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Off
Target & Stillborn
US-Based Alhurra Fails to Impress
(Part I)
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Image
from the new Alhurra channel
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Hoping
to offset a rising tide of anti-Americanism in the wake of the
invasion of Iraq, war in Afghanistan, and the four-year
old Palestinian Intifada, the US government launched a new
Virginia-based satellite channel on the Arabsat and Nilesat
transmission frequencies. Titled Alhurra, or “The Free
One,” the satellite channel is packaged as a 24-hour news channel
to rival the programming of regional satellite news channels,
chiefly Qatar-based Aljazeera and Dubai-based Al Arabiya.
According
to www.alhurra.com, the
channel is “dedicated to presenting accurate, balanced and
comprehensive news. Alhurra endeavors to
broaden its viewers' perspectives, enabling them to make more
informed decisions... Alhurra
is operated by a non-profit corporation called ‘The Middle East
Television Network, Inc.’ financed by the American people through
the U.S. Congress.”
The
Middle East Television Network is a non-profit corporation run by
the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG); the BBG is a federal
agency that monitors, supervises, and supports all US nonmilitary
international broadcasting.
Alhurra
has been in the works since the invasion of Afghanistan to oust the
Taliban and pursue Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network. Funded
by a $62 million Congressional fund for its first year of
operations, the news channel employs some 200 journalists and
communicators, most of whom are either Lebanese or Arab-American,
and is hoping to create a forum where American principles – the
invasion of Iraq despite the failure to find weapons of mass
destruction and US support to Israel – can be better conveyed to
the “Arab street.” In 2001, the US government funded and
launched Radio Sawa, an American-run predecessor to Alhurra,
to try and better explain US policies in the Middle East. The radio
channel was a hit, but not because of its news coverage or
discussion forums – Arab audiences liked the mix of Arabic and
foreign music; it was received as entertainment, little else.
Alhurra
hopes to better convey American principles to the “Arab street.” |
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In
a recent visit to the Library of Congress, US President Bush told
reporters that the establishment of a media tool like Alhurra
will “cut through the hateful propaganda that fills the airwaves
in the Muslim world.”
The
Debate Inflamed
The
build-up to Alhurra’s February 14th launch was
rife with controversy as news reports that the channel sought to
target Arab and Muslim teens were met with accusations of
propaganda, brainwashing, and gimmickry.
Critics
point to the executive board running Alhurra.
Norman J. Pattiz, chairman of the BBG's Middle East Committee
and the creative mind behind the development of Alhurra
said “there is room in the Middle East for honest, truthful,
reliable, and credible [news coverage]. We will not only be able to
present American policies but also a view of America’s
people, its culture, its society to the people of the Middle
East. One mission
simply stated is to promote freedom and democracy.” His comments
came in an interview that ran early in Alhurra’s
first day of broadcast. Regional critics point to a possibility of
bias that will inevitably rear its ugly head, given that Pattiz was
personally appointed to the BBG by President Bush for a term
expiring August 13,
2004.
Bert
Kleinman, Alhurra’s
president and senior managing consultant for Radio Sawa, is in
charge of the American outreach strategy in the Middle
East and the Gulf
region. Kleinman believes that the Middle
East must be made
to understand the US position in world affairs and also reach
younger, impressionable audiences. Radio Sawa boasts a pan-Arab
audience of 15 million.
However,
one thing the Arab audience may not know is that Kleinman is Jewish,
which could affect Radio Sawa and Alhurra’s credibility in
the region. Arab editorialists are already ranting that the Bush
administration’s policies towards Arabs were formulated in Israel.
They point to Israel’s ongoing construction of the security wall
and US pressure on the International Court of Justice not to address
the controversy surrounding the wall, and to leaked reports that
Kirkuk oil will flow through Jordan to the Israeli port of Haifa,
reaping huge economic benefits for the cash-strapped Israeli
economy. The Middle East is also a hotbed of conspiracy theories,
the most prevalent of which is that Jews control world media. While
there is no direct evidence to support such an allegation, it is
hard to change mindsets in the region, even with the most tangible
of proof.
Rounding
out the founders of the channel is Lebanese-born Arab-American
Muaffaq Harb, former Washington bureau chief of the London-based
Arabic daily Al-Hayyat, as the news
director of the new channel.
The
channel was met with accusations of propaganda, brainwashing, and
gimmickry. |
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Realizing
that there was much criticism coming its way, Alhurra
kicked off its first day of broadcast with a talk show/discussion
forum called The Four Views featuring
Harb, Salama Namat (Al-Hayyat Washington correspondent), Mahmoud Shamam (editor of the Arabic version
of Newsweek), and Jihad Al-Khazeri. Al-Khazeri immediately outlined
what he believed to be an impossible goal for Alhurra – to change
Middle Eastern attitudes towards the US.
