DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, June 7 (UPI) -- When the phone in my office rang a few months ago, it was the umpteenth telephone call that day. It was, much like every other day, a viewer from Saudi Arabia chiding me because he thought our coverage had been inadequate.
He said: "You are not covering the defamatory pictures of the Prophet Mohammad as much as we want you to." His call had been preceded by one from our correspondent in Cairo, who said our office phones had been ringing off the hook with calls from relatives still hoping to learn details about the tragic sinking of an Egyptian ferry in the Red Sea.
In light of these two phone calls, there was a difficult decision to be made about priorities. Before and after these phone calls came a number of others -- some encouraging, others not. Some callers offered advice or suggestions on subjects that the viewer felt was important.
This is what it is like every day.
And perhaps this is the scene beginning to form -- the Arab people are beginning to interact with the Arab media and the issues they cover. The Arab citizen no longer feels he or she is deprived of making a difference.
In a majority of Arab countries, the media outlet provides a means of expression and an opportunity to generate change. The average Arab citizen is deprived of access to information in his or her own country, and is deprived of political participation in light of the absence of elections, the banning of political parties and the lack of other forms of democratic life. The only constant variable is that now the Arab viewer has access to information and entertainment alternatives, while previously these came from his or her government.
The Arab viewer, wherever he or she is located, has access to: visual media continuity benefiting mutual Arab and regional interests, beyond the local Arab media; effective and influential media that broadcast attractively, often live, making it much more difficult at times for the government to control or monitor programs; an increasingly beneficial, concentrated and less selective flow of information to the Arab public; and the creation of wider horizons for the Arab viewer.
The news stations that emerged in the mid-1990s were characterized by an exchange of opinions on issues that the viewer or the Arab citizen was not previously able to see. This development, however, was largely limited to opinion, rather than news.
Today, there are a number of problems pressing the "new" Arab media. What is ownership? What is the agenda and who sets it? What is the economic environment, with the advertising market in the Arab world estimated at only $5 billion in total? What is the legal and social environment in which the media operate -- with room available to develop an acceptance of new ideas, and the atmosphere remaining legally ambiguous and irregular? What is the political environment?
The Arab media may in fact have had a negative impact upon democratic processes. Because they focus on external rather than local news, media do not always create a more concerned and knowledgeable public. Arab viewers mostly receive news about the Arab-Israeli conflict or the war in Iraq, as well as other regional and international topics. They do not receive information or news about local issues such as the running of affairs -- government performance, the handling of public funds or legislative and parliamentary performance, for example -- in the state where the viewer-citizen lives. These are all essential to the democratic process and for citizens/viewers to make decisions and formulate political options locally.
These are vital issues that are taboo in local media, which are subject to censorship by those in power. These issues are not broached by the new Arab media, risking estrangement from reality as Arab viewers receive information other than that explaining their own difficult existence. The explanation for this is clear, but complex. The truth is if the new Arab media seek to be more professional and more news-oriented, they must operate in a freer atmosphere, one that allows media outlets to access information without threats to accreditation or the arrest of correspondents.
With the persistence of the above-mentioned threats, the new Arab media is a phenomenon that is part and parcel of socio-political processes in Arab societies. This phenomenon has become an influential factor. At the same time, the Arab media is still very much a prisoner to persistent failures in protecting freedom of speech and disseminating information and news about issues those in power do not want the public to know. Herein lies the challenge to Arab media outlets today.
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(Nabil Khatib is executive editor of Al-Arabiya satellite channel.)
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(Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity (CGNews-PiH).)
