Wake-up calls at Arab Media Summit

October
PV Vivekanand

STRONG calls were heard in Dubai on Tuesday for retrospection by the Arab information media and a fresh strategy and perspective aimed at raising medial professionalism in the Arab World.
Leading the call was UAE Minister of Information Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who, in a harsh-hitting key note address at the opening of Arab Media Summit 2003, criticised the Arab media of having failed to expose the realities of the Gulf crisis and not presenting the actual picture of the military situation before the recent war on Iraq.
Sheikh Abdullah and others speakers at the forum, which was opened by ubai Crown Prince and UAE Defence Minister General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum in the presence of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, emphasised the need for a sweeping rethink on the part of the Arab media with a view to effectively presenting the Arab viewpoint effectively to the international community.
The forum -- held under the tile "War & the Media" — also heard calls for a new perspective on the concept of press freedom with responsibility and admissions by Western journalists that objectivity and accuracy were often lacking in the non-Arab media too.
Sheikh Mohammed told the gathering, the third of its kind, that the interaction between Arab and non-Arab media personalities also brought to the fore the prevailing sense of distrust as well as allegations of one-sided and 'selective' approach to truth in journalism.
Sheikh Mohammed lamented that the Arab countries have become the exporters of bad news over a long period now.
New disputes are springing up and the dispute over water is predicted to take the centrestage of Arab politics in the future, he reminded.
"Can we , if not an Arab nation, at least form a limited liability company with human beings as its capital," Sheikh Mohammed asked, concluding his speech with a strong condemnation of the Israeli aggression on Syria.
Schroeder in his speech sought the help of the media in reducing the hostile preconceptions between people in the Arab World as well as in the West. "The European Union is looking towards building meaningful relationship with the GCC countries. The Arab media can greatly contribute in this regard as it is in the threshold of an information revolution facilitated by excellent infrastructure," he remarked.
Schroeder said that while freedom is undoubtedly a precondition for prosperity, the media should make responsible use of this freedom.
In what was hailed as the some of the most refreshing comment heard from an Arab minister of information, Sheikh Abdullah regreted that the recent war on Iraq once again exposed the failure of the Arab media in distinguishing between fact and propaganda.
"Before the war, Arab media failed to reveal the true nature of the Iraqi regime...but dealt with it as if it were a peaceful government and portrayed the conflict as simply one between Western powers and an Arab regime ready to confront and challenge them in the name of Arab honour and sovereignty," he told the gathering.
"Arab media distanced itself from reality and helped mislead public opinion by supplying unrealistic suppositions about the possible outcome of the conflict," Sheikh Abdullah said.
Sheikh Abdullah said that if the region's media had adopted an objective approach and exposed the real situation where that the military balance was tilted in favour of coalition forces, there would not have been such "panic and frustration" in the Middle East.
"Arab media must take an objective stand and not allow anything to prevent us from self-criticism and evaluation to achieve a media which informs, not misleads, which explains, not distorts," he said. "We must accept that there are mistakes and weaknesses in our governments and societies..." The opening session was followed by two interactive sessions, one on "Complicity? Responsibility? Liability? The Role of Media in the Modern War" and the second on "Media: The Ultimate Weapon of Mass Destruction.'
Addressing the first of these interactive sessions, were Tim Sebastian of BBC's "Hard Talk," who denounced 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. A questioning media is a key ingredient of any modern democracy. Nobody should be sent out to war without a reason, he said.ed.
Robert Menard, chief executive officer of the France-based Journalists Sans Frontiers, regretted that even governments who care little for press freedom expects the press to tell them the truth whatever be the risks involved.
Hamdi Qandeel, a television presenter from Egypt, lamented 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. However, coverage by Al Jazeera and Abu Dhabi TV during the recent war in Iraq held out a promise for those who strive to put across the Arab point of view to the public, he added.
Khalid Al Maena, editor-in-chief of Arab News, in his brief but comprehensive speech summarised the conflicts and dilemmas faced by the Arab media in taking the message to the rest of the world and in fighting the stereotypes imposed on it. "There's nothing called the Western media but only entities like the US media, European media and the British press. While we do have some suspicion about each other, we can focus on areas of convergence," he suggested.
Nic Robertson of CNN was the moderator at the session while the second interactive session was moderated by Gavin Esler of BBC. Speakers at the second session included Dr Azmi Bishara, Arab member of the Israeli Knesset, Danny Schechter, writer from Washington, Paul-Marie De La Gorce, correspondent from France and Dr Mohammed Al Sayed Saeed of Egypt's Al Ahram newspaper.
Bishara said that the stress on politics of identity was not helping Arabs to project the real issues to the rest of the world. "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. This disguises the more important issues concerning the oppressed people in the region, for example, the oppressed in Iraq," Bishara said.
Schechter expressed his opposition to grouping together all American journalists as anti-Arab, citing that many of them have been putting up a fight against the wave of misnformation and deception in the US press, as was seen during the recent Iraq war. He, however, admitted that many US journalists almost consider it their "patriotic duty" to accept the establishment's point of view.
De La Gorce termed America's campaign against Iraq on the issue of weapons of mass destruction as one of lies and deception. Sayed Saeed, referring to the American campaign said that countries do not go to war because of interests but due to images.
The summit concludes on Wednesday with the Arab Media Awards ceremony.