Pan-Arab TV Talk Show Discusses Media-Terrorism Relationship
Dubai Al-Arabiya Television in Arabic carries at 1905 gmt on 29 May a new episode of its talk show “Arab Dialogue,” moderated by Talib Kan’an, and sponsored by the Arab Thought Foundation.
Today’s episode hosts: Muntasir al-Zayyat, Egyptian expert on terrorism affairs; Ali al-Salim, Egyptian journalist and playwright; Dr Ali Sa’d al-Musa, Saudi academic and writer; Ahmidah Ayyashi, chief editor of the Algeria daily, Djazair News; Dr Ma’mun Findi, director of the Middle East programme in the International Centre for Strategic Studies; and Jawad al-Hamad, director of the Middle East Studies Centre, for a discussion on the Arab media’s role in spreading terrorist propaganda and ideologies and the boundaries that separate professional and objective reporting from public endangerment.
The episode airs live from a studio in Cairo and is taped before an audience of Egyptian university students, who are asked from time to time to vote on certain questions. Kan’an explains that the main theme will be: “Has the Arab media, or part of it, unwittingly helped promote terrorism?” The guests are given turns answering this question.
First to speak is Al-Zayyat, who says that the media “succeeds whenever it manages to cover an event objectively, and I can say for sure that the media has helped remedy the phenomenon of violence and terrorism.”
Al-Musa says: “Yes, I believe the media has [helped promote violence]. The terrorists provide the acts, and the media is their marketing tool. In the Arab world in particular, the media is not objective, and there has been a real symbiotic relationship between terrorism and media spotlights in the many cases in which various media outlets turned into marketing tools for terrorists. In the Arab world, as long as the terrorist dominates the news and is labelled a mujahid or a resistance fighter, and as long as the organization’s leader is openly referred to as a shaykh in the news, then this is the biggest promotion of terrorist acts.”
For his part, Findi says: “I believe the Arab media could have been part of the solution, but so far, it has been part of the problem. Arab media, with its current language, promotes, to a great extent, certain ideas that can be understood to justify and religiously permit cultural terrorism, not just conventional terrorism, in society. Arab media has so far been weak and immature, especially televised media, and is yet to act professional.”
Al-Hamad says: “Global media in general helps spread the culture of violence through cinema, television, video games, and even children’s cartoons, especially the productions coming from the United States and Hollywood studios. The Arab media that promotes these Hollywood movies is the one planting the culture of violence in the region, and this culture might ultimately trigger some acts of terrorism in our region.”
Ayyashi argues that it would be “unfair” to blame Arab media for the spread of terrorism and notes that “the Arab media, although frail and inexperienced, has taken to the streets in pursuit of the truth,” adding that any reference to terrorism on Arab media “is a reflection of the ideological and political crisis in the Arab world.”
Salam maintains that “up to a certain point, the Arab media played an extremely dangerous role in reporting the acts committed by certain terrorists who killed and slaughtered people while praising God,” and says: “Even now, the media continues to air messages by [Al-Qa'idah leaders] Usamah Bin-Ladin and Ayman al- Zawahiri. An active extremist or terrorist is, in his own mind, a creative person -a star who loves the limelight, so when you air a film of his production, meaning his message, whether he is killing someone or asking that someone be killed, then you are encouraging him and raising his spirits.”
A video report on the media-terrorism bond speaks of a “partnership” in which one party produces an event while the other promotes it, and of theories that “the media and its promotion of a terrorist act are often more important than the act itself” and that the media “guarantees continuity for terrorist acts” by accommodating terrorist audio-visual productions. The report also notes counter arguments that no such partnership exists, proof being the murder of prominent journalists, and conveys demands that the media not exaggerate terrorist acts and “focus on their negative aspects, which harm societies and reflect negatively on the media and its pivotal role in social, economic, political, and cultural development.”
A vote by the students in the studio shows that 51 per cent believe the media helped promote terrorism, whereas 24 per cent believe it helped rein in terrorism.
On claims that “journalists befriend terrorists, not out of admiration, but in pursuit of scoops,” Al-Zayyat argues that it is an issue of trust, not friendship, between the two, and says that “the media’s honest reporting of information and ideas creates this bridge, this trust.” He disagrees with Kan’an that broadcasting terrorist messages constitutes a “free marketing service” and maintains that “none of these images of murderers glorifying God have settled into the Arab citizen’s consciousness; on the contrary, all those who saw them condemned them.”
