journalism and a world in transition. james cameron memorial lecture 2011 by wadah khanfar
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8/4/2019 Journalism and a World in Transition. James Cameron Memorial Lecture 2011 by Wadah Khanfar
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JAMES CAMERON MEMORIAL LECTURE
“Journalism and a World in Transition”
By: Wadah KhanfarFormer Director General of Aljazeera Network
6th October 2011
City University, London
Journalism and a World in Transition
I'm grateful to the trustees of the James Cameron lecture and award
for the opportunity to lecture at City University, London, and
especially to Moni Cameron, who's here. I am distinctly honoured to
be the first non-Western Journalist to give this prestigious lecture.
Friday the 11th of February was almost past when I drove my car
shortly before midnight from the Aljazeera offices to my home along
the Corniche Road in Doha. I was exhausted. The past sixteen days
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had been some of the most exciting and tense days in my life and in
the lives of millions of the region's inhabitants. The Egyptian
revolution kept the eyes of the Arab masses glued to Aljazeera on
their TV screens day and night. Inside the newsroom, we followed
developments inside Egypt moment by moment as news reports
arrived from our sources in Tahrir Square, as well as in other
Egyptian cities.
The Egyptian regime decided to close down the Aljazeera offices
and to ban its reporters and crews from working; thinking perhaps,
that by banning Aljazeera the truth about what the country had
been going through could be obscured. That was not the first time
an office of ours had been closed down in the region. On that same
day, we sent out a message to our viewers in Egypt telling them: “if
the authorities have banned our reporters from working, then every
single one of you is an Aljazeera reporter.” Hundreds of activists
responded immediately by supplying us electronically with a stream
of news and video clips via social network sites. We dedicated a
team of our editors to the task of receiving and documenting these
contributions and then relaying newsworthy items to the newsroom.
We succeeded in breaking the siege imposed by the Egyptian
security apparatuses, thanks to the faith our viewers had in our
mission and to our faith in their capabilities. We set up an entire
network of volunteers and activists who supplied us electronically
with news. In the meantime, our own crews spread out within Cairo,
within Alexandria and within other Egyptian cities doing their job
secretly. Aljazeera technicians succeeded in providing live coverage
from Tahrir Square by means of small satellite transmitters, which
Egyptian security could not locate.
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The Aljazeera newsroom worked flat out during those days; leaves
were cancelled, working hours were stretched and our editorial
teams worked nonstop. Although food and drink is customarily
banned inside the newsroom, during those breath-taking days we
resorted to providing journalists with meals as they sat working at
their desks. On several occasions I had to intervene personally to
oblige some colleagues to go home and have a few hours of rest.
Those were the days when Aljazeera, both in body and soul, was in
a state of unison with its viewers and cohesiveness in its coverage.
It was transformed into a lofty edifice, charging forward unabatedly
and tirelessly.
Realising that it had failed to hinder Aljazeera coverage, the
Egyptian regime adopted what turned out to be the most serious
measure ever taken against the channel since its birth. The
Egyptian authorities managed to switch off Aljazeera transmission
via the most popular satellite in the Middle East region, Nilesat. In
the meantime, the Libyan regime ordered the jamming of the
channel's transmission on the other satellites. They succeeded in
obscuring the Channel from its viewers across the Arab world.
During those tough hours I had the feeling that we were
transmitting only to ourselves in Doha. Our screen, which had
become the hope of the revolutionaries in Egypt and the conduit of
their voice to the world, ceased to be.
Our engineers managed to find new frequencies on alternative
satellites. Yet, we still could not reach our viewers quickly enough
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via those new frequencies. Then we were contacted by a small-size
satellite TV channel asking for permission to relay Aljazeera
transmission via its own frequency. I immediately granted
permission and instructed my colleagues to announce that we
would grant permission to whoever wished to relay our
transmission. Within less than two hours, Aljazeera was being
transmitted via 14 different satellite channels, which chose to
suspend their programmes in favour of Aljazeera. We succeeded in
thwarting the biggest attempt to obscure our screen thanks to the
initiatives undertaken by a number of different channels. That was a
great role for which we remain hugely indebted, a role that restored
our zeal and determination to pursue our mission to the end.
