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Al-Ahram Weekly 21 - 27 October 1999 Issue No. 452 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 21 - 27 October 1999 Issue No. 452
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters A very bad show
By Salama Ahmed Salama
On two occasions, the Egyptian media establishment failed to rise to the level of the events it sought to cover. Officials have failed pathetically in formulating a policy that takes change into consideration, and opens new scientific and technological horizons to an enthusiastic audience. For over two decades, the information system has been held hostage to its own methods. It has reduced itself to an agency for mobilising the public, fuelling its emotions, playing on its feelings, and pandering to nationalist sentiment by piling on a surfeit of anthems, banners, and processions that anyone with pretensions of sanity would flee wildly.
The first failure was its coverage of Mubarak's address before the People's Assembly on the eve of the referendum. The president's quiet, well-deliberated statements were designed to appeal to the rationality and conscience of the people's representatives; they also introduced a modern, forward-looking programme for Egypt's development. Through science, technology and mobilisation of resources, the president said, Egypt would be able to address the challenges posed by a global economy.
This message, however, was not conveyed to the public in a manner likely to reflect clear-cut, detailed objectives, or to encourage greater popular involvement. Instead, television, radio and later the daily press, transformed the event into a cacophony of advertisements, banners and loudspeakers. The realities the president was trying to put before the people, the success achieved and the goals agreed upon in response to their needs, were all drowned in the clamour. If media officials think this way, they can only expect to lose their credibility and be discredited by the public, regardless of how they perceive themselves.
The same attitude was adopted when the news of Ahmed Zewail's Nobel Prize broke. The media was not in the least concerned with presenting the public with a factual account of the criteria a scientist must meet if he is to be so honoured. The years Zewail spent working tirelessly were omitted as unnecessary detail. Television and press correspondents reduced the event to a fanfare of exaggeration, heaping praise on the laureate, of course, but especially on Egyptian intelligence.
The media magnates may not have realised that exaggerated praise is as harmful as exaggerated disparagement. Both undermine any status we aspire to. It would have been more useful, surely, to discuss scientific research in Egypt, to focus on its decline, the corruption of those in charge, the meagre allocations this field receives... The media did not explain why no one took Zewail up on the offer he made when he came to Egypt last year. It was quite enough to cover the festivities organised in his honour and the presentation of awards. Nor did the media shed light on the fact that the laser equipment he offered Ain Shams University was seized by the Ministry of Finance until the customs had been settled. No one ever looked into that incident, which is only the tip of the iceberg.
Few eminent scientists emerge from our scientific institutions, and with good reason. I have failed to find a single programme on television which conveys scientific facts to the public, or shows films about the lives and works of great inventors and scientists who made a difference to humanity.
Once again, the Egyptian media is backward, self-centred and unaware of the requirements of globalisation. In fact, it is contributing to the propagation of ignorance. It uses its resources to keep the public entertained by stuffing it with junk. No effort is made to inform or educate. Unless a radical change is made, any efforts to develop our country will be futile.