He explained that Middle Easterners, while admiring the US for its
democratic principles and achievement in science and technology,
despise US foreign policy, which they view as one-sided and often
biased in favor of Israel. Harb responded by alleging that the Arab
press spews hatred of all things American and does not distinguish
between American citizens and American foreign policy. He claimed
that millions of dollars are spent every day to ensure that a deep
hatred of Americans takes root in the Middle
East; he did not
provide proof but spoke in abstract. The debate was often tense and
the differing opinions often bordered on personal harangues, making
the entire affair rather entertaining.
Shamam
did point out that there existed a historical and often logical
barrier between the US and the Arab World because of the former’s
unwavering support for Israeli polices in the Occupied Palestinian
territories, and that any media campaign (in the form of Alhurra,
for example) must be accompanied by a change of attitudes in US
foreign policy.
Some
believe the channel will not be able to bridge the
“communication” gap between the US and the Middle East. “This
will probably further widen the gulf with the Arabic audience, as
the contrast in the awareness of what is really happening on the
ground is becoming clearer. Aljazeera, Al-Arabiya and Dubai channels
now attract most of the Arab audience. Alhurra is a
stillborn,” said Imad Khadduri, former Iraqi nuclear
scientist.
When
it comes to Aljazeera and other regional news networks, Harb
maintained that Alhurra is not about to erase existing Arab
media, but rather wants to compete with regional media and be seen
as a part of local media offerings.
Simple
competition in a rapidly growing satellite market may also hamper Alhurra’s
outreach to Arab audiences. “Arabs already have 100-120 satellite
channels on Arabsat and Nilesat” for them to watch. This fact
makes it more difficult for the US to convey its message through Alhurra,
because Arabs already have a lot to watch, enough to divert their
attention from Alhurra. The presence of those 100-120
channels is to restrict the influence of Alhurra,” says
Mahmoud Khalil, PhD, professor of journalism at Cairo University.
Erich
Marquardt, managing editor of the Power and Interest News Report
(PINR), believes, however, that Arab audiences will likely turn to Alhurra
for news, since much of the information broadcast from the network
will be factually accurate. However,
this does not ensure that attitudes in the region will readily
change.
“Even
if the Arab world begins to understand U.S. foreign policy from
Washington's point of view, this does not mean that they will agree
with that foreign policy. Simply
because two groups of people agree on the same set of facts does not
necessarily mean that they will come to the same conclusions and
policy decisions,” he said.
Gehan
Rashty, professor of journalism at Cairo University, joins Marquardt
in stating that Arab audiences will likely watch the channel.
However, she believes the curiosity and interest will wane.
Some
doubt the channel can bridge the “communication” gap between
the US and the Middle East.
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“The
[Alhurra] station represents a policy that is hated in the
Arab region, and is financed by a government that is hated, [too].
Thus, the channel is not going to have an influence. At the
beginning, people will watch it out of curiosity and to know the
news, in the hope of finding accurate, objective news. If they
don’t find the news [presented on Alhurra] accurate, they
will no longer consider it credible,” she warned.
However, Alhurra
may have a self-destruct policy inherent in its heavy reliance on
Arab-American broadcast journalists and in its programming that is
fashioned and modeled in North America and/or Europe.
“If Mr. Bush really
wants to present the Arab world with more ‘accurate, balanced and
comprehensive news’, he'd be better advised to help journalists
win access to continuing education. In my experience, the influence
of IREX/Promedia behind the former “Iron Curtain” and in the
East Europe did more to influence the development of ‘accurate,
balanced and comprehensive’ reporting in the former Eastern Bloc
than anything Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (Alhurra's
apparent models) ever managed,” said the editor of a leading
English-language Middle East political magazine.
He
explained that what the Middle East lacks is journalism development
– development in free press standards that can be embraced without
appearing remedial or self-righteous. “Advanced seminars on new
technology, investigative methods, good writing, story structure -
and things like workshops and get-togethers - will do more in the
long run to introduce "fair and balanced" reporting into
the Middle East than any number of Alhurras,” he added.
Introduction
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Firas
Al-Atraqchi holds an
MA in Journalism and Mass Communication. He is a Canadian journalist
with eleven years of experience covering
Middle East
issues, oil and gas markets, and the telecom industry. You can
reach him at firascape@hotmail.com
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