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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 2 - 8 November 2000 Issue No. 506 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 2 - 8 November 2000 Issue No. 506
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region Interview International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Media wars
By Salama Ahmed Salama
If the resolutions issued by the Arab summit managed to rally Arab leaders around a unified position, they nonetheless gave rise to a media war on a number of separate fronts. This war reflected the extent of the distance between what Arab governments are capable of doing and what their peoples aspire to.
The Intifada has not been extinguished. Those who thought Arafat capable of lighting it then casually snuffing it out apparently made a massive miscalculation. Similarly, the official media apparatuses of the Arab world rose up, clamouring in response to popular discontent, but subsequently proved unable to justify or explain the summit's anticlimactic decisions. This is what first set off the media confrontations that are diverting the Arabs from the challenges at hand.
The situation is absurd. Israeli troops besiege and invade Palestinian Authority-controlled land, using heavy weaponry to kill, maim and destroy. Barak's government is exerting Herculean efforts to reunite Israeli society, mobilising it for serious confrontations that could extend to all fronts under an emergency government. Meanwhile, verbal battles are erupting on the Arab front. Insults, criticism and accusations are levelled by deluded, driven or disappointed parties -- and the Egyptian press is instantly on the defensive. The arena has been extended to the reopening of old files and the display of all Egypt's suffering in its defence of Arab and Palestinian rights. The tone, unfortunately, has escalated from one of responsible criticism to one of irresponsible attack.
In the thick of this absurdity, where neither the right questions nor even remotely persuasive answers are in evidence, and in response to which the Egyptian press really should not have stooped so low, Arab satellite channels searching for a role are competing for the top spot, often using cheap methods. They have exploited the official media's failure to justify government policies to the people. Without a framework capable of communicating facts or providing correct information, the media resorts to tactlessness and spoon-feeding. Media officials in the Arab world often forget that, in an age of communication and information, media coverage has become, in some measure, a commodity subject to competition, and like any other commodity can be real or fake. Once the degree of fraudulence is unified, there is no scope for criticism, because ultimately, the determining factor is respect for the minds of the viewers. Tabloid press and television channels succeed by giving the viewer a strong impression that they are telling him the truth, when in fact they are frequently lying through their teeth.
Another -- real -- media war is taking place. Israeli Internet hackers are waging an attack on Palestinian and Arab sites belonging to Hizbullah and other factions of the Arab resistance.
Groups of Arab hackers have managed to penetrate the Israeli foreign affairs, Knesset, information and defence ministry sites, flooding them with so many letters they were down for hours. Israeli sources blamed the attack on Arab "terrorists," and Israeli electronic security specialists responded with a massive counterattack on many Arab sites (based in Europe and America). Israeli reports announced that Hizbullah's site now shows a picture of the Israeli flag.
Internet battles involve great numbers of young Arabs and Israelis, engaged in attacking and defending, writing dozens of messages that involve insults, accusations and instructions on how to destroy the enemy's electronic strongholds. Since there are approximately three times as many Israeli sites as Palestinian, the Israeli sites are more prone to losses. But when will this new war end?
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