UPDATE 1-Attacks on media intense in Middle East unrest

> * Twitter, Facebook seen as helping to thwart censorship (Adds Committee to Protect Journalists, paragraphs 3-4) By Michelle Nichols NEW YORK, April 20 (Reuters) - Journalists have been suppressed in popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa in more than 500 attacks, some of them deadly, according to a media rights watchdog. Mohamed Abdel Dayem, program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists in the Middle East and North Africa, said the number of attacks on the media in the Middle East and North Africa since the start of the year was "unprecedented." "This hasn't happened before, not with this intensity and not with this frequency," he said of the attacks. Dayem said 14 journalists were killed worldwide so far this year, with 10 of those deaths in the Middle East and North Africa. The hundreds of other attacks on the media in the region included detentions, destruction of equipment and death threats. While the Committee to Protect Journalists said press freedom has improved in Egypt and Tunisia since protesters ousted the presidents of both countries this year, it described the situation as only graduating from "horrendous to bad." Access to social networking tools such as Twitter and Facebook will help thwart traditionally tight censorship in the region, experts say, although it is uncertain whether unrest in Bahrain, Syria, Yemen, Libya and Saudi Arabia will lead to greater democracy.

"> * Twitter, Facebook seen as helping to thwart censorship (Adds Committee to Protect Journalists, paragraphs 3-4) By Michelle Nichols NEW YORK, April 20 (Reuters) - Journalists have been suppressed in popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa in more than 500 attacks, some of them deadly, according to a media rights watchdog""It is not possible to stuff a sock in that many mouths," said Dayem. "There used to be a time when the number of mouths was limited and (governments) could shut all of them up all the time. That model is not longer viable." Joe Stork, Human Rights Watch deputy director of the North Africa division, said the uprising had led to a "net gain" for freedom of the media in the region. "It's possible to disseminate information from places like Bahrain or Syria in a way that wasn't possible 10 years ago. It's just night and day comparison," Stork said.

"On balance definitely there's a freer exchange of information but not because governments are allowing it -- because they haven't figured out how to control it," he said. CENSORSHIP LESS EFFECTIVE Limits on the media will be much harder to maintain, partly because of more access to cell phones and the Internet, said Elliott Abrams, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank. "It's also because the 'Arab Revolts' have de-legitimized censorship even more, just as they have de-legitimized stealing elections and stealing public funds," Abrams said. 1 2 Next Media Tweet this Share this Link this Digg this Email Reprints