Ruled by Sharia laws, Saudi women have to face most severe reins, such as the dress code, sex segregation, male guardianship, not being able to vote and be elected to high political positions, and many others. Being “the lowest ranking country in Freedom House’s assessment of women’s rights in the Middle East and North Africa”, Saudi Arabia kingdom’s enforcement cause the country to be the only one in the world that doesn’t allow women to drive.

To stand for Saudi women’s one of the most basic rights, one brave Saudi women-rights activist, Manal al-Sharif posted to YouTube, a video of herself driving, and drove both her country’s and world’s attention. While Saudi authorities arrested her, she got the world’s admiration, and gave to the Women2Drive Campaign a voice.

The protest against the ban on women driving  actually first emerged in 1990 in Saudi Arabia, and concluded with the punishment of several women. This last incident of Manal-al Sharif, raised the voice of Saudi women once again.

“Manal al-Sharif, a 32-year-old computer security consultant, was arrested on 22 May, the day after she was stopped by police while driving in al-Khobar city in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province”, reported Amnesty International. Al-Sharif was released this week from Dammam prison, but as a condition of that she had to sign a pledge, which indicates that she will not take part in Women2Drive campaign. She also presented her apologies to the king, and declared that she appreciates her release.

Nonetheless Manal al-Sharif initiated the campaign, and Women2Drive did not lose its effect. Many Saudi women are uploading their videos filmed by their husbands, fathers, relatives and the campaign is growing from Facebook and Twitter .

Supporting the campaign, Freedom House , in its press release demands from Saudi Arabia, to fulfill their promises that has been given since 2008, regarding the lifting of the driving ban of women, and also to allow the campaign to take place in a peaceful environment.

The campaign encourages Saudi women with international driver licences, to drive on Saudi Arabia streets on 17th of June, and demands support from all around the world. It is about time for women to raise their voices against severe Saudi authority.

The article Women2Drive: Saudi Women’s Strive on June 17 appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

The face of the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi became the image for the new campaign of the German public television networks ARD and ZDF, promoting the freedom and the independence of the media.

Next to the image of the smiling Italian Premier appears the slogan “Democracy is only as strong as its media”. Simple and clear the recall to the Italian “special situation” regarding media freedom and the concentration of powers in the Prime Minister’s hands.

Mr Berlusconi is the owner of Mediaset, the largest broadcast media group in Italy, but that’s not all. He is also the main Italian publisher because he owns the publishing house Mondadori, which controls the 50 per cent of the books market and a very large share of that of magazine too. Moreover his family is the owner of the newspaper Il Giornale, that constantly expresses support to him and to his political party.

Being the Prime Minister, the head of the government, he also exerts a strong influence over the public television RAI, that has always been characterized by a historical politicization and conditioning from the government and the political parties.

During his various legislatures since 1994 – the current is the forth – were passed numerous laws which favoured Mr Berlusconi and his family’s enterprises also in the regulations of the media sector.

The particular situation of Italy in matter of media freedom is an actual anomaly. The conflict of interest of the Prime Minister, the concentration of the media, the strong political control of the governments alternatively in charge over the broadcasting service are the peculiarities of this anomaly.

Since 2004 Freedom House in reporting its results of an analysis about freedom of press and information in the world’s countries, defined Italy as “partly free” according to its position in the rank scale. 2010 results see Italy at 75 position, just before Bulgaria and Namibia, still defining it as partly free.

Many international institutions and organization – as “Special Rapporteur” of UN, OSCE Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, International Press Institute, Council of Europe, EFJ International Federation of Journalists, OSI Open Society Institute, IHF International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights – expressed their concern on the Italian situation of independence and freedom of media.

The OSCE reported about the conflict of interest: “In a democracy, it is incompatible to be both in command of news media and to hold a public post”.

On the same issue the International Press Institute “Italy has a special place in Europe with regard to freedom of the media because in no European country does the prime minister, the head of the government, who is the politician that can exert the most power over the state media, own most of the other broadcasting media, and many of the print media”.

The European Commission gave notice also of “the imbalance between press and television, that absorbs the 60 per cent of the overall mass media advertising spending; the substantial monopoly of privately-owned television, with Mediaset that continues to show a significant increase in income and revenues every year, thanks to the “dragging effect” of the “Berlusconi-Prime Minister” factor.

The problems of the Italian style democracy in the media sector – and in other fields as well – are well-known, but been an insider the consciousness of a real lack of independence in the media is stronger than out of the country.

Just who is used to watch the various TV channels can feel the difference between them and their way to supply information. The same news can sound very different from channel to channel according to their political tendency or their ownership. Even the images can be totally conflicting. Television and press are clearly politicized. The “inconvenient news” for the ruling class and its head is opportunely avoided or disguised by the main channels and newspapers.

Only the opposition gives a wider view of the facts, but also in those channels and newspapers – which are not as influential as the others – is the political tendency or the membership to a political party that influence the news. Journalism is always political in Italy, in a way or another.

Meanwhile the Prime Minister’s image is being used in another country as a negative figure to promote the freedom of media, Italians have to face this sad reality – mostly unawares – which sounds very far from the Western democratic world.

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