Internet and satellite channels make impact on censorship policy

Dubai: There are many trends affecting newsrooms worldwide, but in the Arab world the most important may be the impact of the internet and satellite channels on censorship, delegates to the Middle East Publishing Conference heard yesterday.

The future of the print media also formed the theme of a workshop at the conference.

"We think the growth of satellite news has benefited us greatly," said Moham-med Almezel, Assistant Editor of Gulf News.

"Governments in the region have been very conservative. There is little access to get the real news behind the announced news. But what happened with the rise of the satellite channels is that they gave us more access," he said.

"Al Jazeera gives the news as it comes. That gives us the incentive to go to officials here and say, 'The news has been announced by Al Jazeera. You can confirm it or deny it but you can't change that fact'."

Future of news

Almezel said governments in the region have reacted "reasonably well" to the trend, and that there are controversial stories that can be reported now that could not three or four years ago.

Bertrand Pecquerie, Director of the World Editors Forum, said among the most important issues being considered and debated in newsrooms worldwide is whether the future of print is online, and whether all news will be free.

He noted that with newspapers beginning to welcome citizen journalists, the challenge was to work out how they could be further integrated.

Other challenges included how regional newspapers can reconnect with their communities; the transformation being wrought on newspaper journalism by broadband and multimedia; and new emerging jobs and responsibilities for editors.