From the Arab Street to Arab Public Opinion. a Quiet Revolution
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The Role of Media in the Mediterranean From the Arab Street to Arab Public Opinion. A Quiet Revolution Francis Ghilès of Arab politics and public opinion; the the Taliban regime in Afghanistan pre- Scientific Advisor press in Beyrouth was freer than else- sented Al Jazeera with its coming-out Dossier Institut de la Méditerranée, where in most of the Arab world. By party: the Qatar based station has not Marseilles the mid-1980s, the weekly Algerian looked back since, and has sown at paper Algérie Actualités was begin- least three other stations: LBC is ning to stir itself into action, while in based in Lebanon and financed by Whenever dramatic events occur in Morocco and elsewhere in the Middle Saudi and Lebanese money; Al Ara- the Middle East and North Africa - East, some journalists were fighting biyya is based in Dubai and financed 2003 and the region does indeed have more hard to gain a measure of freedom. At by Kuwaiti and Saudi resources and than its fair share of such occurrences, the same time, London took over from we also have Abu Dhabi TV. For the Med. western journalists, media pundits and Paris as the centre of newspapers, first time ever, we can speak of an Arab politicians have naturally tried to guess which were either broadsheets oppos- public opinion, Arab opinion shapers the reaction on the «Arab streets». In the ing one or other of the Arab regimes or and Arab television pundits. The funda- absence of reliable public opinion polls more serious publications. Such news- mental point is that the birth of Pan- and of a free press, such a response is papers were however only available to Arab media means that Arab govern- understandable. The results however a privileged few and easily confiscated ments no longer have the monopoly on 70-71 only ever offered a coarse yardstick of at the borders of Arab countries. Tele- the distribution of information. what ordinary people really thought, vision in all these countries was con- Equally as important, these new inter- and were inevitably ridden with stereo- stantly stultified and became a past national Arab television channels are types: western journalists very often master, well before the phrase was exporting information to the West. This worked without the unmatchable skill coined to criticise western television, at phenomenon is completely new: ex- of mastering the language spoken in dumbing down its emissions. It is inter- porting opinion not only to Western the countries they were covering, esting to note that the lowest common journalists but also to Western public whether Arabic or Berber. Many jour- denominator was deemed the best and governments. The interview with nalists in Mediterranean countries on way of serving the interests of people Osama Ben Laden in November 2001 the southern shore and beyond lived a whose standard of literacy, over the is a case in point or what is taking frustrating life due to the heavy censor- very same period of time and across place in Iraq every day. ship imposed upon them on their re- the region, was increasing fast. The impact of these stations has been ports of domestic affairs, let alone if In the 1980s and in order to escape felt both in Arab countries and in the they tried to cover the events unfolding the millstone around their necks, more West. In the former nations, many lead- in a «brother country», and they were and more North Africans and Middle ers have done everything in their pow- forced to watch as their western peers Eastern inhabitants turned to satellite er to prevent their people from watch- were courted by their Arab leaders. broadcasts: Tunisians chose Italian, ing programs that they deemed unfit These leaders often feared well-known then French television stations; Algeri- or dangerous. After all, freedom of journalists, and regularly invited them ans watched French stations; and oth- speech, polemics, debates, analysis, to all-expenses-paid interviews and ers increasingly tuned into CNN. It was and sometimes insults may often lead quoted them back to the people they only a matter of time before an Arab to disorder; they can result in a ques- ruled as the masters of their trade. television station offering decent news tioning the status quo, and can even be As always, there were a few notable coverage was set up. This happened revolutionary, something which Ayatol- exceptions: the Egyptian newspaper when Al Jazeera went on the air in the lah Khomeini´s use of cassettes in the Al Ahram, when it was edited in the late 1996s. Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in late 1970s proved even before the ad- 1950s and 1960s by Mohammed 1990 had seen the triumph of CNN, a vent of Arab television stations. These Heikal, was not simply the mouthpiece triumph which was short lived. By television stations, however, offered of President Nasser, it was a source of 2001, the events of 11th September what had hitherto only been a virtual well-informed and intelligent analysis and the subsequent overthrowing of medium: a mirror in which the average Arab, or for that matter the average others love to preach at the Arabs very tions on the eve of the campaign to Berber, can look at and recognise him much as their colonial forebears did, topple Saddam Hussein. I have in the or herself. though admittedly not on the same past written in all manner of European Other developments have speeded up subjects. Quite apart from their lack of and American publications, from the the advent of what can now really be the Arabic language, few have any re- Financial Times, where I worked from called an Arab public opinion. In some al knowledge of economic affairs. 1977 to 1995, to the Wall Street Jour- countries, not least in North Africa, se- Though many exceptions exist, the nal, Le Monde and El País. Earlier this rious publications have emerged, each standard of reporting in the West has year, many reasons prodded me to with its own agenda, specialist ap- fallen victim to a general «dumbing write on the coming war in the publica- proach, or manner of looking at the down» of information, and not simply tions L’Économiste, Le Quotidien d’O- world, which is taken seriously and car- where views of the Arab world are con- ran and Réalités in Tunis. The very ex- ries weight. Le Quotidien d´Algérie is cerned. Le Monde today is constantly istence of this newly emerging public recognised as a serious daily publica- on the attack where before it sought to opinion across North Africa and the tion, indeed as the most serious daily explain, more often than not denounc- Middle East was undoubtedly one of paper in Algiers; L´Economiste in ing rather than offering an analysis of the principle motives. The changes that Casablanca is the undisputed refer- the growing complexity of the affairs this opinion will forge are difficult to an- ence when it comes to economic af- of the world, and discarding any seri- ticipate. We can only hope that the fairs; and in the same city, Le Journal ous scrutiny and discussion of eco- more serious journalists, people who Hebdomadaire is more controversial, nomic affairs that lie at the heart of understand the complexities of the but its contribution to the Moroccan many of today’s problems. Europeans world, and who are unwilling to treat political debate is by no means negli- like to pride themselves in their so- The Protocols of Zion as a serious text gible. I myself do not read Arabic, but phisticated methods when compared or to write that Princess Diana was as- publications in Arabic carry much to their American brethren, but how sassinated on instructions from the weight. At the same time the coverage many European journalists represent British royal family because she had an by the western press of North African a truly European view, or seek out Arab lover, will emerge and write about events in particular has declined: nei- sources further afield than the domes- the growing complexity of the world; ther in Spain nor in France nor in the tic capital where they work, and can and that such people will help reveal United Kingdom can readers find read and write fluently in two or three the bogus theory of the so-called the opinions and intimate knowledge languages? «clash of civilisations» that is so beloved displayed by some of the great names The emergence of a truly Pan-Arab of some pundits as the lie it is. If Arab that graced the columns of such daily public opinion may well be a much public opinion is better informed, newspapers as Le Monde until a longer lasting phenomenon that the maybe it will be able to react in ways decade ago. Pan-Arab political nationalism whose that the west will consider less «emo- Western journalists are loath to admit beacon took the form of Nasser. In- tional». Whatever the end result may this state of affairs. Some, I suspect, deed, its emergence is the result of a be, the Arab street has changed: it is are not even aware of how far matters revolution in techniques which has becoming the Arab public opinion, and have developed in only a few years. wrought a revolution in methods of is a mutation of which journalists and Some, despite their specialisation in communication. Though strictly speak- politicians in Europe and America will the Middle East region, remain some- ing I am no longer a journalist, I chose have to take greater heed in the future what condescending of «the Arabs»; to write in three North African publica- than they have until now.