The Media Missionaries

7. THE MIDDLE EAST (CONTINUED)

MIDDLE EAST COUNTRY REPORTS

ALGERIA:

ICFJ trained reporters in war-torn Algeria how to use investigative reporting techniques to cover human rights issues. The Information Code of 1990 imposes jail sentences of up to five to ten years for publishing "false or misleading" information that "harms state security." Penal code revisions in 2001 added prison terms and fines for defaming the president. The government has failed to investigate the murders of 58 reporters and editors between 1993 and 1996. It is not surprising that the papers rarely tackle sensitive subjects. Fellow journalists harassed Habib Souaidia, when his book, The Dirty War, exposed Algerian human rights crimes. Foreign journalists also are monitored and restricted.(18)

EGYPT:

Egypt provides some of the most influential-and implausible-journalism in the Middle East. Insult laws were passed in 1995 and immediately 99 journalists were imprisoned. (19) The state owns the broadcast media and shares in the major newspapers, whose editors are appointed by President Hasni Mubarak. Since newspapers are strictly controlled by licensing, few independent papers exist. Criminal laws are applied against journalists who "incite hatred," "harm the national economy," or offend a foreign head of state. Harsher press laws were being drafted at the end of 2001, CPJ reported. (20) The American University in Cairo has some journalism courses.

IRAN:

Like China, there is a continuing power struggle at the top between moderate and hardline forces, allowing liberalization and then cracking down on media and democracy. President Muhammed Khatami's election on a platform of social and political liberalization led in 1997 to the emergence of a new liberal press that began to debate such issues as official corruption. But in 1999, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei started closing down 47 of the new moderate publications. Neshat had criticized the death penalty and published a letter from an opposition leader that questioned Khamanei's authority. Salam had simply published a government document that outlined moves to curb press freedom. Although the banning of Salam sparked the largest student protests since the Islamic revolution, they had no effect on the Khamenei government, which approved a new law curbing press freedom. (21)

A parliamentarian who in 2001 denounced the press crackdown was jailed for libeling the courts, CPJ said. In 2001, investigative reporter Akbar Ganji was sentenced to 10 years in prison followed by 5 years of internal exile, for attending a 2000 conference in Berlin on the future of the Iranian reform movement. Yet two courageous editors, Mashallah Shamsolvaezin and Latif Safari, were released in 2001 after serving time in jail. Guardian reporter Geneive Abdo and her husband, Reuters bureau chief Jonathan Lyons, had to flee the country in February, 2001 amid harassment following their interviews with the jailed Ganji. (22)

There are about 1,500 Internet cafes in Teheran, of which 450 were shut down for several months in order to protect the state telecommunications monopoly against competition from low-cost Internet phone service, CPJ said. Laws were passed in 2001 requiring Internet ISPs to filter their material and finally, to dismantle their operations and handover their assets to the state. Television and radio remained in the hands of the conservative authorities. Satellite dishes, which bring international programming into Iran, are popular. But authorities confiscated some 1,000 dishes and arrested some owners in 2001. The clampdown was inspired by provocative broadcasts from Iranian opposition groups based in the U.S., CPJ said.

IRAQ:

Journalists who are at all critical of President Sadam Hussein, his family or government officials are executed. Private Internet access is forbidden, as are modems and cell phones. Fax machines can only be used with government permission, CPJ said. (23)

ISRAEL:

The media here have been mostly uncensored and "extremely lively," according to CPJ. But restrictions and hazards have increased along with the escalating violence in 2002. Gunfire from Israel Defense Forces (IDF) "was the most dangerous and immediate threat to journalists in Israel," CPJ said. In some cases, soldiers have deliberately targeted journalists. (24)

JORDAN:

Press freedom deteriorated here despite King Abdullah II's promises, when he took the throne three years ago, to liberalize the political and media laws. The 9/11 attack and American war on terrorism provided a pretext to impose general restrictions on free expression, CPJ reported. It is a criminal offense to "insult the dignity of the king" or to "incite" others to do so. Jordanian officials barred Israeli reporters from covering the March 2001 Arab summit in Amman, admitting later that they simply did "not wish to see Israelis."(25) Even though the government in 2000 technically ended its own broadcast monopoly, there are no provisions for establishing private broadcast stations, according to CPJ. In October 2001 the King replaced the Ministry of Information with a new Higher Media Council, but it was not clear whether this would improve press freedom. The Jordan Press Association to which all local and foreign journalists in Jordan must belong in order to practice journalism, in 2000 expelled Nidal Mansour, editor of Al-Hadath and the JPA's secretary-general, for starting a new press freedom organization, the Center for Defending the Freedom of Journalists. (CDFJ). (26) The Arab Women Media Center (AWMC), founded in 1999, spronsored a pan-Arab women's media conference in 2001. http://odag.org/awmc/

KUWAIT:

Kuwait is freer than most Middle Eastern countries; no one is officially protected from media criticism except the emir. After watching CNN during the Gulf War, Kuwaitis joined in the regional proliferation of satellite stations. (27)

LEBANON:

The Reuters Foundation was still offering in May, 2002 some journalist training in Beirut. Former Knight fellow Ken Freed said much of the Lebanese press was unrestricted, but self-censorship was rampant. ICFJ ran a three-year program on investigative reporting in Lebanon, bringing the best local reporters to the U.S. for internships at U.S. papers. ICFJ also helped improve the journalism departments at two local universities. At the same time, courageous journalists from Al-Nahar, edited by Elias Khoury, were harassed by the government for criticizing the Lebanese military and talking about human rights, the Syrian presence in Lebanon, and other issues. Lebanese political figures treat the media as their private megaphones. Many own news outlets or pay off journalists. Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, for example, pumped his own election via his own television station, Future TV. The International Women's Media Foundation protested the indictment in 2001 of Raghida Dergham, the senior diplomatic correspondent for Al-Hayat in New York, for a treasonous charge of "dealing with the enemy" because she had done balanced reporting on a United Nations debate over the Lebanese-Israeli border. (28)

MOROCCO:

Hopes for greater political freedom when King Muhammad VI came to power in 1999 have not been realized. CPJ reports that "the independent press continued to push the limits of free expression-and just as quickly found them." (29) The three most lively independent newspapers-Le Journal, Al-Sahiffa and Demain- were closed in 2000 but resumed operating in 2001 under similar new titles, despite harassment from the government. (30)

PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY:

U.S. government media development in the Middle East has focused mostly on Palestine, the West Bank, and Gaza. The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) closed Al Jazeera's Ramallah office for several days because it broadcast an unflattering portrait of Arafat. Because of street demonstrations defending Al-Jazeera, the satellite broadcaster was allowed to reopen. PNA prevented journalists from covering the anti-American street celebrations after the 9/11 attacks. PNA's "heavy handed and arbitrary treatment of journalists has fostered an oppressive climate of self-censorship in the Palestinian press," CPJ concluded.

Internews was active in the 1990s in developing Palestinian broadcasting and Internet journalism, but by 2002 it had largely withdrawn from the area. The Ford Foundation and OSI founded the Al Quds Institute for Modern Media and a television station modeled on America's PBS. The station was destroyed by the Israeli army in the spring of 2002, along with the other 14 indigenous Palestinian television stations. Amin.net puts Palestinian journalism on the Internet.

QATAR:

(See Al-Jazeera case study).ICFJ has a VOA contract to assess the training needs of Qatar Broadcasting Corp. journalists, including Al-Jazeera television journalists. The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamed bin Khalifa al-Thani, resisted U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's official requests after 9/11 to rein in Al-Jazeera. The emir invests $30 million a year of state funds in his now world-famous international satellite broadcasting network. The emir abolished the Ministry of Information and ended formal newspaper censorship in the 1990s, but self-censorship is rampant. One newspaper editor was beaten by three relatives of a government minister he had criticized, and the government jailed an American for allegedly defaming the emir on a website when he asked whether the emir's wife or a Qatari professor was the most attractive, CPJ reported. (31)

SAUDI ARABIA:

