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What's ailing the world of media?

Sharjah - A challenge to media freedom is media ownership.

The challenges that face the media's freedom and the duties of journalists towards society were discussed at a panel discussion during the Sharjah International Book Fair.
Jarees Samawi, former Jordanian Minister of Culture, said that he's against limiting the freedom of the media adding that it is not the media that creates the event but it is the event that creates media.
He said that when it comes to the relationship between state and media there are two theories that are in practice around the world.
The first is the 'Public interest theory' - in which the government controls the media.
"Under this theory information is centralised, media has no freedom and censorship is activated," said Samawi.
The second theory is the 'Public choice theory' - which is against the government control and ownership of the media.
"This is based on having different sources and having freedom and competition. This way citizens can vote for the political candidate based on their agenda," he said.
However, a challenge to media freedom is media ownership.
Samawi cited a study carried out at Harvard University across 96 countries that showed that most media around the world are owned by governments or certain families.
"In order to create independent media, we need to the media more freedom and transparency, and we need to create better trust between the officials, media and citizens," he said.
Also on the panel was UAE media expert Dr Hessa Lootah who said that the topic is complex.
She said that it is the role of the media to fight for freedom of speech. "If we look at countries in which there is freedom of speech, we will notice that journalists fought, and some even died, for that cause," she said.
Lack of qualified journalists
Lootah said that one of the problems that prevalent in the Arab world is the lack of qualified people working in the media.
"There are people who don't belong there. In many universities, students who fail in other departments are enrolled in media," she said adding that most of those working in the media came from other careers.
Other problems include the journalist's lack of preparation for the topics they are covering and the "flowery" style of writing in Arabic which creates a distant, and illusionary relationship between the media and audience, said Lootah.
"That style also reflects also the lack of knowledge from journalists about the topics that they are covering."
She said that the media has also de-sensitised the public when it comes to visual media and wrongcontext is the another problem when covering the news.
"That's why there are rumors because the media is weak," she said.
Lootah said that the concept of independent media doesn't exist. "The media always serve a goal, they are dominated and controlled by money. Advertisers can also dictate what's on the front page," she said.
reporters@khaleejtimes.com