Heat over Gaza war coverage

Dubai: Arab media coverage over the war on Gaza sparked a heated debate on Tuesday at the Arab Media Forum with panelists taking strong positions on the concept of neutrality and the use of terminology in describing the Israeli invasion.

Nabil Khatib, executive editor of Al Arabiya, said terminology adopted by news networks while covering the Gaza war had been needlessly tactful. The word 'martyr' had been frequently used by Al Jazeera in describing victims of war, he pointed out. "Martyr is a religious term, I cannot issue a judgment on the dead person because I am not God," he said.

Editor-in-chief of Al Jazeera, Ahmad Al Shaikh, retorted that the debate over terminology was "unfortunate".

"We should focus our energies on reporting corruption, not terminology. Let the Western media discuss the issue," he said.

Nassim Al Khoury, a professor of Political Media at Lebanon University, posed a question to his co-panelists. "Why do we show violent American movies on our networks, but limit images of our own being killed?"

The audience responded with a huge applause.

"Our coverage aims to stop wars and alleviate suffering," Al Shaikh replied.

The debate that was to encompass coverage from various Arab news networks turned into a battle of wits between Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya as they sought to emphasise their neutrality and respective records.

Arab media coverage of the Gaza war also sparked debate on whether the media is contributing to dividing Arab opinion, an allegation which both networks dismissed.

Meanwhile, an audience member made an impassioned plea for Arab unity.

"I feel like I'm in a football match, its very disappointing," he said.