''iRevolution: Online Warriors of the Arab Spring'' is a

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

Arab Spring The Arab Spring () was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings, and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began Tunisian revolution, in Tunisia ...

Bahrain Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. Situated on the Persian Gulf, it comprises a small archipelago of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island, which mak ...

(also known as the Bahraini uprising) prepared by journalist Amber Lyon and a team of producers for

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

. The documentary has aired only once on CNN US channel, to a positive reception. It has not been aired since, and it has never aired on

CNN International Cable News Network International or CNN International (CNNi, simply branded on-air as CNN) is an international television channel and website, owned by CNN Worldwide. CNN International carries news-related programming worldwide; it cooperates ...

. It has been claimed that Bahrain influenced CNNi to suppress it, and subsequently CNNi has been accused of biased coverage of the Bahraini revolution in general, and of suppressing ( censoring) Lyon's critical documentary in particular. CNNi has denied those accusations.

Documentary

The documentary has been prepared by a four-person team with investigative correspondent Amber Lyon and producers Scott Bronstein and Taryn Fixel, and producer-cameraman Leon Jobe for

. The group arrived in Bahrain in March 2011, to document the ongoing

events there, the Bahraini uprising. A number of individuals the team was posed to interview have been already arrested, others, such as activist

Nabeel Rajab Nabeel Rajab (; born 1 September 1964) is a Bahraini human rights activist and opposition figure. He is the president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), a member of the Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch's Middle East Divi ...

, faced arrests and persecution after meeting with the journalists. The journalists themselves were subject to several hours of forced detention, and had some of their footage deleted. The remaining Bahraini footage was edited into a 13-minute segment in the documentary. The segment is highly critical of the Bahrain's authorities. The 1-hour documentary cost CNN about $100,000, which is said to be significantly more than the average cost of such a film. As of 14 September 2012, the documentary has been aired only once, on 19 June 2011 at 8pm on the United States CNN channel. The documentary won a 2012 Gold Medal from

New York Festival New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...

's Best TV and Films. Amber Lyon and the documentary's producer Taryn Fixel, were also finalists in the 2011

Livingston Awards The Livingston Awards at the University of Michigan are American journalism awards issued to media professionals under the age of 35 for local, national, and international reporting. They are the largest, all-media, general reporting prizes in Amer ...

for Young Journalists.

Controversy

The documentary has not been broadcast since its initial showing on US CNN; notably, it has not been shown on the

, which has wide coverage in the Middle East. Despite various inquiries, CNNi has not provided any explanation as to why it has not aired the documentary. After Amber Lyon met with CNNi president

Tony Maddox Tony Maddox is a British journalist. He was executive vice president and managing director of CNN International from 2003 until May 2019. He previously worked at the BBC for 13 years as a reporter, news producer and news editor. In 2015 he wa ...

, she was eventually ordered not to discuss this issue any further. According to Lyon, who remained an outspoken on-air critic of Bahrain's government, the Bahrain authorities has complained numerous times to CNNi about the documentary in general and Lyon activities in particular, although officially Bahrain has refused to confirm or deny that it did so. It has been alleged that CNNi has been influenced by Bahraini-funded

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. Pu ...

campaigns. In March 2012, CNN fired Lyon, officially as part of a reorganization of its documentaries division. After Lyon made further comments about the documentary on her

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

account, her agent has been contacted by CNN representatives who threatened to cut her severance payments and insurance benefits if she would continue discussing the documentary. CNN has since refused to confirm or deny that it threatened Lyon in that way. CNNi has been accused of biased coverage of the Bahraini revolution in general, and of suppressing ( censoring) Lyon's critical documentary in particular. CNNi has denied those claims. CNNi denial has been criticized as misleading by journalists

Glenn Greenwald Glenn Edward Greenwald (born March 6, 1967) is an American journalist, author, and former lawyer. In 1996, Greenwald founded a law firm concentrating on First Amendment to the United States Constitution, First Amendment litigation. He began blo ...

and

Cory Doctorow Cory Efram Doctorow (; born 17 July 1971) is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who served as co-editor of the blog ''Boing Boing''. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of th ...

, who were in the forefront of bringing this matter to the public's attention through their coverage of the issue in September 2012.

References

External links

* {{YouTube, zB2DeZBgTEk, Bahrain portion of ''iRevolution'' on CNN June 19, 2011 Bahraini uprising of 2011 CNN Documentary films about the Arab Spring Documentary films about human rights Censorship of broadcasting in the United States 2011 television films 2011 films American documentary television films 2010s American films