Symposium calls for regulation of Arab satellite television

2007-11-21

Arab media professionals came together in Tunis to pressure governments to implement tighter regulations on broadcast television in the region.

By Jamel Arfaoui for Magharebia in Tunis – 21/11/07

[Jamel Arfaoui] ASBU Director-General Slaheddine Maaoui (right) spoke of the need to close the legislative vacuum in the sector

Media specialists from across the Arab world met in Tunis Saturday (November 17th) for an international symposium on the challenges of Arab satellite broadcasting, hosted by the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ABSU). Participants expressed the need to introduce legislation to regulate the Arab television industry, which Egyptian media professional Moataz Al Demerdash described as being in a state of "utter chaos."

Audiovisual specialists discussed the legal, political and information shortcomings exploited by companies in order to broadcast lewd and extremist content they say threatens the minds of young Arabs.

Tunisian media expert Ridha Najar, former director of the African Centre for Training Journalists, rejected the application of the term "chaos" to media in the region. "The boom in international and Arab satellite broadcasting is a golden opportunity to open up to the world and to other cultures, and this is a positive thing," he said.

Najar did call for regulation of the industry, but said "the age of censorship has come and gone; [instead], minimum standards should be set in place for granting broadcasting licenses to anyone."

More than two thousand channels reach the Arab region, with over three hundred offering Arabic-language programming.

There are three free media cities in the Arab region: Cairo, Dubai and Amman. According to Sayyid Helmi, a media production director in Egypt, any individual with enough capital can launch a television channel, provided it complies with specific guidelines, such as avoiding programming deemed inappropriate or inciting civil unrest. The problem, Helmi said, is that "we have no follow-up mechanisms to know whether the channel-owner is fulfilling his promises or not."

Salah Najm, News Director for BBC Arabic, expressed his concern that the legislation called for by participants could be a double-edged sword, putting the Arab region back twenty years.

Speaking with Magharebia, Mohamed Al-Ghazali, President of the High Commission for Audio-Visual Media Communications in Morocco, ruled out this possibility. "I do not think that appealing for an end to the law of the jungle, with chaos as its basic feature, will reduce progress [toward] media freedom in the Arab region," he said.

ASBU Director-General Slaheddine Maaoui spoke of the need to close the legislative vacuum in the sector: "We are not debating the issue of free media or the principle of freedom to broadcast – this issue has been settled – rather what we need now is to set minimum guidelines as the basis for a sound media structure."

Maaoui said Arab information ministers will convene next January in Cairo to discuss the subject.

Ridha Najar told Magharebia Arab states need to pay closer attention to content, "giving Arab citizens more protection at home and at school by spreading a culture of tolerance and acceptance of others."

He also advocated "offering television programmes dealing with the daily concerns of Arab citizens who want to see their reality reflected in the dramas, news and all the programmes available to them."

TV critic Khamis Khayyati said Arab regimes "thought the media boom was a cultural invasion and a struggle of civilisations, and they should have thought to immunise Arab citizens against what was falling upon them from the skies; I think this immunisation can only be realised through democracy and respect for the individual."