Arab Satellite Broadcasting: An Alternative to Political Parties? Prof. Dr. Kai Hafez University of Erfurt, Germany (
[email protected]) currently also: Visiting Fellow at Oxford University The famous Arab news network Al-Jazeera has been considered one of the most important ‘Arab parties.’ Since most Arab countries have not yet established functioning democracies most relevant institutions, like political parties and a parliamentarian opposition, are still rudimentry, Arab satellite television seems to be taking over part of their designated role. As a mouthpiece of Arab peoples and ‘the common man’, Arab satellite broadcasting seems able to mediate between the state and society. In the international context the transnational Arab news networks, in particular, have made tremendous inroads into the Western dominated flow of news. Perhaps for the first time ever in history, Arabs have an effective and up-to- globalization tool of information at their disposal to inform the world about their own views on regional conflicts, for example, in Palestine or in Iraq. However, to what extent can Arab satellite broadcasting really be considered to play a proactive and avant-garde role for Arab democracy? The international debate on Al-Jazeera and other Arab satellites in recent years has been characterized by tremendous controversy and insecurity. While Al-Jazeera, in particular, was considered by some to be the herald of Arab democracy and civil society, its critics highlighted the networks’ anti-Israeli or Anti-American biases and their sensationalist tendency towards ‘politainment.’ Proponents applaud Arab transnational television for opening up the public discourse, but opponents argue that they are doing quite the opposite because they resonate and perpetuate intrinsic biases of Arab political culture.