Tag: media

al-Hurra: reality check

I just got my satellite dish repaired and was surfing the channels. I came across Rob Satloff interviewing Dennis Ross about the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. So basically Satloff, head of the pro-Israel think tank WINEP, interviews Ross, former pro-Israel American diplomat who is spending his exile at… wait for it… WINEP. What channel was this? Al Hurra, where Satloff apparently has this show called “Dakhl Washington” (Inside Washington). Actually Satloff’s Arabic surprised me, although the accent is grating. But who am I to talk?

Anyway, apparently this is what I’ve been missing from not watching al-Hurra: Israeli tools. Satloff is basically a professional lobbyist, which actually makes him more bearable than Ross, who has been spreading his extremely skewed vision of Oslo / Camp David II for years, sabotaging reasonable US policy along the way, while pretending to some kind of statesman status (he is also advising both Obama and Clinton – another reason to vote Edwards if you’re a Democrat. Update: apparently Ross also advises Edwards. Oh well.) Apparently, the other regular feature on al-Hurra is Iraqi Shia propaganda, or so they say.

But really, everything that needs to be said about al-Hurra has already been said by Abu Aardvark.

Del.icio.us links for November 21st

Automatically posted links for November 21st:

Del.icio.us links for November 19th

Automatically posted links for November 19th:

Links for 11/15/07 + al-Jazeera

I went up the tubes that make up the internets and found these:

Letter from Iraq: Inside the Surge – The New Yorker – The new US strategy in Iraq
Hidden Costs’ Double Price Of Two Wars, Democrats Say – WaPo – Bush lied about that too
Good news from Gaza – Haaretz – Hamas getting more like regular army
An African crisis worse than Darfur – Al Jazeera – Good reporting on Somalia, but they don’t back their headline
The Threat Of Islamic Fascism – Newsweek – Akbar Ganji has an intelligent piece on fascism in the Muslim world
For Young Libyans, Old-Style Marriage Is a Dream Too Far – WaPo – Frustrated youth
Libya changes tourist entry rules – BBC – Yet another example of Libya’s arbitrariness
Cairo farmers fight army for land – AFP – Interesting piece on little talked about military-business nexus
Behind closed doors – Comment is Free – Muslim Brother reproaches Western double standards on rights
Dissent Magazine – In Defense of Academic Boycotts – Part of a Israel debate, follow links for other side
Ajami’s Voice – The New York Sun – Neocon paper calls for Fouad Ajami to lead US Public Diplomacy
Tomb raiders – Guardian Unlimited Arts – King Tut exhibit gets demolished in this review
The New Face of Al Jazeera – The Nation – Al Jazeera getting more Islamist

If you read the last piece on al-Jazeera, it comes up with some interesting testimony of how al-Jazeera has changed its tone to become more “Islamist” (that can mean a lot of things, but let’s let that pass for now). Anyone who regularly watches has noticed this, and their coverage of Iraq can be a little disturbing at times. I also hate how they always respectfully refer to religious imbeciles advocating the most moronic and dangerous types of ideas, notably using using honorific titles such as Sheikh. However, part of this article is about how al-Jazeera has failed to achieve that much in terms of democratizing the region. From the conclusion:

After years of a near-monopoly in the televised Arab media, Al Jazeera has inspired countless imitators throughout the Arab world. The only competitor that has come close is Al Arabiya. Jazeera still holds a majority market share, a remarkable accomplishment after more than ten years. And Jazeera has forced the Arab governments to at least consider the possible media consequences of their actions, something that would have been unthinkable before the network’s 1996 launch.

Jazeera’s pandering to the so-called Arab street feeds off and into the anger of a part of Arab society that is spoiling for a fight–people who are angry about what they consider Western decadence and the oppression of Muslims. It may also offer solace or diversion to the many who are poor and politically powerless, and who feel that their government does not address their concerns in any way.

What Jazeera misses is the middle-class Arab population that isn’t angry, that has given up on politics and doesn’t have time to call in to these programs. They try to ignore their governments, which have so little to offer. And when such people turn on the television, says Nidal Mansour, they expect entertainment. For those who regularly watch Al Jazeera, the constant parade of blood and guts may even have an inuring effect. “Al Jazeera turned death into yet another boring soap opera,” says Mansour.

In a region so controlled for so long, Al Jazeera created a mainstream, Arab-centered narrative for the Israel-Palestine conflict and others in the region. But for all its achievements, the grip of repressive Arab regimes seems to be as tight as ever. Ten years of breaking taboos, promoting reform, exposing corruption and rigged elections has meant those governments have to work a little harder to cover up their abuses. But power is still very much centralized. Jazeera has a tangible impact on public opinion, but that public has–so far–failed to mobilize and seriously challenge the dictatorships.