Commenting on the media-terrorism “partnership” mentioned in the video report, Al-Salim argues that the media’s relationship with Arab viewers lacks “ethical and professional values.” He recalls a hostage situation in which terrorists overran a housing complex in Saudi Arabia in 2005, and speaks of the “free marketing” that a “famous and pioneer Arabic news channel” provided the terrorists when it interviewed their leader in its main newscasts and allowed him to “sell his goods and justify his attack.”
Asked if viewers should be left to judge for themselves or if limits should be placed on what the media can report, Findi says: “I am not opposed to the broadcast of a part of a terrorist’s speech if a media worker sees, from a professional perspective, a sign of a future event or operation. However, what the Arab media has particularly failed to do is clarify to Arab viewers how to survive a terrorist attack, in other words, the BBC and other European channels broadcast instructions meant to guarantee the safety of viewers and explain to them that there are ways to survive should an event occur near them, but I have not seen similar programming on Arab channels that explains the dangers of terrorism to regular citizens.”
On how the media is supposed to treat an issue as prominent as terrorism, Findi says: “A scoop, like receiving a videotape from Usamah Bin-Ladin, is one thing, and going begging for a Bin Ladin tape is another. There is a difference between news gathering and news receiving.”
On the “extent to which the Arab media’s promotion of the culture of political violence has helped spread terrorism” through its regular use of words like betrayal, collaboration, and subordination, Al-Hamad argues that the screening of violent movies centring on sex, drugs, mafias, and crime “instilled a sort of violence and extremism in some Arab youth,” who, upon witnessing the “injustice” brought to the region by the United States, were driven to violence under the influence of the “culture of violence promoted by American films, internet, and cartoons.”
As to whether the media’s justifies terrorism by focusing on “just causes, like the Palestinian cause and the Iraqi cause,” and talking about Palestinians being killed by US weapons and the US military’s actions in Iraq, Al-Hamad says that is not, and he argues that the “resistance against occupation” in Iraq and Palestine do not count as terrorism.
Another video is carried showing Algerians criticizing Arab media outlets and accusing them of “serving regimes and intelligence apparatus,”"sowing sedition,” and “exacerbating the political situation, especially in the Middle East.”
On whether the problem lies in the “vague definition of terrorism and terrorists,” Ayyashi refers to the 10-year-war on Muslim extremists in Algeria and says: “The journalistic and Arab elite appearing on some Arab channels were constantly providing justifications, but the time has come for them to reflect on their actions because we cannot talk about terrorism just because we now feel threatened by it. I am talking about some channels. Furthermore, this is no reason not to talk about terrorists. Journalists must report the facts as they are, and these facts must be discussed within society, but for this to happen, there must be a framework of freedom and opposing opinions.”
On the terms like “shaykh” and “mujahid” that are used by some channels in describing terrorists, Ayyashi calls them a “flaw in the Arab psyche because when we want to speak about the situation in the Arab world, we blame it on America -true, America might be the reason, but we must take a close look at ourselves and discuss matters for what they truly are.”
A second round of voting among the students shows that 64 per cent believe that “terrorist groups have succeeded in turning Arab media into their private podiums.”
On whether or not he supports a “ban on fatwas that might be exploited to promote terrorism, such as takfiri [accusing other Muslims of apostasy] fatwas,” Al-Zayyat says that media outlets “should not fear that any discussion of this topic would be seen as a justification of terrorism” and should not fear being “labelled foreign and shut down” for conveying the opinions of terrorists.
He adds: “In the past, radio stations were shut down and media outlets were nationalized, and the result was that Arab listeners would tune in to the BBC and Voice of America. Today, the world is an open space, so if there are statements, tapes, or fatwas promoting violence and takfir, then let us all listen to them so that our sons, kinfolk, families, and young men do not listen to them without our presence. Let us listen to them and to the responses of the qualified scholars. Let us listen to them and to the comments and corrections provided by the qualified scholars, because if we suppress them, then those behind them will be considered by many young people to be martyrs.”
The guests go on discuss the roots of violence in the Arab world, with Al-Hamad blaming it on violent Hollywood movies, Findi attributing it to the “prevalent culture in the Arab world that justifies violence,” and Al-Musa arguing that “the Arab world has been raised under the illusion of an enemy, and even Islamic rhetoric teaches our generations that Arabs and Muslims most live in a constant state of battle readiness as if stuck between two feuding parties.”
Asked to whether they condone the media’s publication and broadcast of “the political and ideological positions of terrorist organizations,” 46 per cent of the students vote yes, 33 per cent vote no, and the remaining 21 per cent abstain.
