The summer saw six days of protests across Iran, after pro-reform newspaper Salam was banned, but Iran's courts continued to attack press freedom. The proof of the pudding lies in the eating, however - as any journalist who has toned down his or her own articles before publication well knows. Computer firms estimated that there were just 700,000 Internet users in the Arabian Gulf in 1999, set to rise to 2.5 million by 2002. Against growth in Internet usage of 30 per cent a year in western Europe, growth averages 50 per cent a year across the Middle East, peaking at 100 per cent annual growth in the six GCC states. This flowering of new media has knocked the region's tired, compliant state newspapers and broadcast channels out of the water.
Traditionalists face a two-pronged attack.
The Internet is, inherently, a passive conduit for subversive material. While some subtly subvert the region's staid and deferential broadcasting conventions, the most daring players transmit full and frank political debates and are prepared to point fingers and name names. These broadcasters are inviting mass audiences to evaluate individual Arab leaders and to question gender roles, sexual mores and political issues for the very first time. But media proliferation has not brought immunity from prosecution. The 1999 Press Freedom Survey reported 24 confirmed cases of regional journalists killed in the line of duty, down from 26 deaths in both 1997 and 1996.