Majority in Arab world backs Wikileaks

According to a recent poll, six out of ten Arabs believe that the world is better off with Wikileaks and nearly three quarters would like to see the whistle-blowing website publish more on the Arab world. The Arab population appear to want to hear the truth about the world they live in more than Americans do. Support for Wikileaks and a demand for greater transparency was supported by most people in 17 Gulf, North Africa and Levant countries, including Egypt and Tunisia according to a Doha Debate poll

At a public forum in Qatar 74 percent of the audience at the recent Doha Debate carried the motion ‘This House believes the world is better off with Wikileaks’ says the Quatar newspaper, the Peninsula.

In the aftermath of the fall of the Ben Ali regime Tunisia, nearly 60 percent of respondents to the poll believe "Wikileaks played a part in the events in Tunisia and the demonstrations in other Arab countries."
What's even more astounding is that more than 60 percent believe that Wikileaks will change the way governments behave.  55% of Arabs revealed in the poll that they believe "little to nothing" that their governments tell them.  In North Africa 65 percent of citizens believe little or nothing of government information. This is not so different than the US when we think of it.

Here is a report from the demonstrations for reforms in Bahrain from the Peninsula newspaper

MANAMA: Two protesters died in clashes with Bahraini police, sparking angry calls from young cyber-activists for regime change and a walkout of parliament by Bahrain’s main Shia opposition bloc yesterday.
The events prompted H M King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa to express sorrow for the deaths, announce a ministerial probe and pledge to press ahead with reforms, in a televised address to the nation
The Islamic National Accord Association which has 18 seats in the 40-member House earlier announced it had “suspended its membership” in parliament over the killings of the Shia demonstrators.
The decision came because of “the deterioration in security and the negative and brutal way in which (authorities) dealt with the protesters, killing two of them,” a bloc member, MP Khalil Al Marzooq, said.
Fadel Salman Matrouk was shot dead in front of a hospital yesterday where mourners gathered for the funeral of Ali Msheymah who died of his wounds after police dispersed a protest in a village east of Manama on Monday, he said.
Marzooq said both men were “martyrs.”
King Hamad said he was saddened by the deaths and expressed his “deep condolences to their families.”
“Everyone should know that I have assigned Deputy Prime Minister Jawad
Al Orayedh to form a special committee to find out the reasons that led to such regrettable events,” he said. The king also renewed his commitment to reforms, which changed the state from an emirate to a constitutional monarchy after a 2001 referendum, leading to polls in 2002 for the first time since parliament was scrapped in 1975.
“Reform is going ahead. It will not stop,” he said. The interior ministry said that “some of the people participating in the funeral yesterday clashed with forces from a security patrol,” leading to Matrouk’s death.
It also announced the death of a protester late on Monday “due to his wounds” and opened an inquiry into whether police resorted to “unjustified use of arms” in Diya village. AFP