“Arab governments saw this kind of [free] media change nothing,” says Faisal Yassiri, Al Jazeera’s former Baghdad bureau chief. “It’s just coffeehouse talk.”

A lot of problems here. That al-Jazeera still holds a majority share of the market is not surprising, it is the incumbent channel everyone must challenge and has excellent and wide coverage of Arab issues. Only al-Arabiya comes close in breadth. On the question of “pandering to the Arab street,” I find that concept rather useless. If anything al-Jazeera is trying to shape public opinion on certain issues, and does so with a populist touch. But this article suggests that it is giving people what they want. I am not sure that any public anywhere knows what it wants from a TV station. Even if it has provocative programming, describing the channel as all blood and guts is ridiculous. There’s plenty of variety on al-Jazeera. And finally, who ever said al-Jazeera’s mission is to bring down dictatorships in the Arab world? ?The author of the article is addressing a certain discourse, prominent in the West, that al-Jazeera is somehow the great white hope of the Arab world. Not it’s not: it’s just a TV station, and one owned by an absolute monarch. But overall it’s a pretty good TV station — just don’t expect its job to be overthrowing dictators. That’s just silly.

Also read this post at Abu Muqawama on Al Jazeera English and why it should be more widely available. By the way I love their YouTube page.

Audio: Eissa at Journalists’ Syndicate

I’ve been wanting to put up for a while this audio file of Ibrahim Eissa’s speech at the massive press conference at the Journalists’ Syndicate on September 14th. Here is one (poorly) translated excerpt.

“We succeeded in saving the soul of this umma, which seemed about to die in the hospital of President Mubarak, and which has spent 25 years in the Emergency Room. Here she is [the umma], waking up from her coma, thanks to reforming judges, thanks to the Kifaya movement, thanks to Ayman Nour, thanks to the Muslim Brothehood, thanks to the opposition parties, thanks to liberal and socialist forces—and thanks to the independent press. The independent press, which has raised its voice as the conscience of Egypt, and has presented a model in the last few years of how to lower the president from the throne of a god-like pharaoh, and make him a human, elected president to whom we are capable of saying: no, no and again no.�

 Eissa ends the speech by saying what an distinction it is to be considered the regime’s “number one opponent� and “the journalist that the president of the republic wants to jail,� and gives a warm personal thanks to the President for this honour.

Reflections on Egypt’s press

Two pieces about Egypt’s current press clampdown are worth reading in light of yesterday’s press strike. Egypt: September of discontent by Amira Howeidy puts the pressure on the press in the current political context:

The problem now is that the authorities seem convinced that the private press, especially al Dostour, has more power than the state media machine in influencing public opinion. Otherwise, why would it drag its editor to court every few months in cases that always relate to the president? And why did the official news agency report plans to try him before an emergency court? The authorities later reversed that decision and referred him to a criminal court on 1 October under tight security measures, which adjourned the case to 24 October. Officially, Eissa’s crime is reporting on nation-wide rumours on the president’s health, or even death, in August. And in many ways what we’re witnessing is a crackdown on the independent press and an attempt to muzzle freedom of expression. This is why 18 independent newspapers have agreed not to publish on 7 October in protest.

But this isn’t solely about curbing freedom of expression. A quick glance at the bigger picture shows an insecure and aged regime battling for survival through a series of procedures that include silencing the press. If Eissa and his colleagues who face prison sentences end up in jail, they shouldn’t be viewed as only victims of a press massacre, but of a police state consolidating its position.

Meanwhile, I’d missed this long post over at Baheyya on The Death of Deference, which analyzes the press from a lot of angles. She recognizes that two personalities, more than anyone else, were responsible for the new oppositional tone of the independent press;

The two editors who more than any of their peers have created and promoted the contemporary adversarial model of Egyptian journalism are Abdel Halim Qandil and Ibrahim Eissa (though I must also recall the pioneering role of Magdi and Adil Hussein in the early 1990s). Both are consciously engaged in a systematic project of accusing, belittling, and criticising public officials, from the most hapless minister to the most powerful public official, the normally untouchable president. In light of the weakness of parliament and the fragmentation of citizen watchdog groups, both see journalism as a useful tool to extract a modicum of responsiveness from an unaccountable, unchecked imperial presidency. And both aspire to make a profound impact on the wider political culture, replacing existing norms of deference and decorum when addressing the powerful with a style marked by irreverence, profound scepticism, and a blunt, salty style. But though they’re fellow travellers in many ways, Eissa and Qandil come from very different backgrounds and are motivated by different impulses.

