For many years, the Arab media was dominated by Egypt and Lebanon. These great stars' influence began to wane in the 1970s, largely due to domestic politics and conflicts which started to dictate the content and adversely affect the quality of both print and broadcast journalism.
At the same time, a new player emerged in the form of the Gulf countries, with Saudi Arabia leading the way. Gulf-based media outlets expanded the parameters of Arab journalism, offering transcontinental coverage, first in print and later through satellite broadcasting networks. The Gulf countries were well placed to fund this exciting development.
Large numbers of media professionals were incorporated into this project, from Arab and Western countries alike, and until now, the Gulf has totally dominated the Arab media landscape, producing some excellent world-class journalism.
In these days of uprisings and political change throughout the Arab world, we are witnessing the nascent shoots of the next media revolution.
There is a new drive for truth and freedom which seems to be infectious. Days after president Hosni Mubarak resigned, the Al Ahram newspaper published an unprecedented main editorial in which it unreservedly apologised to the noble Egyptian people "for all the bias in favour of the corrupt regime", registering its "pride in the pure blood that was shed to defeat the forces of backwardness and oppression". Finally, it sought "the forgiveness of the families of the martyrs".
Everyone was quite amazed. Egyptian newspaper editors and television chiefs (with some notable exceptions in the private sector) had always idolised the former president, promulgating the notion that "Egypt was born on his birthday". Should the people believe them now that they have become "revolutionaries" defending the uprising and championing its youths whom they accused of being agents only a few days ago?
In reality, it is the new, independent, mostly internet-based media that is transforming the region.
Over 56 million Arabs are regular cybernauts and the number is rapidly increasing. Despite efforts by most Middle Eastern regimes to censor and control the internet, tech-savvy young people — who now constitute up to 50 per cent of the region's population — are able to outwit their elderly rulers (average age over 70) in this respect.
The region's growing middle-class — many of whom have studied abroad and speak European languages — understand the benefits and mechanisms of democracy and this informs their internet blogs and postings. It is mostly this class — together with workers' unions in countries where they are allowed — that have been organising and driving the current uprisings; and they will be crucial to the nation-building process that will ensue. In eastern Libya, which is now out of Muammar Gaddafi's control, they have already established governing committees, a new newspaper and radio station.
Nor can we underestimate the role played by the internet in informing — and galvanising — the Arab street. The unprecedented freedom of information available in cyberspace has helped fuel resentment. WikiLeaks detailed the nouveau-riche excesses of the Tunisian regime, for example, while impoverished and oppressed Libyan cyber-surfers discovered that their national wealth was being squandered abroad by Gaddafi's sons who allegedly paid popstars millions of dollars to perform at private parties.
Past atrocities have surfaced via the internet too, like ghosts coming back to haunt the evil-doers. The Syrian people are no longer in the dark about what is described on the internet as "the single deadliest act by any Arab government against its own people in the modern Middle East" — the Hama massacre of 1982 which left up to 40,000 dead after the army bombarded the town to put down a revolt by the Muslim Brotherhood.
Unprecedented rapidity
In terms of logistics, social networking via the internet has helped protesters organise and gather support with unprecedented rapidity. Slim Amamou, who became known as the Tunis Blogger, told reporters that the brisk toppling of Zain Al Abidine Bin Ali was due to text messaging and the Internet: "information was immediately available," he said, "people could instantly synchronise their actions". In subsequent uprisings, the internet and phone networks have been cut off, although in a world where business depends so heavily on the world-wide web, it is impossible to suspend it for long without risk to the economy.
More than 8.3 per cent of Facebook users are in the Middle East and North Africa — Egypt alone has 1,820,000 on Facebook — and together with Twitter, it is the source of most real-time news from Libya at the moment.
Social networking sites also convey the kind of human element we seek in good journalism. One particularly striking posting on Facebook by an Egyptian youth at the height of the struggle read: "DIE for something ... is better than ... to LIVE for nothing ... R.I.P. all Egyptians dead in this Revolution".
In Tunisia, 69 year-old Prime Minister Mahmoud Gannoushi (who has been in office for 11 years) is trying to prolong his period of grace by engaging with the cyber-fraternity. He has appointed the Tunis blogger Slim Amamou Secretary of State for Youth and Sport and a few days ago invited dialogue on his newly created Facebook page. He instantly received a barrage of discouraging responses best summed up by this one from a certain Zouheir R: ‘DEGAGE et prend Slim Amamou avec toi là où tu ira' [Get lost and take Slim Amamou with you].
Nevertheless, Gannoushi is on the right track. This new dynamic of freedom and truth will have to inform the future direction of any Arab media, mainstream or independent, that pretends to serve the interests of the people rather than its rulers.
- Abdel Bari Atwan is editor of the pan-Arab newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi.
