25 Apr 2007
Dubai: Arabs should set an objective to liberate their media from constraints and limitations, including marketing, said a veteran media expert.
"Media laws in the Arab world are horrible because media institutions are controlled. We cannot speak about media freedom without speaking about political freedom in the Arab world as well.
"People have opinions which they impose on writers and editors-in-chief (EIC). There is no EIC in the Arab world like in the West," said Rafic Khoury, editor-in-chief of Lebanon's Al Anwar, yesterday during the first session of the Arab Media Forum 2007.
Political freedom
He stressed that freedom in the media atmosphere cannot be developed in the absence or away from political and social freedom in the Arab world. Khoury described the media dialogues which are hosted on satellite TV's talk shows as "media quarrels".
"In this region, technology isn't enough to develop the media, but highly skilled human resources are important and vital as well," said Khoury.
Salah Al Deen Hafez, Secretary-General of the Federation of Arab Journalists, said the media in the Arab world has reached a dangerous stage "because it is a government-controlled media though we are living a technological and revolutionary stage". The session was moderated by Mohammad Gobash, a UAE media specialist.
Hafez and Khoury spoke during a session on 'Developing People, Developing Organisations', which identified and leveraged the potential of the industry for developing professionals and media entities.
"The Arab world is full of hurdles and the deeper we go in that regard, we discover that the noises are useless. The key factor to develop our media is to guarantee its freedom and enforce it as well," Hafez added.
Every Arab country claims to be free, but that's untrue and press freedom is limited and controlled by the governments "which give little space to write".
By Bassam Za'za'
Gulf News 2007. All rights reserved.
