Media Arabia

The Internet age had begun in earnest and the world became truly wired.  Plugged among these important milestones, we had the arrival of the gsm or mobile telephony, the explosive proliferation of free-to-air satellite TV stations, which, in our part of the globe, broke government’s monopoly on information through state-owned radio and television stations, and the appearance of blogs--galvanizing the concept of citizen journalism.  

In between all of these wonderful means of delivering pictures, sounds, data and words, the press in its print form remained steadfast as the bulwark of what journalism stood for. Or so we thought and hoped. In fact, journalism was going through a tumultuous evolution and the press, that sacred beacon and the beating heart of soldiers of freedom of expression with all its symbolisms, was in the thick of it.   

Today as we discuss fundamental issues such as quality in journalism and debate the very foundations of good journalism, there are those among us who lament the decline of that profession’s most basic tenets: Objectivity, fairness, independence, accuracy, thoroughness and transparency.  

The last eight years, the preamble to a new century, have brought these fundamental questions to the forefront. In the universal struggle for good journalism, we are more united than ever. Cultural, political, social, religious and economic differences set aside, a Dutch, Egyptian, Jordanian, Lebanese, British and American journalist are all striving to fulfill the same goals. We all want to be true practitioners of this profession.

We all want the same thing; to be part of a professional culture that espouses freedom, transparency, and accountability, and strives to achieve it through objectivity, accuracy, independence and thoroughness.  In a perfect world we should be learning from one another. The flow of information, as well as knowledge, should be happening without interruption. The West, being the traditional bedrock for democratic values, free press and personal liberties, is the perfect source for that knowledge.

As journalists of the developing world and emerging economies attempt to push the bar a little higher, we still look at the West for inspiration.   And it is we who bring the questions to you. How do we protect our profession from the transgressions of governments, big business, politicians and self-serving practitioners? How can you help us avoid falling into the traps of subjectivity, inaccuracies and false dissemination of news? How can we learn from you so that some of us can lead and become mentors? How can we work together to safeguard the tenets of good journalism?   

I ask these questions because I have doubts, big ones, about the future of such a relationship. I am the first to admit that we need to learn and that, like you, we are struggling to save good journalism in a fast changing environment. We too have had our share of the information revolution. We have hundreds of satellite channels, tens of thousands of bloggers, millions of mobile handsets that have changed our media scene in the past decade beyond recognition.   In our part of the world, the print press is also under the threat of extinction.

We too have to battle challenges posed by mediocre journalism and the absence of basic tenets of good reporting. We too are battling with ethical issues, suffering from ailments such subjective and unfair coverage of issues, incursions on the private lives of citizens, government manipulation, intimidation of journalists and the concentration of media assets into few hands. We too have journalists who have succumbed to government pressures and betrayed the values of their profession.  

But when we look for inspiration from your side, we are shocked to see that our likely role models are also guilty of different sins and pitfalls. The West too has its load of problems and challenges. And when we look at the past eight years, we see departures from those universal values.  The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have pointed to major flaws in Western media coverage. We had seen few examples of objective, transparent and fair coverage. Yes there are always the mavericks, who challenged the norm, but they remain the exception and their voices are not always heard.   

Those who did not see the documentary film “War Made Easy” which was an official selection of the Amsterdam Film Festival in 2007, should do so. It exposes the unholy alliance between the US government and the mainstream media to promote, or sell, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ironically, the documentary is a rare example of good journalism that challenges the mainstream. The same goes for media coverage of the Palestinian issue, Islam, religious fundamentalism among others.  We now realize that as much as we agree on the general values, we may differ on the ways to implement them. By the end of the day we will have to chart our own way and create our own path in our attempt to reach the lofty goals we all cherish.

That is the inevitable conclusion. But that path may not lead to the same reality that you in the West have today. In fact it will certainly be different. As much as we share belief in the same values, we must admit today that the lessons of the past will influence the evolutionary course of our cultures.  Let me pose a few of the challenges that we in the Arab world face today with regard to press freedom and our quest for better journalism.  

As much as your secular journey has gone hand in hand with your democratic progress, almost interchangeably, and by definition with the development of press freedom, we in the Arab, and to a large extent the Muslim, worlds, cannot blindly copy your experiment without colliding head-on with cultural and religious taboos.   I mention two examples which come to mind. One is the pervasiveness of pornographic media. As much as this has become an accepted form of “freedom of expression” in your culture, in ours it can never be. The second example is the recent offense against our prophet and religious symbols, which was initiated by Danish and other media in the name of press freedom, and which has enraged millions of Muslims.  

As someone who has lived and was educated in the West I can appreciate the logic that drives publishers to satirize religion, but I also understand the deep-seated revulsions that drove many in the Muslim world to protest such offenses. I cannot imagine a period in my own life-time where our media can cross that red line and engage in lampooning religious symbols.   

That is not to say that we are free of bigotry ourselves. The opposite is true. I am the first to admit that our media culture is suffering from numerous faults, some inherited in our perception of the other, of ourselves and of our place in a globalized world.   The fact is that as much as our world is wired today, we have failed to understand each other.

Mainstream media is losing influence and as much as young French or Dutch men and women are sucked into the world of blogs and personalized media, young Arab men and women are finding themselves today surfing in a world of inter-personal communication away from the effects of mass media as we know it.  Meanwhile, the old problems continue to haunt us: Lack of training of young journalists, social and political pressures, absence of positive mentoring by veteran editors and a consumer culture that embodies the worst of the capitalist system. Most of all, we miss such encounters, where we can exchange experiences and attempt to push the learning curve up for both sides.  

The question is this: How much have we, journalists on both side of the divide, managed to understand ourselves so we can teach others about what makes us different and similar at the same time? How can we neutralize our bigotries so that we can write a fair article or a news report?    

Tens of Iraqi and Palestinian journalists have lost their lives while doing their jobs in the past few years. There are scores of Arab journalists who have been jailed, abused and intimidated because they believe in the same universal values of good journalism. As much as the issue of quality persists and is a legitimate one for all of us, we have to seek ways to build a bridge that ensures a fair perception of each other, a fair understanding of each other’s value system and a fair appreciation of the differences that make us unique.