Attempts to control media 'will fail'

Doha: Arab governments' attempts to control media outlets and their content will fail because of technological developments and new media, Arab media executives and journalists said.

During a forum on democracy this week, Arab journalists resumed attacks on Arab regimes for issuing a charter coordinating media control and squashing already limited media freedom.

"What we have faced over the past five years is a deterioration of media freedom in the region with governments trying to tighten control over TV content," said Waddah Khanfar, director-general of the Al Jazeera network.

"This Arab Charter is a setback... Arab ministers of information think they can polish the image of their regimes by keeping the media away. But there is a technological revolution which is creating new media," he said.

Abdul Bari Atwan, editor-in-chief of the London-based Al Quds Al Arabi paper said the media is facing its worst decade in a century both in the West and the East.

"From embedded journalists to state-sponsored channels aimed to win the minds and hearts of people in the West, to the new repressive policies adopted by the Arab governments, this is the worst decade we have been facing in a century.

"In the meantime, alternative media are offering a free, democratic space for expression where there is no censorship. But the new media is leading to total anarchy of information, where there is no responsibility," he said.

Information flow

Sudan's former minister of information Ali Shomou said the Arab Charter, which was recently approved by Arab League states with the exception of Qatar cannot be implemented.

"Channels can be set up and operate from everywhere else. They cannot stop the news," he said.

Tim Bell, chairman of Chime Communications, said neither the media nor the government can control information flow.

"Only consumers are in control because today's technology offers them a chance to read and watch what they want, when they want it," he said.

Mohammad Al Rumaihi, editor of chief of Kuwait's Awan daily, said freedom of the media in the Arab world is proportional to the level of democratisation of a country and individual freedom.