Salim says: “If the media is to promote the ideas of freedom, citizen rights, and human dignity, then it must understand that the state is the sole party authorized to use violence and that no person can carry weapons unless permitted by the state.” He says that the media is “ignoring the issue of the state’s authority” and “fears that if it discusses the issue of the state and promotes it as the only party authorized to use force, then it will not be able to recognize those calling themselves resistance fighters.” He says that this fear has infected journalists, stating as an example Lebanese journalists, whom he suggests toned down their rhetoric after a number of their colleagues were assassinated.
On whether the Arab media’s treatment of social, economic, and political issues “contributed to the emergence and growth of the terrorism phenomenon in the region,” Al-Zayyat maintains that “the media’s role is to monitor events and phenomena and report them to the people.” He disagrees with calls for banning the media from covering terrorism issues and explains that some extremist ideologies, although banned, managed to spread and turn into cults “because they were banned and clandestine ideologies, and a banned ideology is a desirable ideology that will find supporters without any help from satellite channels.”
Al-Zayyat says that “when groups in Egypt launched their initiative to stop violence, this initiative would not have succeeded had it not been for the role of the media, the Al-Hayat and Al-Sharq al-Awsat newspapers, which enabled us to convey letters from imprisoned [Islamist] leaders to their armed supporters in the mountains and valleys -we also conveyed these messages through satellite channels.”
On the relationship between the media and terrorism, Al-Musa says: “Let me give you an example of the Arab media’s handling of terrorist acts: when the UN offices were attacked in Algeria, a major Arabic channel kicked off its evening newscast with an opinion poll and asked viewers if they support this attack. It was as if the channel was justifying terrorism. This is archaic language that shows that Arab media, like the Arab people, is still in the crawling phase and is not an objective or impartial media in its treatment of different issues -it is a media that incorporates its internal agenda into its reporting. Another example is the coverage of the events that unfolded in Lebanon this month between the pro- government and opposition forces -if you look at the websites of the two most important Arabic news channels [Al-Jazeera and Al- Arabiya], you would find that they have taken opposing sides. Arab audiences and young Arab men and women are confused and lost because Arab media is leading them to the unknown.”
Egyptian nationals are shown praising the media’s performance, saying that it “succeeded in distancing itself from terrorist group and portraying itself as defeating them,” that it opened people’s eyes to terrorist activities worldwide, and that it “raised people’s awareness of terrorists.”
Findi speaks of the difference between local state-controlled media, which he says takes a positive stand in the face of terrorism when citizens are hurt, and “irresponsible media, that being the transnational media, which feels no obligation towards anyone and often becomes a promoter of terrorism.” He adds: “These young people [in the video reports] see the smiles, winks, and clothes of news presenters following the assassination of a jihadist leader and [changes direction] people are smart enough to realize that a certain channel is terrorism’s conjoined twin at the head, and terrorism starts at the head and as thoughts .”
He adds: “We have no such thing as national security journalists [previous words in English] or journalists specializing in terrorist issues who can tell us about Usamah Bin-Ladin and his history, or about Ayman al-Zawahiri and his history, or about these men’s ideologies and how they developed. All we hear are repetitions of pre-packaged ideas. This type of journalist should be trained to cover terrorism. All we are seeing today are cliches being promoted in the media, and the Arab media’s stars are the resistance men who adopt the rhetoric of resistance and believe in passing the blame, but who are in fact mice on the home front -in the outside world, they are heroes and resistance fighters who want free stardom, but on the inside, they are mice who earn their living from governments that ask them to export the country’s internal problems.”
On whether the media can be impartial between regimes and violent groups, Ayyashi says that in the first years of Algeria’s extremism crisis, the media was confronted by a state that was not prepared to see front-page news headlines on security incidents and that newspapers were suspended and journalists imprisoned, noting however that “this did not prevent a real discussion on how we can handle security issues.” He speaks of the need for the people to understand “the roots” of terrorist ideologies and insists that “these matters must be discussed without journalist being accused of crimes or of supporting terrorists and radical Islamists.”
On whether the Arab media “can be part of the war on terrorism without being subordinate to regimes,” Al-Hamad says: “Arab media can be part of the war on the culture of violence, starting with itself, by refraining from spreading this culture, be it imported or home-made, and by promoting the culture of forgiveness, coexistence, and mutual respect, and separating it completely from the issue of resisting the military occupation of any Arab and Islamic lands.”
