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Doha: Internet users in the Gulf and the rest of the Arab region might double to 50 million in two years turning the Web into the most influential mass medium for spreading information and freedom of expression in the region, media experts said here yesterday.
"The internet is virtually the only mass medium for relatively free self-expression and for creating a one-to-one relationship with affinity groups beyond geographical and cultural boundaries," Ahmad Nassef, managing director of Maktoob.com, the largest Arabic web portal with more than 4.5 million registered users said at a conference. "The internet can serve to ... build democratic values of tolerance, a major challenge for this part of the world."
Quoting statistics by Madar Research, Nassef said the number of internet users in the Gulf and Levant region is set to grow from the current 26 million to about 50 million by the end of 2008. The increase, he said, will hardly be affected by religious edicts or fatwas.
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