On the evening of Friday the 11th of February it was announced in
Cairo that the Egyptian President decided to step down. We were
stunned; feelings of happiness swept across the Arab world from
the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Gulf. Spontaneous demonstrations
were staged in various Arab capitals. The masses celebrated the
victory of the revolution. Our screens were pinned on Tahrir Square
transmitting to the world without comment the singing of the
victorious songs. That was a watershed moment in the history of
the region, as well as in the history of Aljazeera. Undoubtedly, that
was a moment in my life I would never forget. I laboured to restrain
myself and maintain calmness. Yet, my colleagues inside the
newsroom erupted in excitement embracing each other; some even
could not withhold their tears of joy. As I watched attentively the
coverage of the events, and eagerly monitored world reaction,
guards at the outside gate of Aljazeera compound phoned to inform
us that people had been assembling outside the gate asking for
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permission to be allowed inside to thank Aljazeera for its coverage. I
received a delegation, listened to their honest and candid
expressions of gratitude, thanked them for their feelings, told them
that we had only been doing our job, and returned to the newsroom.
Just before midnight, exhaustion had overwhelmed me. I drove my
car back home looking forward to a few hours of deep and
enjoyable sleep. The Corniche road was packed with thousands who
came out to celebrate. I ended up stuck in the traffic jam. Some
people recognised me, got out of their cars and came rushing to
hug and kiss me. I could not help but let my tears flow. It was a
profoundly emotional moment.
I learned from my experience as a reporter and then as director of a
media institution an important basic fact: that we should always
posit people at the centre of our editorial policy. I don't say this
simply to reiterate a beautiful slogan with which we decorate our
literature or market our institutions. I truly believe this to be a moral
commitment, a scientific approach and an essential interest.
To begin with, we should acknowledge that in the media we
shoulder a mission, which journalists should remain aware of as
they perform. This mission is about serving the public interest
without bias for one particular opinion or party or current or
ideology. Without such a noble mission, our profession could easily
become a commodity on sale. Without it, journalists would never
qualify to speak for the public interest and the people would never
trust us. They simply need to see us favour them when it comes to
power and authority. In fact, people of power and influence would
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pay no attention to a media that is not brave and straightforward.
At the practical level, a journalist cannot comprehend the political
reality and predict where things are likely to go without learning the
history of nations and their accumulative experience.
Many major world media institutions failed to predict certain
seminal historic events during the first decade of this century
starting with 9/11 through to the consequences of the wars on
Afghanistan and Iraq, and the world economic crisis all the way to
Arab Spring. All of these were pivotal events that the media could
not foretell. Worse still, when these events unfolded, the world
media could not comprehend them; preferring at times to reiterate
ready-made claims and packaged analyses that were seriously
lacking in depth and expertise.
What has led the media to lose its ability to predict events?
The answer to this question might be derived from an analysis of a
number of problems that befell the world media. The consequence
has been a weakening of the attachment of the media to a fixed
point of reference centred around the people and their collective
conscience and overall interest.
The first problem is that the media began to adopt the attitude of
the elite by looking down upon the masses. The masses are
perceived by many political and intellectual elites as barbaric
demagogues and commoners, an irrational body that is driven here
and there under the influence of instantaneous reactions deemed
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irrelevant and therefore unworthy of investigating their motivations
or foretelling their repercussions. The masses, especially in the Arab
world, have suffered decades of disinterest, marginalization and
humiliation. The official media never hesitated to lie and employ the
services of Sultanic columnists in order to falsify and fabricate.
Those in power and those in charge of their media firmly believed
that the people had no will and lacked the ability to think or
understand.
The experience of the past decade has proven beyond doubt that
the popular will has a much greater impact on events than the
planning of the authorities or the thinking of the elites. Nations
have a collective mind that is the product of intellectual, religious
and social interactions and that is consolidated by centuries long
historical experiences. Such a collective mind becomes an internal
inherent compass that is resistant to influences aimed at forcing it
to change direction. It becomes the means through which nations
receive guidance to comprehend reality and pursue major pathways
and upon which they rely during turbulent times in order to sketch
future hopes and pave the way ahead for future generations to
accomplish their dreams.
This collective mind is stronger than powerful armies and more
formidable than media propaganda and all types of authority. One
cannot hope to influence the movements of nations and peoples
without comprehending the way this collective mind operates.
