Points of media convergence

PV Vivekanand

THE ARAB and Western media should focus on points of convergence rather than divergence and should accept that the fundamental principles guiding their work are the same, a prominent Arab writer and commentator said on Tuesday.
Khaled Al Maeena, editor-in-chief of Arab News, was addressing the first working session of the Arab Media Summit in Dubai.
In his short but comprehensive comment, Maeena told the session held under the title "Complicity? Responsibility? Liability? The Role of Media in the Modern War," Maeena tackled the various problems faced by the Arab media in addressing domestic Arab and international audiences.
He highlighted that the Arab media were fighting the stereotypes imposed on them.
"There's nothing called the Western media but only entities like the US media, European media and the British press," he said, adding that the US and British media had "distinguished themselves" from "Western media."
In the broader context, "while we do have some suspicion about each other, we can focus on areas of convergence," he said.
Maeena submitted that a new face of journalism was put forward during the Iraq war early this year. with the so-called embedded reporters donning uniforms and blatantly taking sides.
He called it compliance as well as complicity.
"Let me tell you, I'm not in the blame game," he said. "But at the same time it's a fact that a great chunk of the US media complied with the powers that be during the Iraq war.
"We know that there are people in the US who are with us. But the media have helped develop a situation in which Muslims and Islam are looked down upon as sub-human. The US media has helped create a fear psychosis," Maeena told the session, which was moderated by CNN's Nic Robertson.
Earlier in the session, Tim Sebastian of BBC's "Hard Talk" underlined the importance of having an media that asks for accountability and questions everyone concerns.
While expressing reservations over targeting the West for all the criticism, he said the Arab world needed do an introspection on how open they are to the outside world.
"What's your definition of truth? The truth that will help you keep your job or the truth that will get you fired?" Sebastian asked pointing out to a UN report which says not a single Arab country has freedom of press. "A free press is also a fallible press. But I prefer it to the alternative," he said.
The veteran BBC journalist denounced what he said was the practice of using war reporting as a yard stick of patriotism. The media should not take anything dished out to them by the officials at face value, he said.
"A questioning media is a key ingredient of any modern democracy," he said. "Nobody should be sent out to war without a reason. When the press asks 'why?' it deserves an answer from the powers that be," he said.
Robert Menard, chief executive officer of the France-based Journalists Sans Frontiers, voiced regret that governments which care little for press freedom expects the press to tell them the truth whatever be the risks involved.
"Even governments, which imprison and harass reporters for trying to find the truth never fail to lecture on press freedom. Truth is more and more becoming a casualty in conflicts," said Menard.
He noted that nearly 50 journalists were either killed or wounded in the three-year-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
"How can we be giving lessons to journalists without taking into account their safety?" asked Menard.
Hamdi Qandeel, a prominent television personality from Egypt, asserted that the situation in the Arab world has not changed much from the 1960s when military used to be the only permissible source of information for the press.
The situation is changing fast, he said and pointed out to the way
Qatar's Al Jazeera television and Abu Dhabi TV covered the Iraq and the quality of their reports.
Such a qualitative shift is a promise to everyone that there is hope for the Arab media to expand and improve itself so as to convey the Arab point of view to the audience.
The second interactive session of the day held under the title
"Media: The Ultimate Weapon of Mass Destruction" and was moderated by Gavin Esler of the BBC.
Dr Azmi Bishara, Arab member of the Israeli Knesset, asserted that what he called politics of identity was a major hindrance to the Arabs to bring their real issues to the international community.
"The Arab media is always concerned with the politics of identity. It is always about 'we' and 'them,' either the Arabs versus the West or the Arabs versus Israel," said Bishara. "This disguises the more important issues concerning the oppressed people in the region, for example, the oppressed in Iraq," said Bishara, who represents Nazreth in the Knesset.
He criticised a large section of the Arab media for accepting the American media's versions in the name of rationality and pragmatism. However, the Arab media pose much less of a danger in spreading misinformation than the Western media because of the former's lack of credibility, he said.
Danny Schechter, a prominent writer from Washington, said it was wrong to label all American journalists anti-Arab. He pointed out that many American journalists were aware of the imbalances and were fighting disinformation and deception in the American media that were particularly highlighted during the coverage of the Iraq war.
At the same time, he conceded that many American journalists consider it as patriotism to accept the administration's point of view and be guided by it without question.
According to Schechter, the American media failed to show a great deal about the Iraq war to the American public. Such failure was deliberate, he said, since the media purposely held back information from the public. "The media can be judged more by its omissions," Schechter said.
Paul-Marie De La Gorce, a French journalist, slammed the US administration for having orchestrated what he said was a campaign of lies and deception in order to build the case for war against Iraq.
Specifically referring to the US allegations that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, he noted that no such weapon has been found in post-war Iraq.
Mohammed Al Sayed Saeed of Egypt's Al Ahram newspaper also referred to the American media build-up for war.
"Countries do not go to war because of interests but due to images," he said. "Media bombard minds with images that fill it with ideas and penetrate minds."
On Tuesday, three interaction sessions are the highlights of the Arab Media Summit, which will culminate with the presentation of the Arab Journalism Awards.
Among those attending the interactive sessions are Peter Arnett, a former CNN correspondent, Jihad Al Khazen of Al Hayat and former Palestinian minister Dr Hanan Ashrawi.