Recognizing that it couldn't insulate its population from BBC or CNN, the Saudi royal family established its own network, the London-based Middle Eastern Broadcasting Centre. CPJ describes Saudi Arabia as "one of the most closed societies in the world," tolerating no political dissent, particularly from the press. Editors are appointed by the government and writers can be dismissed for any reason. Foreign journalists are restricted as well, and reportedly were barred from interviewing in a region that was home to four of the 9/11 hijackers. Saudis circumvented such restrictions in two ways: by having a banned television satellite dish, or by using an Internet cafes where a resident hacker will, for a fee, take them to banned websites. (32)

SYRIA:

CPJ's Joe Campagna gives mixed reviews to President Bashar Al-Assad's two-year-old regime, saying his initial press liberalization ran into too much resistance from his inner circle's Old Guard. While Syria will allow a few independent media outlets, "the margins of acceptable discourse are strictly limited" under new decrees issued in September, 2001, Campagna wrote. On the plus side, the public's interest in serious journalism has been stirred. Syrian writers write more freely in regional newspapers such as Al-Nahar in Lebanon and Al-Hayat in London, and on Al-Jazeera television. (33) Lauren Ross of Internews had been warned by the U.S. State Department that the Syrians might not even meet with her. But she found in 2001 that they might be open to media assistance. In fact, a Syrian minister complained to her that no one was reading their papers, so they had to do something. One reason the papers were boring was that they were filled only with fawning coverage of the president, Campagna found. Ross believed the opportunity remains, but no plan is in place yet and Internews has little presence now in the Middle East. (34) The Syrian government has the only Internet Service Provider (ISP) and blocks Web sites about Israel, sex, or criticism of Syria's poor human rights record.

TURKEY:

Turkish journalists have a strategic advantage over many of their neighboring colleagues: their country wants to join the European Union. Laws are being revised and jailed journalists are expected to be released, CPJ reported. Two private holding companies own much of the print and broadcast media. The Sabah group lost some of its holdings in 2001 to rival Dogan Medya after its president was jailed for embezzlement and corruption. Turkish journalism still suffers from self-censorship and ideological prejudice, CPJ found. Private radio and television stations, which have been proliferating in recent years, are sometimes censored or closed. There is no Internet law, but an online discussion administrator was held responsible and sentenced to jail when an unknown participant posted a harsh critique of government human rights problems on his website. (35)

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES:

The Emirates, especially Dubai, have designated themselves as a center for new media. Dubai Media City was launched in 2001 as a regional news hub for international journalists. Internet City puts much of the government online. Even so, the government blocks political and sexual content as it wishes. Print journalism is treated much more harshly, with detention and harassment by authorities if the government is criticized. Self-censorship prevails.36

YEMEN:

CPJ reports that Yemen is known for its lively opposition press, but that journalists who want to criticize the government may be intimidated and jailed. The broadcast media offer one-sided pro-government coverage.

KEY MEDIA DEVELOPMENT CONTACTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST (37)

