"Little Matchbox, Lots of Spark," by Mustafa El-Menshawy - Al Ahram Weekly (Cairo), 29 Dec 2005 - 4 Jan 2006
The Egyptian government has never been a huge Al-Jazeera fan. When President Hosni Mubarak visited the channel's headquarters in Qatar a few years ago, he cynically remarked, "all this trouble from a matchbox". Today, with more viewers and greater credibility than ever before, the channel is the most watched news broadcaster in the region. On an international level, its coverage has drawn so much criticism and controversy that US President George W Bush reportedly proposed bombing its headquarters.
Judging from the channel's coverage of events in Egypt throughout 2005, it's easy to see just how much of a "nuisance" Al-Jazeera can be. On 7 September, the same day the president won Egypt's first multi-candidate election, Al-Jazeera's Cairo bureau hosted veteran political commentator Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, well known for his anti-Mubarak stances. Banned by the government from appearing on state-run TV or private Cairo-based channels, Heikal reiterated his anti-Mubarak stance and cast doubts on the president's highly publicised pledges for democratic reform.
As many Egyptians tuned in to watch the Heikal interview, state-run TV channels stubbornly insisted that the vote was a "historic moment". No mention was made of the anti-Mubarak demonstrations staged by Kifaya in Cairo to protest the polls, nor was there any reference to calls by the opposition to boycott what they slammed as a well-staged process to keep Mubarak in power.
A similar disparity in media coverage was apparent during the three- round parliamentary elections that kicked off on 9 November. While Al-Jazeera and Egyptian TV channels deployed a number of correspondents around the country, the state-run channels made no mention of the violence that marred the electoral process in various constituencies. Al-Jazeera -- and other independent media -- broadcast footage showing voters with faces covered with blood, and thugs waving machetes while policemen looked on. Al-Jazeera carried a press conference during which judges declared there had been rampant rigging at the polls, and police interference that prevented many from casting their votes.
The coverage stifled official attempts by the state-run stations to deny -- or disregard -- the electoral violations. It also triggered a wave of world condemnations by human rights groups and both the US and the EU. In the end, Mubarak himself admitted, during a speech to the newly elected parliament last week, that the elections had witnessed what he referred to as "negative aspects" that he pledged to address.
"Al-Jazeera has initiated a transformation in Egyptian society. We would not have known about these violations if it wasn't for Al-Jazeera," remarked Salama Ahmed Salama, a prominent Al-Ahram columnist. Cementing its influence, Al-Jazeera has gained popularity in poor and remote areas throughout Egypt, thanks to cheap cable and satellite TV links. "Why should I continue watching the Egyptian channels, which keep telling me everything is fine in elections, for example, despite the fact that 13 people were killed in the process?" asked Khaled Bahaa, a translator at a private bank. Bahaa declared Al-Jazeera his favourite channel of 2005.
In spite of its burgeoning popularity, the channel is still criticised by some Egyptian analysts for its sensational, intimidating, and at times unsubstantiated, news. However, given its extensive coverage of Egyptian events in 2005, analysts and observers alike tend to agree that the Doha- based channel has become a leading vehicle for the country's budding reform movements. According to a new report by the US Institute of Peace, a US-funded think tank, Al-Jazeera's popularity has given rise to more than 100 satellite channels in the region since its 1996 launch. Together, they constitute what many see as the most dynamic force for political change in the Middle East. "Inadvertently or not, they offer a locus for the Arab street to vent, formulate and discuss public affairs. They bring Arabs closer together, breaking taboos and generally competing with each other and their respective governments for the news agenda. All in all, Arab satellite stations have pushed ajar the door of democracy and flanked state monopoly on media," the report said.
Responding to the rising wave of activism in Egypt, Al-Jazeera Live, a C-SPAN-like public affairs channel that is one of the network's spin-offs, has run key opposition incidents on air. For the first time perhaps Egyptians watched in amazement the live broadcast of downtown demonstrations against the government. Aida Seif Al-Dawla, a prominent human rights activist, confirmed that Al-Jazeera was one way for opposition figures to find a link to people on the street.