I would add to that (Baheyya briefly mentions it too) the remarkable supplanting of al-Ahram, the traditional newspaper of record, by al-Masri al-Youm. Now, however, we need another al-Masri al-Youm style newspaper to give it some competition lest it rests on its laurels. That may come soon, because from a professional standpoint things are starting to move in the Egyptian press. A few nights ago I had dinner with a publisher whose newspaper will see light sometime next year; he spoke of creating a “convergence newsroom” with the print edition of the newspaper more organically linked to its web presence. There is yet an Egyptian newspaper who website acts as a forum in the way the al-Arabiya comments section do. The web may still have limited reach, but it can add another layer to the dialogue between readers and newspapermen that has taken place in recent years — at least while emerging media moguls wait for the day when they can unleash their ferocious journalists onto the terrestrial TV and radio waves.

Hammond on Saudi Arabia’s media empire

When Andrew Hammond writes about Arab media, I read attentively — from Arab Media & Society:

Powered by vast petrodollar resources, thus began a concerted Saudi attempt to dominate the world of cable and satellite television media in the Arab world and steal the thunder of Egypt, once the leader of Arab media in the 1950s and 1960s with its Arab nationalist political ideology. Egypt’s once omnipotent “media of mobilization” (i‘lam ta‘bawi) gave way to Saudi Arabia’s “media of pacification”, or i‘lam tanwimi—a new soporific media of arguably far greater proportions and reach than anything Gamal Abdel-Nasser ever had, where entertainment helps put the political mind to sleep and politics is maintained within strict limits. If Abdel-Nasser wanted you fi-shari‘ (on the streets), Al Saud wants you fi-sala (in the living room).

[…]

In conclusion, Saudi Arabia has made an immense effort to control the flow of information in the Arab world and assure positive coverage of its politics and society, or often to assure no coverage at all. This effort has involved saturating the Arab viewer in Arab and Western entertainment in the form of dramas, quiz shows, comedies, films, and “soft religion” and only as much politics as is necessary. Saudi Arabia’s pan-Arab media empire promotes specific messages which present themselves as “liberal”, “reformist”, “moderate” and “modern”, but they are also conspicuously Washington-friendly and anti-al-Qa‘ida, Hizbullah, Iran or any other body presenting a challenge to the Pax Americana in the Arab world and the governments who form part of that constellation.

Much there about the al-Arabiya / Al Jazeera wars and more. And buy Andrew’s book on Arab pop culture and his new one on What the Arabs think of America too!

(Via Kafr al-Hanadwa)

IntelliBriefs: Saudi Arabia’s media influence

Saudi Arabia’s media influence:

Saudi Arabia’s takeover of the region’s media is a reflection of what is occurring globally where a handful of multinational companies increasingly dominate the media. This spills over from entertainment into news coverage.

To Saudi Arabia such control is paramount in an era when the media is increasingly pervasive, because Riyadh’s political and economic clout – and the survival of the Royal family – depends on the kingdom retaining its position as a leading player in the region’s power politics. To retain this balance of power – held in the region by the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia against an ascendant Iran and non-governmental actors – informative and potentially damning news on the kingdom needs to be squashed.

Saudi Arabia’s approach to media under its control, and the harsh punishments on those that do not portray a rose-tinted view of the royal family and the kingdom, is mirrored in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, which have similarly draconian media laws to retain monarchical power bases. Qatar can be considered somewhat of an exception with Al Jazeera, but when it comes to the channel applying the same exposure to governmental malfeasance and social issues in Doha as it does elsewhere in the region, Al Jazeera comes up short.

Although much of Saudi media ownership revolves around entertainment, as the Managing Editor of Beirut-based Middle East Broadcasters Journal, Habib Battah, pointed out: “MBC, Orbit, Rotana – all these companies have a big Saudi stake and are not really about Saudi Arabia, but about appealing to a pan-Arab audience,” that is perhaps the point, with Saudi shareholders – most linked to the royal family – being able to dictate what is, and what can be, aired to a pan-Arab audience, even if it is only entertainment.

Worth reading in full, even if it only skims the surface.

Eissa trial begins

Ibrahim Eissa’s latest trial started today, and while he decided not to attend he may have an interesting defense strategy based on his allegations that President Mubarak is in poor health:

Eissa pointed out that the president’s health would be raised at each court hearing, “meaning that those who brought the case want his health to be discussed.”

As with other trials of journalists, the case against Eissa has been brought by a private individual since Egyptian law allows citizens to lodge complaints which can then lead to criminal convictions.

Eissa is now the target of eight such private cases, something he called “proof of the judicial farce” being played out against him.

“I hope the case will be decided in accordance with the law and that jailing journalists will be a red line — even if I have no faith in this regime,” said the editor.

In that case, why not get an expert witness to conduct a medical examination of Mubarak to ascertain that he is, in fact, in good health and thus that the rumors are baseless? Brilliant, even if I doubt the judge will go for it.