Similarly, we cannot hope to predict the future of these nations
without paying attention to the internal compass inherent in the
accumulative memory.
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I arrived in Kabul toward the end of 2001 in the aftermath of the fall
of the Afghani capital into the hands of the Coalition troops. I was
eager to observe the features of the Afghani collective mind. The
Afghans are a unique nation with a deep-rooted historic experience.
They are proud of their heritage and history. They are famously
generous and sanctify gallantry.
I accompanied my cameraman to a cafe close to Kabul
Intercontinental Hotel. The cafe and the hotel are nothing but
rundown structures devastated by decades of continuous war. We
sat around an old disjointed wooden table waiting for the
unsweetened green tea served by a wooden-legged 50 year old,
Haji Goll. Nearby, two Pashtun-turbaned Afghan young men sat.
Seemingly, our Arabic conversation attracted their attention, so
they approached us and spoke to us in clear Arabic, expressing their
happiness to see us in their midst. We learned that they were from
Kandahar and that they came to Kabul on foot searching for
relatives in the capital but failed to find any. They hoped that their
relatives had already fled to Pakistan before the war and had not
perished in the fighting.
We had a conversation about the war, the Taliban and Kandahar.
They returned to their table and before I left the cafe I settled the
bill for both tables. ّIt was nothing, no more than a couple of dollars.
A few minutes after we departed the place the two young men
came running behind us calling on us to wait for them. When they
caught up with us they said they were very sorry I had paid for their
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two cups of tea and insisted on paying their bill and ours since we
were guests in their country and should not be paying. I refused
thinking that the two exhausted young men with their old garments
and seeming poverty might accept my hospitality. I was so shocked
that one of them, with his eyes full of tears, insisted on me to take
the money from him. “You are our guests”, he repeated many
times. Only then had I realised that I had no option but to take the
money. This taught me that attending to the guest was a principal
value in Pashtun culture. After all, Mulla Omar preferred to see his
emirate collapse than hand over his guest, Osama Bin Laden.
I still remember my meeting with the commander of the American
ground troops in Baghdad in the wake of its occupation in 2003. I
was at the time head of Aljazeera Bureau in the Iraqi capital. The
American general was puzzled about the attacks carried by the Iraqi
resistance on coalition troops. He asked: “Why do they hate us
while we are the ones who brought down the dictatorial regime of
Saddam Hussein. We even brought them 18 billion dollars to rebuild
Iraq.” I explained to the general that the Iraqi people, who are
aware of their esteemed historic status in this region, do not accept
the occupation. Baghdad, which led the world for five centuries
during the reign of the Abbasid Empire, regarded the occupation an
insult to their historic dignity and national pride. The American
commander looked at me with puzzled eyes and said: “I do not
understand what you are saying.”
The Americans, together with much of the world media, did not
realise that the occupation of Iraq was not simply a question of
bringing down a dictatorial regime. They were wrong to think that
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the Iraqis were going to receive them with roses. It was amazing
how superficial the view of the Coalition troops of Iraqi society was.
They could not see the profound deep rooted plurality in Iraq's long
historical experience. They did not know that the Iraqi collective
psyche would simply reject the occupation and would compare it to
the 1258 tragic Holako-led Mongolian occupation of Baghdad.
The media relationship with the centres of power and
influences
It is only natural for states to seek to serve their best interests and
for armies to endeavour to win their battles. The same might apply
to corporations. But it is unacceptable for the media to become
mere tools of governments or states; to the extent of failing to rely
on their vision and analysis of events and approach where the
people remain the frame of reference and point of departure. Most
of the coverage provided by many world media of the events of the
last decade reveals that there had been a defect prevalent in the
role and self-perception of the media. Or else, what turned the
media from an authority whose role is to keep an eye on the other
authorities into a power centre that is congruent with the other
political and economic power centres, united with them in
objectives and purposes?