1. Geneive Abdo, until recently the Tehran correspondent for The Guardian, is a Nieman fellow in 2002. abdo@fas.harvard.edu
2. Abdel Bari Attwan, Palestinian,Editor in Chief of al-Quds al-Arabi, London, UK.
3. Mostafa Bouchachi, Algerian,Lawyer and human rights advocate, Algeria.
4. Larbi Chouikha, Tunisian,Professor of Journalism, Institute of Journalism, Tunis, Tunisia.
5. Joel Campagna, CPJ program coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa. http://www.cpj.org
6. Nabil Dajani, Lebanese, Professor and broadcasting specialist, American University of Beirut, Lebanon.
7. Ahmed Derradji, Algerian, former President of the Algerian High Court and Ambassador to UNESCO. UNESCO Consultant on Arab World Information and Communication.
8. Said Essoulami, executive director of the Centre for Media Freedom Middle East and North Africa, London. He worked for 11 years as Head of the Middle East and North Africa Programme for Article 19, the International Centre Against Censorship, and was the initiator of the Euro-Med Human Rights Network.
9. Fadia Faqir, Lecturer of Middle East Politics, the Middle East Centre, Durham University, Women's Rights Specialists, Durham, UK.
10. Salah Eddin Hafiz, Egyptian, Managing Director of al-Ahram newspapers and of al-Ahram International; Secretary General of the Arab Federation of Journalists and Board member of the Arab Human Rights Organization, Cairo, Egypt.
11. Abdellah Hassanat, Jordanian, Editor-in-Chief of Jordan Times, Amman, Jordan.
12. David Hoffman, Internews dhoffman@internews.org
13. Samira Kawar, Former World Television News Journalist, freelance, London, UK.
14. Elias Khoury, novelist and editor of Lebanon's courageous Al-Nahar newspaper.
15. Rami Khouri, former editor of the Jordan Times, Amman. An American citizen whose family lives in Amman and Nazareth, Rami is a prominent syndicated columnist and television/radio commentator in Jordan. He is a Nieman fellow at Harvard in 2002. khouri@fas.harvard.edu
16. Daoud Kuttab, Palestinian, Director of Arab Media Network, Palestine. When working for Internews, he helped found the Al Quds Institute for Modern Media. dkuttab@amin.org.
17. Hisham (Richard) Melhem, As-Safir, Lebanon. Washington bureau chief. Mhisham@aol.com
18. Marzouki Moncef, Tunisian, Former President of the Tunisian League of Human Rights, President of the National Council for Civil Liberties, University Professor, Tunis, Tunisia.
19. Ahmed Rashid, Wall Street Journal
20. Bah Ould Salek, Mauritanian, Editor-in-Chief of La Nouvelle Mauritanie and President of the Independent Publishers Association, Nouakchot, Mauritania.
21. Hussein Shaban, Iraqi, Former General Secretary of the Iraqi National Council; President of the Arab Human Rights Organization, UK Branch. Lawyer and Writer, Iraq.
22. Tahar Shriteh, Palestinian, Correspondent of many foreign news agencies, Gaza, Palestine.
23. Mohamed Talal, Moroccan, Deputy and Research Director at the Moroccan Institute of Information and Communication, Rabat, Morocco.
24. Bachir Znagui, Moroccan, Member of the Executive Committee of the Moroccan Union of Journalists; Journalist, Liberation, Casablanca, Morocco.

KEY MEDIA DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATIONS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

1. Centre for Media Freedom-Middle East and North Africa, London. http://www.cmfmena.org , info@cmfmena.org
2. Centre for Defending Freedom of Journalists (CDFJ), Jordan. http://www.al-bab.com. Contact: Fadi al-Wadi, executive director. fqadi@index.com.jo
3. Committee to Protect Journalists. Contact: Joel Campagna. www.cpj.org
4. Internews. Contacts: Lauren Ross and David Hoffman. www.internews.org. Their Amin.net website, posting Palestinian journalists' stories has not been funded for two years. Working with then Internews co-director Daoud Kuttab, the Ford Foundation and OSI founded the Al Quds Institute for Modern Media, whose television station was destroyed by the Israeli army attacks in the spring of 2002. WorldLink, a division of Internews, provides MOSAIC programming by satellite to U.S. audiences, with funding from the Knight and Hewlett foundations. This includes news reports from 12 broadcasters throughout the Middle East (but not Al-Jazeera). WorldLink is planning to expand to 21 PBS-style stations in the fall of 2002, gaining a broadcast footprint. Internews also is training Egyptian journalists at Western Kentucky Univeristy in partnership with the Egyptian Journalists Association.
5. Jemstone Network, Jordan. The largest of the European Union's Med Media projects, this media training and consultancy network in Amman has media workshops for journalists in the Middle East, Europe and North Africa. It ran a senior editors symposium with the World Bank in Marrakech, Morocco. www.jemstone.net. Jemstone Network, P.O. Box 850191, Amman 11185, Jordan. Tel: (962-6) 585-9980. Fax: (962-6) 581-9552. E-mail: tudor@jemstone.net
6. Search for Common Ground. Contact: John Marks. search@sfcg.org.