Needless to say, such satellite dynamism comes at a price. In November, Ahmed Mansour, host of a prominent Al-Jazeera talk show, was brutally beaten by two men in front of his Cairo office, just as he was about to begin interviewing Wafd Party Chairman Noaman Gomaa, the spokesman for the United National Front for Change. In May, police briefly detained eight of Al-Jazeera employees for attempting to broadcast a much- publicised meeting at the Cairo Judges' Club. A noticeable contingent of plainclothes security officers can usually be seen hovering around the entrance of the channel's downtown Cairo offices.
Despite such ominous signs, if there is a lesson to be learned from the Al-Jazeera effect in Egypt in 2005, it is that the government is no longer able to dictate how the public will perceive events. Osama El-Ghazali Harb, of Al-Ahram's Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, has referred to Egyptian TV as "the very worst in state-controlled, dictatorial media." After the 17 April explosion in Al-Azhar, Al-Jazeera was quick to report the bombing, hosting analysts who commented on the event's significance of hours before state television provided coverage of the bombing, and only scrapped-together and edited versions of MBC's coverage of the incident at that. According to the independent newspaper Al-Masry Al-Yom, the state-run TV news director had his mobile phone switched off, and thus could not authorise the broadcast.
Analysts say Al-Jazeera has made a considerable impact on Egyptian media, which has come under increasing pressure to reform. Saddled with problems of inefficiency, over-employment and corruption, state-run TV -- created in 1960 and currently employing some 37,000 -- looks like a dinosaur when compared to Al-Jazeera, which was launched in 1996 with some 200 staffers. The numbers make clear just how much fuss this "matchbox" has managed to kick up....
Also see "Al-Jazeera Puts Focus on Reform," by Robin Wright - The Washington Post, 8 May 2005.
...[A]n unlikely ally has emerged in this desert capital for the Bush administration's new Middle East democracy campaign -- al-Jazeera. The Arab world's most-watched satellite channel has been reviled in Washington since it began airing Osama bin Laden tapes and footage of insurgent strikes on U.S. troops in Iraq. Yet as the Bush administration struggles to design a public diplomacy program for its democracy campaign, al-Jazeera has become a leading vehicle for the region's budding reform movements...."We are unlikely allies,"[Al Jazeera editor in chief Ahmed] Sheikh reflected. "But if both of us are targeting reform in the Arab world, then it's true."
I think this is the US Institute of Peace report refered to by El-Menshawy:
"Arab Media: Tools of the Governments; Tools for the People?" - The U.S. Institute of Peace (Washington, DC), August 2005
Also see:
"There Is Arab Public Opinion," by Zvi Bar'el - Haaretz (Israel), 1 Jan 2006
..."[S]omething important" has been happening in Arab public opinion over the past year, and not only in Egypt: Public opinion has become something of great import. Lebanese public opinion is what drove Syria out of Lebanon; Egyptian public opinion helped to establish the new opposition movement Kifaya (Enough) and to prod the president into adopting political reforms. Iraqi public opinion decided that government institutions would be established via elections, even when terrorism is still dictating the way of life in the state. And Palestinian public opinion, fed up with the corruption and division in Fatah, decided to support Hamas. Even the developments in Saudi Arabia can be attributed to public opinion that is stirring an interesting public discourse there about changes in curricula, driving licenses for women, and a struggle against Islamic terrorism - subjects that came out of the living room and into the public squares.
The prominent television critic Ibrahim al-Aris believes that the satellite television stations like Al Jazeera and Al-Arabiya are responsible for this new pattern of public opinion and that, despite the small number of independent stations, they are dominant in everything related to forging modern Arab public opinion. There is no doubt that the revolution in Arab media has made an impact and that Arab public opinion, as expressed during the past year, is an innovation that has not been seen in this region for decades. This process did not just begin during the past year, but it has now succeeded in generating several changes.