The media was described as the fourth estate because the
profession's founding fathers established strict rules and values that
became the journalist’s constitution. We can see this was always
present in the works and reports of great journalists such as James
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Cameron and Alistair Cooke They realised right at the outset of the
birth of the mass media that the power of the media lies in
representing the public interest before the three other estates. The
media simply have no power without the people. In order for the
media to be able to represent the people before these three centres
of power, a journalist should speak the truth in the face of might,
should question the authorities, should resist becoming an
unaccountable centre of power and should draw clear lines in
dealing with government, corporations and various other parties. He
or she should never dissipate into any of these and should not
compete in the service of interests that contradict honest and
credible representation of the masses. It would seem that putting
the commercial view ahead of professionalism has given priority to
profiteering, and turned media institutions into commercial
enterprises that are highly connected to centres of power and
influence, and at many times even woven into them, in pursuit of
maximal profits even if at the expense of the profession's code of
ethics. When this happened, a schism emerged between the
media’s moral values and the utilitarian quest for profit-making.
Hence, the media lost its spiritual link with the masses in favour of
immediate material gains.
The transformation of the media into a centre of power and
influence instead of remaining a means of checking the activities of
the centres of power and influence has changed the nature of the
media role. Centres of power and influence are erratic by nature;
they act to serve their own interests and they do so not in
accordance with a fixed set professional rules. Pursuing changing
interests has been at the expense of people's confidence in the
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media, which is often in partnership with the centres of power
promoting what they stand for and proving to be too associated
with their objectives, priorities and slogans.
Thus, it is of paramount importance that the media should adhere
to a well-established epistemological frame of reference that does
not vary in accordance with political whims or commercial interests.
In our search for a fixed pivotal point around which our editorial
mission is centred we find nothing better than the people with their
collective mind and their instinctive opposition to oppression,
arbitrariness and corruption.
The media and the changing world centres of influence
For many decades, the West dominated the economic, political and
media life of the world. Yet, the last decade has seen a shift in the
economic centres of influence from the West to the East. The
communication and information technological revolution has
provided unprecedented global plurality. Today, our world is
multipolar and the Western media is no longer the only point of
reference. Global media institutions have been launched in the
South and in the East. We've also seen the emergence of citizen
media or social network media, which has contributed to the
plurality. Yet, Western media institutions have not changed at the
same pace as the rest of the world. Realising the changing global
reality quickly enough is an important challenge facing Western
media institutions. Take for instance news headlines. These are still
focused on local Western concerns while major events in the South
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and the East are neglected. Additionally, much of the coverage is
instantaneous reporting of latest news without historical or political
contextualisation of events. The fine details we bombard our
viewers with do not provide them with profound knowledge about
the event and its significance; a news bulletin is, thus, turned into a
puzzle board.
Analysts, or those known as experts, who appear on TV screens,
often provided repetitive stereotypical analyses of world events.
Our institutions are in urgent need of competent world reporters
who would dedicate their effort and enough time so as to
comprehend the characteristics of societies and peoples and inform
themselves about their historical and social backgrounds. Only then
would they be able to present in-depth media worthy material; they
would then be in a position to envision reality with an expert eye
and be able to predict the future with a much higher level of
accuracy.
The best people to provide valuable information about any society
are the children of that society who belong to its culture and are
part of its collective conscience. So would those who dedicate a
long time and much effort in comprehending the essence of these
people while exhibiting genuine respect for cultural, religious and
social diversity. Only then would their vision emanate from within
those societies rather than performing simply as explorers or
tourists content with having collected some general information to
be re-produced in the form of a superficial journalistic discourse.
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Journalism of Depth
What I like to call “Journalism of Depth” is the media that regards
the collective conscience of the masses to be its point of departure.
It is the media that believes, as a matter of principle, in the
potential capabilities of the people and respects their choices.
Experience has proven that the masses as a whole are more aware
than the political and intellectual elite; they are shrewd, highly
politicised and possess an instinctive insight that enables them to
discern good from bad. When politicians belittle popular awareness
they doom themselves to exclusion and failure. For instance,
drawing on the experience of the Arab Spring we've found Arab
despotic regimes behave in the same pattern. Initially, they denied
the existence of a problem blaming the media instead and accusing
it of exaggerating trivial incidents. Then they resorted to blaming
outside forces and showering all kinds of labels on the protest
movement. Protesters were at times called lackeys, at times
children, and at other times microbes and parasites. Qadhafi
described his opponents as intoxicated rats. Such terms were heard
from all the Arab regimes in description of the people they
confronted. All these regimes agreed among themselves on one
thing: to belittle the people and ridicule their conscience, their will,
and determination to insist on their rights.
