The Arab press is not invited to the Freedom Party

In order to avoid creating a false sense of optimism surrounding the state of the Arab press, let us apply the journalistic game perfected by The Guardian in their exploration of how the world views Britain to the media landscape in countries such as Iraq, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Will the optimism still hold,´-or-will the answer be a shocking disappointment?

Three years after the Brexit referendum, The Guardian asked a group of journalists and writers from Germany, Brazil, China, France, the United States, Italy and Norway a simple, open-ended question: How does the world view the United Kingdom? Do the French still regard Britain s parliamentary system as the Rolls-Royce of liberal democracy? However, The Guardian compiled all the articles about how the world views Britain under the heading “Something of Hell”.

If we asked journalists and writers from different countries how they view the Arab world, wouldn t we struggle to find an equivalent expression for how they perceive our political and media landscape? The simple truth is that nothing could be worse than the hell that The Guardian referred to when describing the current political situation in Britain.

But before we get to that, would the Arab media dare to ask such a question? I won’t waste much energy expecting our newspapers to ask writers from various countries how they view us,´-or-even to gauge how well we have defined ourselves to the outside world.

I know, as you do, that official news agencies quickly seize upon any praise, however minor, from abroad about their leaders´-or-economies, republishing it immediately. However, they never dare handle any critical views aimed at their political´-or-economic systems, no matter how honest they are.

During Donald Trump’s first presidential term, the Washington Post faced his calls to demonise the press by reviving the historical idea that the press is not the enemy of anyone. It published an editorial supporting this idea, which was endorsed by dozens of newspapers from around the world on a day called “We Are Not the Enemy”. Yet, disappointingly, not a single Arab newspaper was included in this long list!

Let s simplify the matter when discussing the reality of the Arab media. If we fail to evaluate it ourselves, the world’s view of us will inevitably be worse than The Guardian s portrayal of Britain’s political reality as a “hell”.

In Arab governments, the media officer is a journalist with one eye , who can only report on their country s government s achievements as news. Although they understand the historical concept of news, they are unable to see anything other than what they want to see. I experienced this first-hand when I participated in covering a political event in an Arab country alongside journalists from various countries. When the media officer from that country overheard me asking the minister about opposition to the government, he invited me to appear on state TV that evening to discuss his country s achievements. While my Egyptian colleagues welcomed the invitation with enthusiasm, eager to discuss the great achievements , I explained that, like him, I am a journalist searching for opinions, not launching them. There was no importance in me being on this programme. However, he insisted and ordered me to appear and speak about his country’s accomplishments.

Of course, he couldn’t force me, and I didn t appear on the programme when he wanted me to. He had to make do with the repeated voices of others. The important thing, though, was that this media officer didn’t change his view of his country s achievements and failures. This version is repeated across all Arab countries.

When over a million Arab citizens read an absurd and exaggerated sentence written by someone on social media, while no article´-or-report in our most famous Arab newspapers receives even a fraction of the attention given to a superficial tweet , it means that the Arab press has failed to shape public opinion. When shallow social media content is favoured over the insightful content of our newspapers, we have lost the battle for genuine journalism.

There has been a continuous media massacre in the Arab press for decades, and with the rise of satellite TV channels, it has become a senseless war that relies on little more than the public’s awareness. While state-run newspapers, party media as well as official TV, still serve as sources of repetitive rhetoric for governments, isn’t it hard to understand in the age of open spaces and the digital revolution that has taken over the world?

We created sectarian and nationalist voices when religious figures moved from mosques to TV, using this new medium to express our hatred of others. This was the latest development in Arab media, but so far we have failed to convince either our Arab audience´-or-the outside world that we have redefined our societies and politicians. This means that our Arab media is still detached from the real world when it comes to managing political affairs.

Arab newspapers have a long history of failing to engage with readers and of being subservient to governments. A similar history can be seen with Arab satellite channels, which have become a platform for political absurdity. Despite this pessimism, we must acknowledge that none of this obscures the difficulty of achieving independence for the Arab press in an era of political and economic injustice.

The most challenging aspect is that the Arab media does not recognise the high-risk nature of its submission to governments, capitalists and religious figures, which exacerbates the divide with the public. Episodes of decline leave scars that history will not forget. Consequently, the Arab press is not invited to the freedom party that is happening in the world today, despite the fact that everything about it is appealing. However, the “one-eyed” vision of the Arab political and media officer only allows them to see what they want to see.

Karam Nama is a British-Iraqi writer, he has published several books, including "An Unlicensed Weapon: Donald Trump, a Media Power Without Responsibility" and "Sick Market: Journalism in the Digital Age."

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