Satellite TV after the Iraq War (page 1 of 3)

It is hard to remember what the Arab world was like before the appearance of Qatar-based Al Jazeera television, along with stations operating out of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Cairo and other cities. Before their arrival, the Arab viewing public was served a bland daily diet of heavily censored state-controlled broadcasts that reflected the government line and no other.

Today, a range of views can be heard - from opposition groups as well as official circles. Interviews are conducted in a tough and challenging manner. The voices of the public are heard via phone-in discussion programs.

In the run-up to war, the satellite stations became the focus for Arab debate. In the view of Mahmoud al-Rimawi, writing in the Jordanian daily Al-Rai, "What has happened is that satellite television stations have become not just platforms from which to disseminate news and exchange ideas, but they have also changed to become virtual open parliaments."

In a region where freedom of speech is limited, these parliaments of the air are allowing the first signs of a popular democratic movement to take tentative root. But as much as the debates across the region's airwaves are now open and passionate, a striking factor is that most of the participants in studio discussions are writers and academics - rather than senior government leaders or heads of state.

In other words, the gradual democratization process is happening from the bottom upwards, rather than the other way round.

Arab leaders still seem uneasy about the new freedom that the broadcasters have found. An example of this was seen at the recent Arab summit in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. To the surprise of Arab viewers across the region, an altercation broke out between two regional heads of state.

One could sense chairs across the region being edged towards TV screens as viewers savored this rare spectacle of Arab leaders with their guard down. But within a few seconds, the Egyptian government had pulled the plug on the live feed from the summit. Open disagreement and debate between Arab leaders, it seems, is still a phenomenon of the future.

The next day, newspapers in the two countries, as is habitually the case when regimes fall out with each other, lined up loyally behind their respective governments and began a ritualistic exchange of insults. Meanwhile, as Arab leaders and their cronies retreated once more to the silence and safety of their palaces, the region's virtual parliaments resumed normal business, discussing the crisis in Iraq.

Much as the regimes may choose to ignore the fact, there is no denying the amazing changes that satellite news channels have brought about - it is no exaggeration to call them revolutionary.
While the progress over the past two or three years has been rapid, in Rimawi's view, the revolution in the Arab media started when publishers from the region began setting up newspapers in the West - a process that "enabled Arabs to compete for top jobs and acquire the highest professional standards in the media.

The next step after that was the opening of satellite television stations. Anyone following these developments cannot help but notice the extent to which democracy has expanded since the mid-1980s - with the freeing up of the media providing a better and more conducive atmosphere for it. Whatever one's opinion of these developments, there is no denying the direct relationship between the liberated media and political and other reform."

Not only Arab regimes, but political parties as well have been slow to rise to the challenges presented by the communications revolution in the Arab news business.