Monday’s Early Alert focused solely on Libya. Topics covered were: reaction to the UN’s decision to impose sanctions Qaddafi (El Mundo headlines “Qaddafi becomes a pariah”), commentary on Qaddafi’s future as ruler of Libya (Polska: “Qaddafi’s days are numbered”), the calls by some for the West to “do everything to protect the people in Libya” (Blid), and the general perception that “the United States, after some initial hesitation, seems determined to take the lead” (El Pais). In the afternoon, I sat in on a series of interviews of current or past participants in the Fulbright scholarship.
Tuesday’s Early Alert also centered on Libya, and coverage concentrated on the debate over whether the West should intervene militarily in Libya. For instance, a commentary in the Daily Telegraph argues that “The Libyans cannot be left to a terrible fate,” and adds “An array of voices are arguing that if Gaddafi begins to exterminate Libyan citizens… then the world will have a duty to intervene.”Others, however, urge caution. For instance, Süddeutsche editorializes: “Europe and the US are only calming their conscience by discussing imposing a no-fly zone over Libya. This will not decide the power struggle between Qaddafi and his opponents… If the international community wanted to interfere militarily, it would have to send ground troops, which it will not do. First, the interim government in Bengasi does not want foreign troops in the country.... Secondly, the West could not justify the mission to its people.” We also wrote a section on speculation about “What comes after Qaddafi?” (El Mundo).
We also wrote on Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan’s highly controversial speech in Düsseldorf, Germany. There are several million people of Turkish background in Germany, many of whom are guestworkers who started to Germany in the 1960s or their children or grandchildren, and questions over integration, culture, etc have long simmered. On Monday, during a visit to Germany, PM Erdogan gave a speech to an assembly of over 10,000 Turks in Germany, mentioning his “growing unease” about the way immigrants are treated in Germany. Tuesday’s edition of The Guardian headlined “Erodgan tells Turks to resist assimilation into German society,” and La Croix noted that Erdogan was “fuel[ing] the German debate over immigration.” The popular German tabloid Bild Zeitung judged “Erdogan's sermon to be a provocation…With these remarks he is torpedoing… the difficult attempt to integrate the more than three million people with Turkish roots into Germany's society… This is shabby and irresponsible." Others, like Süddeutsche Zeitung, weren’t as outraged at Erdogan’s speech, though the paper pointed out that “If someone really should feel provoked by Erdogan's criticism of assimilation, then this should be the Kurds in Turkey. It would have been nice if all the critics grabbed Erdogan by the scuff of his neck and used his words at home in Diyarbakir or Ankara.” This is in reference to the long-standing dispute in Turkey over the status of the country’s large indigenous Kurdish minority - from 1984 to 1999 there was open warfare within Turkey between the military and the separatist, Kurdish PKK insurgents that devastated much of the predominantly Kurdish south-eastern provinces, killing many Turks and Kurds. Only in 2002 (under Erdogan's government) did Turkey pass laws allowing Kurdish-language radio and television broadcasts, though many points of contention remain (hence Süddeutsche Zeitung’s reference to Erdogan’s apparent hypocrisy in decrying assimilationist policies in Germany).
Tuesday afternoon Alec Ross, Secretary Clinton’s Senior Adviser for Innovation, visited the Media Hub for a video interview and then conference with staff from the Tri-mission embassies. In light of the Arab revolutions, in both the interview and conference Ross primarily talked about social media. In particular, I liked that Ross pointed out that while they played a role, social media tools like Facebook and Twitter did not cause the revolutions. I completely agree: while social media played a role, it’s definitely not the point of making these “Twitter Revolutions,” as some have sensationally called them. He also compared these tools to metal: just as metal can be fashioned into a hospital or a machete, the internet can be used for both peaceful and violent pursuits, as seen in how the internet both brings many people together around the world but also facilities global terrorist networks.
Wednesday’s Early Alert focused on Libya and also saw the return of the regional domino effect section. Libya angles included: reactions to Qaddafi’s bloody counterattack amidst what the UN warned was a refugee crisis as thousands attempted to flee to neighboring Tunisia, the question of whether a no-fly zone would be instituted, and speculation on how events in Libya would evolve. On the domino effect, we focused on revolts and sometimes violent reactions in Iran, Yemen, and, interestingly, Iraq.
In the middle of working on the Early Alert, I left to attend a ‘brown bag’ lunch with Ambassador Kennard and interns from the three embassies. The Ambassador talked on a number of issues. He mentioned that in his view there are three components to success: that you should always have a vision of where you are going, that you have to execute (or else it’s just a dream), and that you have to have some passion about what you want to do. The Ambassador also commented on attempts to fashion a common EU foreign policy, most notably the recently-created European External Action Service (EAS), which in some sense serves (or might one day serve) as the foreign ministry of the EU.
