Shallow Media Coverage Widens Gulf Between West and Arabs

by N Janardhan

But they are far from getting answers because the media -- Western and Arab, with their divergent rhetoric -- is widening rather than bridging the gap in perspectives rooted in issues like the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, say analysts.

From one end, Arabs accuse Western media networks of being "evil" and "biased," not paying enough attention to Palestinian civilians killed in Israeli military campaigns. And from the other, Israel and the West complain about how the Arab media incites 'jihad' (holy war) and justifies suicide bombers as "freedom fighters" and "resistance forces."

For many in the region, the accusations hurled by the Western media are largely based on misperceptions of Islam, but also orchestrated by "enemies" of Muslims with influence over Western media, mainly in the United States.

While they generally absolve community media in the United States of being anti-Arab, they accuse "elite" newspapers like the Washington Post and The New York Times of being one-sided due to the influence of pro-Israeli groups.

Local media reported that in June, a pro-Israeli lobby group in Washington called BoycottThePost.org, organized a campaign to cancel subscriptions for at least one week soon after the newspaper carried reports critical of the Ariel Sharon government's decision to reoccupy Palestinian towns.

An article in Gulf News reported an admission by the Post authorities that 400 subscriptions were cancelled for at least one week, while a member of the pressure group claimed the number was at least 4,000.

Some two weeks ago, CNN was forced to admit that a program -- an interview of a Palestinian suicide bomber's mother when Israeli families were mourning the deaths of their relatives -- was inappropriate. That admission came after talk that Fox News Channel might be allowed to replace it on Israeli television.

Part of the media gulf is due to the language barrier. While most Arabs have very little knowledge of English, Westerners know no Arabic at all. The little that they know of each other's media is rooted in negative portrayals.

For example, CNN is seen as the mouthpiece of Israel and the Qatar-based Al Jazeera network as that of Osama bin Laden's and anti-West radicals.

"Many religious authorities in the Muslim countries have condemned bin Laden as an anti-Muslim terrorist, but it had either gone unreported in the West or consigned to a small item in the inside pages of newspapers," complained Shadia Nuiami, an Arab journalist working for a Dubai television company.

"There is a need to explain to the West that the roots of terror do not lie in Arab or Muslim societies, but in American and Israeli policies," she added in an interview.

Ben Bradlee, former managing editor of The Washington Post, conceded at a Dubai Press Club seminar in May that there are quite different views among Arabs and Americans. "While the Jewish lobby called the 'conscience of the capital' is extremely strong in the United States, the Arab influence on the American media and politicians is too weak," he said.

"Israel sends its best people to interact with the policy- and opinion-makers in Washington, while the Arabs host parties and indulge in public relations exercises, which fail to convey much. The same is reflected in the media. Americans demand information, but seem to be getting little or nothing from the Middle East," he said.

But Helena Axelson Fisk, a Swedish columnist based in the UAE, objects to Arabs seeing the Western media as one forum.

For instance, she said in an interview, "The European media is different from the American. There are many publications and media organizations based in the heart of Europe that publish or broadcast news that is pro-Arab and anti-Israel."

The divergent views in media reportage of the Arab world and the West have of late prompted groups in the Middle East to strengthen their voices in international media and go straight to international audiences.

Taking the lead is Saudi Arabia, which last week announced that a $160 million English-language Arab satellite television station would be launched from London soon to clear misconceptions about Arabs and Muslims.

Prince Mansour ibn Naser, a Saudi businessman and member of the royal family, made the announcement about the launch of Arab Television (ATV), whose use of the English language makes it different from Al Jazeera, which is in Arabic and caters to Arab viewers. The Saudis say what is to be a "non-profit station" will be the voice of Arabs and Muslims, broadcasting initially in English mainly to viewers in Europe, the United States and Canada. Later on, it will broadcast in German, French, Spanish and Italian.

The Saudi announcement comes in the wake of a similar initiative by Arab League ministers in Cairo last month.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has also announced that it would set up Spanish, English and French satellite channels to "face the Westerners in the United States and Europe and anywhere else".

"We need a media that reaches the people who have begun to see Arabs as evil and see Islam as communal, pro-terrorism and a supporter of the killing of innocent civilians," a GCC statement said.

Earlier, journalists at the Arab Media Summit in Dubai in May sought to lay the groundwork for better dialogue between Arab and Western journalists.

They agreed that while there has been an improvement in the outlook of the West toward the Arabs in the last few years, that growth was badly damaged by the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and more by the events of Sept. 11.

The chairman of Lebanese Al Manar Television, Naif Kraim, agrees that apart from dialogue between Western and Arab countries, media in Arab countries need to learn how to better deliver their own messages to the world.

"The Arab media in general lacks effective journalistic tools. A media organization can master professional standards and at the same time serve a cause by propagating a message," he said in an interview in Dubai, adding that his television channel has an Islamic cause and remains "objective and balanced" in its journalism.

Another hurdle, Kraim says, is the lack of unity among journalists in the region: "All Arab journalists do not concentrate on Arab-Arab dialogue. On the contrary, they are always concerned about Arab-Western media dialogue."

The need for a sustained media campaign and lobbying by the Muslim world is also supported by those in the United States like James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute in Washington.

"Years ago, the Saudi ambassador would just do a couple of high-profile interviews or they would take out full-page advertisements in newspapers and magazines. But now they need an intense campaign to transform the political climate," he said on Abu Dhabi Television.

Added Zogby: "If you are weak, people will define you. If you have a strong voice, you define yourself."