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Capitol Hill Distinguished Speakers Series: Press freedom in the Muslim world
February 26, 2008
By Zainab Abdul-Rahim
At a Capitol Hill Distinguished Speakers Series event on Tuesday, a panel of experts discussed media censorship in the Middle East. The event was moderated by Hussain Abdul Hussain, a Washington correspondent for the Al-Rai newspaper in Kuwait.
The first speaker was Omran Salman, the executive director of Aafaq, an Arab reform website. He discussed how the government controls the media in two ways, financially and politically. In the first way, the government takes hold of the advertisements, he said. These can be taken away in order to punish a media outlet. According to Salman, in the second way, the government hires staff such as editors, who are then used to monitor the media.
Due to the government control over the media, Salman says that the “American image is so bad in the Middle East” because it insults America and Israel. Salman says the government encourages this in order to shift the attention “from inside to outside.” However, he also said that Americans need to help Arab journalists, as this will be beneficial to both American and Arab interests in the region.
Maneeza Hossain, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, spoke next on the topic of censorship. Hossain defined censorship as “interplay between state and society,” with results of “heightened sensitivity and conservatism.” She gave an example of the Danish cartoons that had depicted the Prophet Muhammad. There was a violent reaction to these, and some governments, in order to shift the attention away from themselves, “manipulated and exaggerated” this response. She provided other examples of how regional governments used “social sensitivities” to crack down on individuals. A journalist in Bangladesh who spoke out against the government had been arrested not for what he did, she said, but for the fact that he had traveled to Israel, which is not recognized in Bangladesh.
Richard Eisendorf, Middle East and North Africa Senior Program Manager for Freedom House, spoke last. He said that in 2007, the Middle East, North Africa region had the lowest press freedom ratings, and that this is not expected to change in 2008. In addition, he stated how press freedom has been declining since 2006. All of the Middle Eastern countries are considered not free, he said, except for Kuwait and Lebanon, which are labeled as partly free. Eisendorf explained that the government restricts media in the Middle East by attacking and intimidating journalists, by placing restrictions on the Internet, by taking away personal freedom, and by holding ownership and control over the media.
Eisendorf ended with three recommendations on how the U.S. can help improve press freedom in the Middle East. His strategies involve having each Member of Congress adopt a prisoner of conscience and having the U.S. government continue to support media freedom. |