At times some journalists see nothing in the people apart from an
opportunity to make material gain. They see them as consumers
whom we sell commodities at huge profits that keep our bank
accounts growing. In either case, the people are not the centre of
action. Nor are they an appreciated point of reference. They are
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simply a tool with no intrinsic value.
The journalism of depth is one that considers the people to be the
centre of its editorial policy; it seeks to give the masses a voice and
a platform. It should be courageous and be prepared to withstand
so much pressure by disaffected centres of power. The moment it
maintains its position and insists on its policy, the people will rally
around it. Then and only then, the people will restore confidence in
the media and offer it their support, appreciation and respect.
I spent the last week of my work as Aljazeera Director General
visiting Tripoli and Misrata. As I was touring the old marketplace in
the Libyan capital I was struck by the reception accorded to us by
the Libyans who were so thankful and appreciative. The presence
of Aljazeera crew in any square or park would lead to a traffic jam.
The warmth, love and spontaneous gestures of gratitude by the
people, who surrounded us and asked to be photographed with us,
was truly overwhelming. In Misrata, and while taking a stroll along
its war-torn streets, I stopped before a simple exhibition set up by
the inhabitants displaying the weapons and ammunition used by
regime against their besieged city. A banner bearing the name of
Aljazeera cameraman Ali Al-Jabir, who was assassinated by
Qadhafi's security men in Benghazi, was raised in front of the
exhibition.
Al-Jabir's photo brought the memory of the day he was assassinated
back to me. I had received a phone call from the newsroom
breaking the sad news to me. I returned to the channel and
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appeared on TV to offer my condolences. I promised our viewers
that Aljazeera would never be forced to retreat and that its
coverage would continue no matter what. That was a very sad night
in the newsroom but it was also a night of pride especially upon the
assembly of tens of thousands of Libyans spontaneously in the
centres of different towns to offer prayers for the martyr. They
continued to gather and shout slogans up to the early hours of the
morning. That day, I called all our crews in the field and told them
they had the choice of remaining there covering events or returning
to Doha, stressing that we would understand their decision to
return. They all insisted on continuing despite the direct threats on
their lives.
The Libyans reserved a special place in their hearts for Aljazeera.
This is the sentiment I felt wherever I travelled inside Libya. I
recalled the story told to me by our colleague cameraman Ammar
Hamdan, who was detained together with three of his colleagues as
they covered the brutal attack launched on Al-Zawiyah by Qadhafi's
troops. He and his colleagues spent nearly two months in the
colonel's prisons. Following his release, Ammar Hamdan narrated to
me how the prison warden took him aside before his release and
told him with tears filling his eyes: “I'm truly sorry for what we did
to you. We had no choice but to detain you and I swear that had it
not been for concern about the safety of my family I would have
fled and joined the revolutionaries.” He then handed an apple to
Ammar and said: “I have only this apple, which I picked from my
own garden, to give you as a gift. Please deliver it to the Aljazeera
director general when you return and tell him that the Libyans are
dying to be delivered from this tyrannical regime. Please do not let
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us down; continue your coverage. May Allah keep you safe and
bless you.” Ammar told me the story handing the apple to me. Our
eyes were filled with tears.
At the practical level, the coverage in the field is the most authentic
expression of the journalism of depth. It is more sincere, more
spontaneous and closer to the people and their concerns. Because I
was once a reporter I've always felt a sense of estrangement inside
the newsroom. The field is alive and interactive while the newsroom
is quiet and stereotypical. The field is an excited spirit while the
newsroom is a mind whose role is to organise and balance. It is true
that the role of the editor sitting in front of the computer screen
inside the newsroom is essential in order to fine-tune the news and
determine priorities. Yet, I have always been closer to the field; this
is the spirit I regained last month when I visit the Dadab Somali
camp on the Kenyan-Somali borders. I spend the Eid Day with those
who fled the hell of famine. I felt their suffering, pitied their poverty
and need. But I also witnessed in the faces of their children how life
triumphs over death. The kids received us with their tender smiles
and hopeful eyes. Despite their weakness and hunger, those were
people who loved dignity and looked forward to a better future.
Our media institutions today hesitate to dispatch their reporters to
the field. The recent economic crisis forced these institutions to
reduce expenditure on external assignments. Reporters have been
compensated for with reports prepared inside the newsroom.
