Gaza spurs media role reversal

One of the positive aspects of the recent Israeli aggression against Gaza is that it, probably for the first time, exposed the flagrant bias of the Western media when it comes to covering the Arab-Israeli conflict. Although everybody in the Arab world knows that the Western media has always been heavily prejudiced against the Arabs since the conflict started, the flagrancy of the partiality this time could not have been more striking and humiliating for Western media institutions. Why? Because the competitive Arab media has again pulled the carpet out from under the feet of the European and American media, showing them up as being unprofessional, cowardly and manipulative.

The world media scene has changed over the past decade. Western journalists can no longer impose their views of international events, nor can they continue with their commissions and omissions. Global media has become multi-faceted since the beginning of the satellite revolution. This is particularly true in the case of the Arab media. Hence, it has become extremely difficult for the Western media to cover the face of the sun with a sieve, as it has always done when it comes to blacking out coverage of Israeli atrocities.

The Western media has always protected Israel from world condemnation by simply not showing the savagery and bloodthirstiness of the Israeli army in its action against unarmed Palestinian civilians. And so Western public opinion has always been kept in the dark on purpose for political and personal reasons, as Western journalists can lose their livelihood for criticising Israel. It is no wonder then, that there are many commandments that a journalist should adhere to when he or she tackles Israeli issues in the Western press.

German ex-member of parliament Jamal Karsli, who is of Arab origin, quotes a German journalist as saying: "Western journalists should always show Arabs as aggressors, and that Israel being a peaceful state has the right to defend itself against uncivilised Arabs. They must also write that it is always the Arabs who start hostilities, and that Israel has no option but to react. It is forbidden not to show Israelis as the good guys. And if Arabs kill even one Israeli soldier, they should be dubbed as terrorists, whereas when Israel kills an Arab, the latter should bear responsibility for trying to hide terrorists. Nor can a journalist mention Hamas without adding that it is a terrorist organisation. And last but not the least, Israel should always be referred to as the only democratic state in the Middle East, and so it is what it says that should be believed."

Following the war on Gaza, which began at the end of last year and lasted 22 days, however, major Arab Television channels such as Al Jazeera have turned things topsy-turvy for Israel, which showed the Western media in a bad light. Some might argue that the internet, particularly the formidable YouTube, has already broken the Western media blockade on the truth about Palestinian suffering. But this is not the case at all. In fact YouTube has been accused by many Arab journalists of deleting hundreds of video clips that showed Israeli barbarism. Therefore, the horrible truth about the Israeli war machine was brought out by the Arab channels.

Had viewers compared Western television coverage of the war in Gaza with Arab coverage, they would have been astounded by how economical with the truth the Western media was. It hardly showed the macabre scenes which shocked the Arab world. Of course, Western journalists would argue against showing barbaric images on screen on the pretext that they respect audience sensitivities. But this pretext can no longer be sold to international viewers. The Western channels edit out such scenes only to protect Israel from public reaction.

The worst face of Western media prejudice was evident when the BBC refused to broadcast even a plea from leading British charities for aid to Gaza. Why? Because such an action would, as BBC officials argued, "endanger the credibility and objectivity of the corporation".

One would have accepted such an explanation from American channels, that depend on Jewish financial support, but not from the BBC, which is supposedly financed by tax payers' money, and therefore, should at least be neutral, if not sympathetic to human misery.

Arab and Western journalists have exchanged roles during Israeli aggression on Gaza. It is Arabs who have always been accused by Westerners of tampering with the truth. But now it is none other than the world-renowned BBC that is in the dock.

Gone are the days when Arab audiences got their information from Western media outlets such as the Voice of America, Radio Monte Carlo, CNN or the BBC. We now have a media that can shape Arab public opinion from Mauritania to Iraq, for the first time in modern Arab history. In fact, it could also influence world public opinion and expose the Western media's bias towards Israel.

Dr Faisal Al Qasim is a television presenter and producer of the Opposite Direction programme at Al Jazeera channel.