It is an upheaval, even if it has not been completed, that is even greater than it appears to be at first glance. Presidents and kings realize that they have lost a big part of their monopoly on fashioning public opinion. The strength of the Lebanese protest against Syria, for example, compelled Bashar Assad to decide to withdraw his troops even before American and French pressure came to bear. The daily demonstrations, much more than the weak American pressure, were what convinced Mubarak to change direction, after he realized that the fate of his regime's legitimacy lies in the hands of those hundreds of stubborn people whom he could once have dispersed with water cannons or thrown into jail.
Of course, those who see the paragon of democracy in these public displays of power are liable to be disappointed. The Arab public still lacks the full power that citizens of Western countries enjoy. Political activists are arrested in great numbers, journalists are not allowed to write everything they know, and demonstrations are illegal in most Arab states. Still, it would be a mistake to judge democracy only in this way, because an important change has occurred during the past year. Arab public opinion is sending a strong signal: "I am here." This message emphasizes, "I am not here to curry favor with anyone" - not America, not Europe and, of course, not Israel - "but rather for myself." And thus it empowers the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Hamas in the occupied territories and religious Shi'ites in Iraq.
The innovation that Arab public opinion displays should also echo in the courtyards of those in the West who dictate global policy. They need to understand there are additional and important players in this arena, which has been exclusively controlled by leaders. There is an attentive public that can be addressed even when its leaders are close-minded. Iran is not just Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Syria is not only Assad. And here is the absurdity: The Arab public has quickly learned to utilize methods to circumvent the regime, such as satellite television and the Internet, while its counterparts in the West are still stuck in the previous century, a century when the voice of the Arab public was at most a curious oddity.
Added 14 Jan 2006 - also see:
"Voices of the New Arab Public" - interview with Marc Lynch, by Bradford Plumer - Mother Jones, 12 Jan 2006. Marc Lynch, an associate professor of political science at Williams College, recently published Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, Al-Jazeera, and Middle East Politics Today. He blogs at Abu Aardvark.
Mother Jones: You define the "new Arab public" as a public sphere that emerged in the Arab world in the late '90s, where opposing views and arguments could be openly aired. How does this differ from Arab public debates of the past?
Marc Lynch: I think the biggest difference between what I'm calling the new Arab public and a lot of the old publics is that it's more diverse and open to disagreement today. If you go back to the Middle East in the 1950s there was international broadcasting, and there was a press that was full of angry and politically mobilizing arguments, but what you didn't have was the notion that everyone should have their own opinion. What you had were powerful Arab leaders or political movements who were trying to mobilize or rally people to a cause, and anyone who didn't agree with them was not only wrong, but considered "not an Arab."
That's the key difference—in this new Arab public, it's okay to disagree about important issues; in fact you almost have to disagree to be an "Arab". And that's an important difference, especially for people who are interested in seeing the emergence of a democratic politics in the region. It's really revolutionary.
MJ: Now obviously Arab public opinion isn't a monolithic entity—that's part of the point of your book—but what would you say are some of the common characteristics that define this sphere as distinctively Arab? At one point, for instance, you mention that the Arab self-conception can often be described as feeling "dominated, threatened, encircled."
ML: I think it is; although that self-conception passes through a couple of phases. The common narrative is very much framed by a pervasive sense that the world has a long history of being out to get the Arabs—through Israel, through American foreign policy. There's a whole narrative of how the United States is propping up repressive Arab regimes, establishing military bases in the region, putting sanctions on Iraq. Even the things that we in the West would see as positive things—democracy, globalization, modernization—still create in the Arab world an overwhelming sense that the region is being battered by forces from the outside.
So the question is: How are Arabs going to respond to that? And some of those responses are negative and very violent, as we've seen. Others are positive and confident, saying, "Hey, there are things about the West such as progress and freedom and democracy that we really like, even if we don't like the way the West—especially the United States—goes about it." Then there's a whole mainstream middle which is generally disoriented and confused, and that's where all the arguments in the public sphere come in, trying to make sense of these developments....
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