Region | Palestinian Territories
Press freedom has a long way to go
Some blame the lack of professional quality available in the region for the low standard of journalism, others pin the blame on the watchful eye of local governments.
- By Jumana Al Tamimi, GCC & Middle East Editor
- Published: 00:00 July 7, 2006
Dubai: Some blame the lack of professional quality available in the region for the low standard of journalism, others pin the blame on the watchful eye of local governments.
Regardless of which reason is most realistic, Arab reporters have a long list of obstacles to overcome in their search for the truth, ranging from simple harassment to imprisonment.
Sometimes, the punishment for pursuing a story can even go as far as assassination, in the case of armed conflicts.
Twenty five reporters' deaths were reported in the Arab countries during 2005, said a report prepared by the Cairo-based Federation of Arab Journalists (FAJ). Twenty-two of them were killed in war-torn Iraq.
The report, which was based on information received from media syndications, associations and unions in 18 Arab countries, had classified media freedoms into four indexes: journalists' freedom, press freedom, state-media relations and censorship.
Libya and Mauritania were the only two countries that did not respond out of 20 countries polled.
According to the FAJ report, Iraq is the worst country for press freedom in the region. Kuwait was ranked highest in terms of press freedom, followed by Qatar and then Jordan.
The report counted 28,025 working journalists in 16 Arab states and 2,674 newspapers in the the Arab countries.
The freedom indices included murder, detention, trials, threats, sackings, banning, closure of media outlets, owner interference, information availability, journalists' demands for more freedom, and censorship by the government, editor-in-chief, security authorities or others.
"I was surprised to find out that the owner of the newspaper is the key interference in the paper's freedom," said Seif Al Shareef, Chairman of the FAJ freedom committee and General manager of the Jordanian Arabic newspaper of Al Doustour.
"The owner considers himself the owner of the printing machines, paper rolls and staffers. He tells them to do this and not to do that," added Al Shareef in an interview with Gulf News.
Meanwhile, the putting together of such a report was a move was praised by many journalists.
"It is good to have the first report of the FAJ," said Yousef Al Shouli, Managing Editor in the Doha-based Al Jazeera TV, and deputy chairman of the Arab Committee for defending Journalists, which is registered in Vienna and other European cities, but not in any of the Arab capitals with "deep regret", according to Shouli.
"The report clearly lacks information," Jamal Fahmi, chairman of the freedom committee of the Egyptian Journalist syndication told Gulf News.
"Either in Egypt, or in the rest of the Arab countries, the report completely failed to reflect violations," he said, adding that among the missing information were the violations reported during the demonstrations held by Egyptian journalists in recent years.
At the same time, while there is almost a consensus among journalists vis-a-vis as to the gap between journalism in the west and the press in the Arab region, where in the former the profession is much more respected as a career, and journalists have more influence.
This, they explain, is because of the long history of the profession in Western countries.
Arab journalists blame different parties for the present status of media freedom in Arab countries.
"I want to say that journalism is like any other profession. But it has something different," said Fahmi.
"Restrictions on media in the Arab world led, let us admit, to professional deficiency," he added.
"And this is one of the results that come from practising the profession in a restricted environment," he continued.
Others disagree.
"The problem does not lie with one party," said Al Shouli. While some organisations are governmental, other private media outlets seek profitability over credibility.
"Unfortunately, many sectors call journalism a profession for those who have no profession.
"Anybody can work as a journalist. This downplays the weight of the [journalistic] work ," he said, although he noted that press freedom varies in Arab countries according to local politics and the history of the media.
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