The students again vote, this time on whether it was television, radio, hardcopy publications, or online journalism that helped the most in spreading terrorist propaganda – 43 per cent vote for television, none vote for radio, and 46 per cent vote that all the above played equal roles.
Findi says: “Arab media, from Morocco to Oman, costs an overall $17 billion a year, with only $1.5 billion being spent on advertisements, meaning that we have $15.5 billion in losses in the Arab media. So who finances this media and why? This is a subordinate media. In Lebanon, a New TV anchorwoman hoped that an opposition member would be killed, and each Lebanese channel represents a sect. In the Arab world, each channel represents a country. The Arab media is hostage to a group of interests, be they interests of countries, sects, or certain groupings, and is therefore not professional, especially in dealing with terrorism. “
For his part, Al-Zayyat says that the “interference of regimes” is what prevents Arab media from engaging the public and fighting terrorism, and adds that “today, as we fight for a transparent and subjective media that can combat all the pandemics of our time, we find the Arab broadcasting document, with which they seek to muzzle the media.” He adds: “Such behaviour will not suppress ideologies or prevent terrorism. This assault on media outlets will only increase the popularity of the outlets that are meant to be silenced, and those promoting extremist ideologies will find thousands of ways to do so. We must give the media enough room to initiate successful and objective debates far from the threat of the regime.”
Jordanian citizens are shown expressing varying views on the Arab media’s role in promoting or countering terrorism and extremist ideologies in the region.
On whether the media should avoid certain issues and developments “under the pretext of regulating the dissemination of facts within the framework of the war on terrorism,” Al-Musa speaks of the need for the media to be independent of regimes and governments and adds: “Arab media outlets fail to be professional and objective for a number of reasons, but mainly because they are small stars orbiting around regimes. So what are we to expect of Arab media if the main or pioneer channel does not air, in an entire day, a single advertisement for a company, but still manages to have the budget of 70 channels beaming through the Arab satellite.”
On whether Arab media is a positive or negative player in the global war on terror, Salim says that the media is unaware of the effects of the programmes it carries that host people who preach the insignificance of the material world and the need to end it, which he says “lay the groundwork for terrorist acts in the future.”
Students vote on whether or not they support a ban on publications that “promote the culture of political violence,” with 56 per cent of them voting that they do.
On how the media can avoid being labelled pro-government or pro- terrorism, Al-Hamad says that the Arab media must distinguish between resistance and terrorism so that Arab citizens may “accept” its arguments against terrorism, that it must be objective in its reporting and state the facts as they are “without using certain jargon or excluding, marginalizing, and insulting any person or party,” that it accommodate all opinions, and that it avoid violent Western productions and refrain from airing violent scenes.
Ayyashi argues that “the more professional you are, the more you protect society,” and he explains that professionalism means “adopting a code of honour, allowing everyone to be heard, and being biased only to your professionalism.” He adds: “Even the media we are talking about today is the victim of an ideology. Are there any ideological revisions by moderate clerics who once promoted the ideologies that generated this radicalism? The terrorists themselves are the victims of those clerics, who abandoned them in the middle of the road after having turned them into monsters. The courage needed is the courage to criticize oneself by the political, cultural, and religious elite, because if we are to talk about a public illness, then the media is part of this society and part of this public illness.”
Asked if he supports a media code of honour “that would limit the Arab media’s inclination to support certain forms of violence and promote, wittingly or unwittingly, the terrorism phenomenon,” Salim says that certain issues are best left to individuals instead of the law and says: “In this modern age, governments should ease their grip on the media, and I will let them in on a small secret -the media is no longer important to them because it is incapable of polishing their image, defending them, or influencing the people, but some people insist on the same beliefs they had 40 years ago and still see the media of the past. They think that if a programme hosts them, then they are great, but no, they are being hosted on programmes that no one watches.”
Students vote on whether there should be a “common Arab code of honour that bans the promotion of the culture of violence and terrorism,” with 70 per cent voting yes.
In closing, the guests take turns answering a question on what is to be expected of Arab media in the face of terrorism?
Al-Musa says that Arab media “must realize that Arabs are facing a serious problem concerning the Arab world’s awareness and future,” and he urges the closure of several state-run media outlets, saying that “there is a difference between the political prostitution of many Arab media outlets, and the prostitution that has contaminated the Arab world to the extent that families fear for their children from televisions because these children will grow up to be either terrorists, or the total opposite.”
The programme ends at 2007 gmt.
Originally published by Al-Arabiya TV, Dubai, in Arabic 1905 29 May 08.
(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring Middle East. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.