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Al-Ahram Weekly 25 February - 3 March 1999 Issue No. 418 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 25 February - 3 March 1999 Issue No. 418
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Their brothers' keepers
By Amira Howeidy"Why do people watch the news of local stations so enthusiastically?"
"To find out what they won't see on the satellite."
So quipped international media researcher Douglas Boyd, summarising his speech on the satellite revolution in the Middle East and North Africa at a Cairo seminar held on 20-21 February. The symposium, organised by the London-based International Centre Against Censorship (ICAC), debated the enormous changes in the broadcasting scene across the region, with its focus on the political and cultural impact of the satellite revolution.
Satellite stations, such as Al-Jazeera, MBC, ART, ANN and Orbit's Channel 2, have changed previously-settled norms of free speech and censorship, speakers argued. "Offshore broadcasting has become such an important source of [uncensored] information that viewers [in Arab countries] rarely watch the local terrestrial news," said Boyd. Hence his joke.
The symposium was attended by experts from the Middle East, North Africa, the United States and Europe, representing academic institutions, broadcasting stations and non-governmental organisations. Although a consensus was reached on how the pre-satellite era gave governments little to worry about as their state-controlled television channels fed viewers a mixture of censored items, speakers disagreed on the degree of freedom viewers should have today.
Moreover, they disagreed on the reasons why so many Arab governments have decided to launch their own satellite stations. Boyd views it as a reaction rather than a pre-planned policy. The strong impact of CNN's coverage of the Gulf War was a catalyst for the launch of MBC in 1991. And Egypt's recently-launched NileSat was a reaction to the numerous satellite channels established since then. "This is different from planning ahead and looking forward; thus the results do not necessarily come out as effective," Boyd argued.
Daoud Kuttab, director of the Institute of Modern Media, Al-Quds (Jerusalem) University, believes that Arab satellite stations were established with the aim of giving prominence to the country sending out the signal both in the Middle East and across the world. The small logo at the edge of the screen "was, and still is, more important to those subsidising these stations than the programming that is seen on the screen," he said.
This is evident in the extreme disproportion between the money spent on technical issues and that spent on programming. "The hardware of getting the signal out in a professional way becomes the goal, instead of the means, while the software is left to the existing diet of government news, cheap Arabic soap operas and the worst Hollywood programming. Once the signal is out, and the picture of the king or ruler is seen against a background of classical music, the operation is declared a success," he said.
But this was met with protests from speakers arguing that there is quality programming in Emadeddin Adib's Orbit show, Al-Jazeera and MBC.
"I am not denying their success, but it's not comprehensive. Does [the Qatar-based] Al-Jazeera dare to even discuss the local news of Qatar as bluntly as it does Egypt's?" asked Kuttab. "Al-Jazeera isn't alone in this; Syrian TV is an expert on Algerian affairs, Algerian TV is an expert on Saudi affairs, but neither station can report as lucidly on the news of their own country." This, however, does not really matter with the viewers who have access to the ArabSat "since they can access all the different stations anyway," he said.
The issue of censorship and "cultural invasion" dominated the discussions. An argument on the role of the "rising Islamist tide" in hindering democratisation in the Middle East and undermining women's rights was met by a counter-argument on the "retarded" Western soap operas which insult the viewer's intelligence. A case in point was the American soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful, said media expert Sami El-Sherif.
Mohamed Talal, representing Moroccan TV, pointed out that "it is the cheap Mexican soap operas that are broadcast by almost all the Arab satellite channels that present a backward and degrading image of women, and not Islam." Although respectable and intelligent Syrian and Egyptian productions exist and have been hailed as successful, these remain "an exception", he said. "Quality productions mean money and big budgets; otherwise, we shall continue to see poor programming," he added.
Despite the fact that the conference was organised by the ICAC, El-Sherif, along with many others, urged cautious selection of what is broadcast. "Given the high illiteracy rate in the Arab world, decision-makers should be very careful in what they let people see," he warned. He pointed out that concern over Western or American "cultural invasion" is not the worry of Arab and Islamic countries only. The French and Canadian parliaments were quick to pass laws regulating foreign satellite broadcasting to preserve the culture of their societies, El-Sherif said. "The French and Canadian examples reflect the concern of developed countries with a high education level; so shouldn't it be our concern, too, given the poor education level of our Third World people?" he asked.
Despite the many challenges, the accomplishments of Arab satellite stations should not be overlooked, the participants concluded. The examples of Lebanon and Palestine, the only Arab countries that permit privately-owned stations, should be generalised, speakers said. Al-Jazeera, many argued, made an amazing push ahead with its emphasis on tackling courageously controversial topics as well as its comprehensive coverage of major news events. Their efforts have put them ahead of MBC which had been for a while the leader in news. MBC's independent, although conservative, coverage has made it one of the most important stations to watch. ART and NileSat are taking culture, children's and family programming head on. The Lebanese stations have done very well with entertainment, while Orbit's Adib succeeded -- although to an exclusive pay-TV audience -- in tackling difficult political issues.
The successes of various channels, the speakers concluded, show clearly that the playing field is wide open in the Arab world. Any station that applies simple professional policies and takes Arab viewers seriously can quickly capture a young and vibrant market that is looking for quality programming rather than just quality broadcasting.
