Humanising the Arab media

I was greatly shocked when I first arrived in Britain about 20 years ago. I switched on the television to watch the news, thinking that the headlines are going to be about big international events, such as the Palestinian question, or the Arab-Israeli conflict, or probably about the South African unrest, which was the main news story in the world at the time. But to my huge disappointment, the English newscaster commenced the bulletin with a report about a lost child and police efforts to find him. "Good God!", I shouted, "How could they lead with such a silly story? How stupid they are! Have they not heard about the various great events happening in the world? How could their main news items be about daily human absurdities?"

I spent quite a long time thinking that the British media are in the wrong, and I am in the right, until I began to come to terms, after a long period of rumination, with the Western news recipe. It was certainly natural for somebody like myself coming from the Middle East to criticise the British media, its parochialism, and "silliness", as I was brought up in an Arab world where the media always relegated human interest stories to a secondary position, as if they were of no importance at all.

The Arab regimes directed our media over the past five decades or so to focus mainly on "big issues", or, for that matter, stories of international magnitude such as wars, liberation battles, international disputes and, of course, international conferences or meetings between presidents, kings and leaders of all sorts.

Arab television news bulletins would have looked abnormal if they had not started with whom His Majesty or His Chairmanship met today, or whom he received or saw off at the airport yesterday. In other words, Arab news editors used to give more importance in their bulletins to something happening in Cuba or Nicaragua thousands of miles away than to events happening in their cities or villages, as if the skirmishes in Latin America, Asia, Africa, or Northern Ireland are much more important than the various hardships, problems and issues facing their fellow citizens in their homeland!

Little by little I started to understand and, for that matter, love the Western media agenda. British journalists and producers gave no priority to world issues, not because they are silly and absurd, but because they are the product of a liberal and democratic culture that attaches great importance to human lives, and so they must take priority over hollow slogans, allegedly "great causes", and so-called foreign policies and strategies.

We, as Arabs, have sadly been forced, over the decades, if not centuries, to have a dehumanised view of the world! I felt once very angry when I asked a high ranking Arab official about people dying from drinking contaminated water in his country or suffering from repeated power cuts. He almost ignored my question, and when I insisted on an answer, he nonchalantly said that his government had more important issues to tackle than to focus on silly daily municipal problems. He regarded basic human issues as unimportant.

Our governments have cheated us all along with so-called victories over foreign powers and big strategies, while their people were suffering socially, economically, educationally, healthwise and so on and so forth! They kept our sufferings and pains off the written and visual media for so long!

Isn't it high time that the Arab media got off their high horses, and came down to the lower depths as Maxim Gorky called them, i.e. to the people? Are not our societies crammed with hundreds of human and social issues that need immediate attention from the media?

We are extremely fed up with news and programmes about "imperialism" "Zionism" and "liberation issues". We should get liberated locally first before we get liberated from foreign colonialists. Our media should be harnessed to liberating the Arab people from their internal problems first.

The time has certainly come to start from bottom to top. It is very high time to humanise the Arab media so that they are at the service of the people and not at the beck and call of the authorities. Believe me when we tackle and solve our human and social problems we will be in a stronger position to face our external enemies. Let our media tackle first our rudimentary needs cited by Maslow in his famous triangle and then "big issues" will be sorted out automatically.

Dr Faisal Al Qasim is a Syrian journalist based in Doha.

Both big news and small news is important for a good news channel. I think GN's "the Region" section covers that. However, we do not see this type of news on TV, only about political affairs and foreign finance.Sure, it is very important to keep the general public alert about what is happening at places like Gaza, but I bet once in a while they would like to listen to whats happening in their neighborhood.
Tuahaa Soomro
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: August 09, 2009, 14:28

I am Somalia lady who is based and working in the UAE.You, Mr Fazel and Al Jazera Channel were the wake-up call, for not only the Middle East but all the whole Third World States in terms of having a classic and informative media..I believe there were no free and fair media in any of these countries before Al Jazera Channel but currently things have improved and I am sure we will witness a greaters steps in futureAl Jazera and its team have done a marvelous job - not only in terms of internal News Updates but also the way the beat many huge Broadcasting Channels from the West. I still remember those days I used to consider CNN the only reliable channel to watch! Coming back to your article, "freedom starts from home", well said by you!We have to liberate our people from people first! An expression I admire upon you?Keep the work and my warm regards all the Al Jazera Team.
Zahra J. Saleh
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: August 09, 2009, 09:25

I couldnt agree more with this article and wish that the Arab World would recognize the same. There is so much potential waiting to be explored, if we could only open our minds and expand our views.
Mehtap
Dubai,UAE
Posted: August 09, 2009, 09:11