Wednesday afternoon I attended an interview strategies presentation by one of the other interns at the Media Hub. I’m of course not a journalism student, but several things stood out to me. One is that it often helps to ask an interviewee to repeat their answer to a question, as the second time through their answers are usually more concise with less “ums” or pauses, as they are no longer making up their answer as they go. Another tip is to keep natural sounds in videos. That’s hard to explain without an example… in the presentation that intern showed a clip from a story about a woman in America who creates paintings that memorialize fallen US soldiers. She (the intern) pointed out all the sounds in the segment that I normally would not pay much attention to, and as we paid close attention it was clear that the clip would have been a lot less effective had the only sound been people talking.
Thursday’s Early Alert covered three topics: Libya, Pakistan, and attacks on US soldiers in Germany. On Libya, we focused on the debate in the European press between those who warned against military intervention and those who say “A foreign intervention may become inevitable” (Slate.fr). For instance, Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza writes, “The military in Washington are dampening the enthusiasm of some experts and politicians who want to carry out a military action against the Qaddafi regime…. It seems, then, that strong statements from Hillary Clinton are rather psychological warfare aimed at encouraging the Libyan military to quit the dictator and join the revolution.” By contrast, the German Tagesspiegel comments: “The situation would change if Qaddafi was attempting to re-conquer the east, threatening bloodshed of revenge. Requests for help would follow and the world could no longer stand by and watch. It should be prepared for this.”
Our angle on Pakistan was the assassination of the country’s only Christian minister by Islamists. Something we also look for is whether right- and left-wing papers disagree or agree on an issue; the former isn’t exactly surprising, but the latter is notable. So I thought it significant that, for instance, Britain’s center-right Daily Telegraph and center-left Guardian both strongly condemned what they called the Pakistani government’s “appeasement” of extremists.
Our third topic was the killing of two US soldiers at Frankfurt Airport in Germany. Tagesspiegel reported that this was a “targeted attack on Americans” by a “suspect who has links to Islamists,” and Rzeczpospolita wonders whether it was a “terrorist attack” or an “act by a madman.” Our counterparts in Berlin reported that that morning the German N-TV mentioned that “Federal Prosecutors take over investigations” as “the German-Kosovo suspect has been unmasked as an Islamist,” who was fighting a “Holy War against infidels.”
Friday morning I did not do much on the Early Alert since I had the opportunity that day to go to NATO Headquarters for a tour by the Information Officer (IO) at the U.S. Mission to NATO. Since NATO is located far from the center of Brussels (not even reachable by metro), I took a taxi there and back. Coming from the Media Hub and it’s less-than-10 employees, NATO was huge – there are over 20 meeting rooms for Ambassadors, government officials, and journalists, and the last NATO Summit, held in Lisbon last November, featured heads of state and delegations from more than 50 countries and over 1,800 journalists! Since official business was taking place I unfortunately did not get the see NATO’s main summit room, though I did get to see parts of US Mission and had coffee and juice with the IO at NATO’s cafeteria.
A few of the topics we discussed…
- Something I was not aware of is that the Public Affairs Office at the U.S. Mission helps organize and coordinate week-long tours for journalists from NATO-member states and other countries to travel to Afghanistan. The office also brings international journalists to NATO so they can gain a better understanding of it operates, as well as learn about key U.S. foreign policy goals. Meanwhile, the Press Office within the U.S. Mission Public Affairs Office sets up meetings for journalists to interview the U.S. Ambassador and other officials at the Mission.
- At the last NATO Summit, the 28 NATO members agreed on a new Strategic Concept that will guide NATO operations over the next 10 years and which includes a crisis management role. Obviously that’s now a major issue with regard to Libya because if it isn’t a crisis, then what is?
- Another topic we discussed is a concern the IO deals with regularly: the question of what the U.S. Ambassador to NATO can and should say to the press. The Ambassador, of course, doesn’t want to get ahead of what the President, Secretary of State or Secretary of Defense are saying. Thus, one of the functions of the Mission’s Press Office is to produce regular summaries of speeches by and articles about top U.S. officials, which are shared with the Ambassador and other officials at the Mission. Perhaps in lieu of the Early Alerts I would have been analyzing official statements if I had interned at the Mission to NATO…
Once I got back to the Media Hub the Early Alert had already been mostly completed, but in the afternoon I discussed with my supervisor the new style we will use from here on at the request of Washington. The main difference is that we will now include one sentence summaries either in the headline of each section or as their first sentence that give an overview of the press. For instance, for our section on the reaction to continued violence in Libya we wrote “Events in Libya remain on front pages, but below the fold, of most European newspapers.” Also, on my suggestion, we might get rid of the usual section headers listing the country or topic (i.e. we no longer have a separate line just saying “LIBYA” before all the sections on Libya).
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