ties to Khartoum.
The nature of the conflict has similarities to Iraq as an insurgent civil uprising, but Sudan, while 40 per cent Arab, is a long way from the Gulf.
The Listening Post’s Salah Khadr finds out why Arab journalists are staying away and what this means for perceptions of Sudan in the Arab media.
We also have a beginner’s guide to Sudanese media, looking at TV, radio, newsprint and the government censors that control them. How does Sudan rate in the world league of free media?
Our internet video of the week offers a possible glimpse of the future of rock music. No humans in sight as New Zealand robot group The Trons rehearse their next big hit.