Undoubtedly, such reports are of less value and lower impact
compared to those arriving from the theatre of action.
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Field reporting has retreated because of the economic crisis and so
has investigative journalism and in-depth reporting, which are at
the heart of journalism of depth. These are the real tools for
questioning those in power and authority and without them what is
shown on the screen would seem rather superficial, indulging
mostly in narration. Such journalism is less costly but it is also of
less value. Without field coverage and investigative journalism our
screens would lose the best forms of journalism. Managers of media
institutions should therefore be cautious. Saving money should not
involve incurring an essential loss on our viewers and readers.
Despite the negative aspects associated with news reporting during
the past decade, a new positive spirit has recently emerged within
the media sector. The spread of what is known as the new media,
what I would rather call the peoples' media, has opened new broad
horizons for people to express themselves. It has brought an
unprecedented climate of media democratisation. Had it not been
for electronic activists, who supplied us with news and pictures
during the revolutions of Tunisia, Egypt and Syria, we would never
have been able to defeat the persistent endeavour by the security
agencies to obstruct our professional crews. It is true that some
professional editors are still doubting the feasibility of media
reporting via the social networks because of the difficulty in
verifying the authenticity of these pictures. However, practical
experience has proven to us that we are able to develop tools for
verifying news and authenticating pictures. I may add that editorial
teams responsible for monitoring these websites have developed
important expertise that enable us to identify authentic sources
from non-authentic ones. It is true that we have made some
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mistakes because of the enormous quantity of material arriving via
the internet. It is true too that the quality of pictures are well below
those caught by the lenses of professional cameramen. However,
the mistakes have always been very few and the pictures taken by
activists have defeated the official media blackout. Furthermore,
activists themselves have been improving their means. The
repetitive doubting, for instance by the Syrian authorities, of what
Aljazeera transmits of news and pictures received via facebook,
twitter or youtube and the accusations levelled against us that we
fabricate such material, all of this inspired activists to come up with
new ideas including a better documentation and authentication of
demonstrations. This they do by means of including in their footage
the names of streets or images of landmarks or well-known public
squares in the various cities; as well as including the date of each
clip using a newspaper front page where the date of issue is clearly
printed. The peoples' media is youthful and smart; it grows and
develops and in doing so it gains more expertise. In contrast, the
official media disinformation campaigns appear naïve, pathetic and
laughable. Once again, the people have proven to be smarter than
the ageing self-isolating political elite.
The world of the internet, peoples media, social network sites,
Wikileaks and others has undermined the ability of the centres of
power to monopolise what is presented to public opinion. Our media
institutions should warmly welcome these means and should
encourage them. We should set up integrated interactive news
rooms of which these means would be fundamental components.
We should train our reporters and editors to benefit from them and
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deal with them in accordance with the known professional
standards.
On the other side, a growing number of media institutions have
begun to interact positively with the challenges imposed on the
media. This year, we've seen a marked improvement in the field
reporting of the Arab Spring. We have also seen some excellent
examples of in-depth investigative journalism such as the joint
coverage by Aljazeera and the Guardian newspaper of the
Palestinian papers.
We are in a desperate need for the formation of a coalition that
would bring together journalists, media institutions, human rights
organisations and internet activists in order to break the wall of
silence that certain governments and centres of influence are
endeavouring to impose on the sources of information. We must
monitor legislations and official measures and lobby for essential
reforms that will open the horizons before journalists to learn all
aspects of the truth. Without transparency and access to accurate
and full information, the media will remain hostage to what the
centres of influences choose to leak in the service of their own
narrow interests and in distortion of the full picture.
The world is going through a period of major transformation
particularly in the aftermath of the revolutions that swept across the
Arab world and the successive economic crises. Despite the major
challenges facing our media institutions, there are bright spots that
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need to be developed further. Such a task requires full
determination to rectify the media compass so as to be centred
around the people. Collaboration among the various media
institutions, including the sharing of resources and the exchange of
expertise, will undoubtedly help us regain the initiative and revive
respect for the media in the eyes of the public. The idea is to
remain always loyal to the esteemed mission for which the late
James Cameroon and his colleagues of various languages, races and
nations worked.
Thank you very much.
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