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Ideas sought for Arab League Media Charter

ABU DHABI - Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa yesterday urged Arab journalists and satellite broadcasters to discuss and make recommendations to the Media Charter, issued by the Arab Leagues in February this year.

In a video message broadcast at the Third Arab Broadcast Forum launched in the capital yesterday, Moussa stressed that the document places necessary guidelines that are for the benefit of Arab societies and not meant to shackle journalists or restrict their freedom of speech.

Hosted by the Abu Dhabi Media Company, the two-day forum brought together major television broadcasters from the Arab world and the international media, several of whom decried the Arab League's charter, stressing that the charter aimed at dragging Arab media to a bygone era of restrictions and censorship.

'Today we live in the age of the Internet, where information is globally available, and governments should stay abreast of such developments and allow the media to continue working unfettered. Arab broadcasters should take a stand against all efforts to silence the courageous voices that emerge from the region,' said Octavia Nasr, Senior Editor, Arab Affairs, CNN International.

The Charter adopted on February 12, 2008, during the meeting of Arab Ministers of Information in Cairo and signed by 20 Arab countries out of 22, was criticised for the provisions that gave the signatory countries the right to freeze or revoke the broadcasting licence of any channel that broke the agreed-upon regulations.

Participants in the forum maintained that because the Charter outlaws casting of aspersions on religious or national symbols, and is worded in an ambiguous and loose fashion, it can be applied to restrict the freedom to discuss religious and political matters, citing the imprisonment of two bloggers in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Speaking to Khaleej Times, Ahmed Al Shaikh, Editor-in-Chief of Al Jazeera news channel, said that the Arab League Charter will be rejected and said that Al Jazeera will not take part in any discussions on such a document.

'The role of the media is to educate, to speak out and to give societies complete and accurate information, and they should be given the complete freedom to do that. Regulations and laws that govern the work of media should be decided by individual governments, and not enforced by the Arab League,' maintained Al Shaikh.

With the participation of major news channels - Al Jazeera, Fox News, LBC, CNN, Abu Dhabi TV, BBC, Al Arabiya and Reuters, the first day of the forum also debated challenges and hot topics that affect Arab news channels, such as coverage of the ongoing Palestinian conflict, and Arab coverage of the US election.

According to a survey conducted by the Arab American Institute, and discussed by Jim Zogby, President of the Arab American Institute, 40-50 per cent of Arabs closely follow the American election, and most of them do support one of the candidates.

In addition, the Arab media has also greatly invested in the election which takes up considerable amount of air time on Arab television, although during a debate discussing the election, many complained of a dearth of information regarding where candidates stood on issues affecting the region, specially the issues of Palestine and Iran. In a session titled 'Journalism of Depth: Local Knowledge and Thorough Reporting,' participants noted that amidst the daily outpouring of news, complicated details are sometimes hurriedly covered without providing a full context that explains the full story.

Hosam El Sokkar, Head of BBC Arabic, noted that many channels receive their funding from the rich North, and not the poor South, which meant that issues affecting Third World countries were relegated to the bottom of the story list, if covered at all.

'There is an absence of informed, in-depth coverage which belies an absence of humanitarian commitment from news agencies. Coverage should not only be driven by political, or business interests, or celebrityhood, as there is currently a craving for international reporting as reflected in the various international blogs on Internet,' said John Owen, Visiting Professor of International Journalism at City University in London.