Future Bleak for State-Owned Arab Media

Thursday, 21 April, 2011

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Zoe Holman

The future of the state-run media in the Middle East and North Africa has been called into question by the social and political upheaval in the region, observers say.

Government-controlled media outlets look likely to become ever more of an anachronism as people in the region increasingly turn to social media as well as satellite television channels.

"There is no future for Arab state media," said the London-based Huffington Post blogger and social commentator, Faisal Abbas, speaking at an event organised by the Frontline Club last week.

The legitimacy of outlets like Egypt's Al-Ahram newspaper, Abbas argued, had long been undermined in the eyes of Egyptians by the regime's continued, ill-disguised interference with editorial content, as was evident last year when the title printed a doctored photograph showing then president Hosni Mubarak walking down a red carpet ahead of US president Barack Obama and the Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian leaders.

In contrast, Abbas pointed to the power of the single Facebook page in support of Khalid Said - an Egyptian blogger who died in police custody last June - in helping bring down the Mubarak regime. In the face of pro-government propaganda by the regime's newspapers, the page acquired thousands of fans overnight, eventually prompting an inquiry into the death of Said.

The power of multiple social media platforms was illustrated by the case of Tunisian fruit seller, Mohamed Bouazizi, who set himself alight in front of the municipal office of his provincial town. Footage of the video was uploaded by Bouazizi's family from their remote village onto YouTube where it was viewed by thousands, before being broadcast across the entire Arab world.

Many Arab regimes had then tried to combat the power of social networking tools by using Facebook and Twitter to try to counter online dissent with state propaganda, but with little success.

Yet while the internet has been crucial in corroding the power of state media, more traditional forms such as satellite television have also played an important role.
Abbas noted that the 40 million Arabs who accessed the internet last year were equivalent to Al-Jazeera's audience in the region in one day.

"[Social media] is not the message," added Dina Matar, a lecturer in Arab media and political communication at London's School of African and Oriental Studies. "It is a tool, which has given protesters the ability to frame the narrative, but there are other factors. The uprisings have now shifted from cyber-politics to street politics, where the traditional media of rallies, graffiti and leaflets have been used. The people, and not just journalists, have created the angle on the stories."

"I subscribe wholeheartedly to the view that these revolutions were powered by information," said Al-Jazeera's Cairo correspondent, Ayman Mohyeldin Moyheldin. "I don't support the notion that it was purely Facebook or Twitter, but it was a mixture of media, and the internet was crucial."

Mohyeldin, who covered the events in Tahrir Square, recounted a popular Egyptian joke to emphasise the widely-held view of the revolutionary sway of Facebook. After his death, Mubarak finds himself in the afterlife, conversing with his predecessors, the former Egyptian presidents Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar Sadat. When asked by Sadat about the cause of his death, whether he was for example, assassinated or suffered a heart-attack, the deposed dictator replies, "No, I was Facebooked."

Moyheldin was doubtful about the survival of smaller state-run media in the face of the popularity of Al-Jazeera and other foreign media.

"If competition doesn't take out state-owned newspapers and channels, dictators will dismantle them themselves, because they no longer serve any use," he said.

"State television and newspapers in the Arab world have been completely discredited," agreed Hugh Miles, a journalist and the author of Al-Jazeera: How Arab TV News Challenged the World.

"They've been trailing behind for years and now need to be competitive with funding and creating a political environment that promotes freedom of speech."

It was only through their own thorough re-invention that state-run media would be able to win back their audiences.

"Editorial integrity must be proven, not promised," Abbas argued. "Let everybody have their say, and the best voice will win."

He was sceptical about the ability of any Arab state-owned media to provide genuine political accountability and impartiality, adding, "I will only feel comfortable with [Qatari-funded] Al-Jazeera's role when it is as critical of the Qatari government as it is of Mubarak."

Greater transparency will be crucial if state media are to maintain an audience who now expect credible political coverage from broadcasters and newspapers.

"How can state media regain credibility and trust if it is still associated with the old guard?” Matar asked, adding, "Reforms will need to be deep and sincere and will require increased protection, regulation and unionism, which will not happen overnight."

Zoe Holman is an IWPR contributor.