Jordanian King declares the local media "the enemy within."
I am still trying to sort through the typically confused and muddled mess over the facts of a recent controversy in the Arab World that involves an Arab government and the Arab media. These things are so rare and are refreshing.
It's not surprising that controversies in the Arab World are so confused and muddled because the media there is mostly controlled and those that are not are mostly pressured, intimidated and threatened with both political punishment, imprisonment and the more frequent pressuring of advertisers to stop buying ads to keep the newspapers afloat.
Yet, in reading both sides of the most recent squabble, it seems that something is wrong and needs more coverage, not less as Jordan's King Abdullah insists. But, on the otherhand, we shouldn't blame everything on the King, because it is true that rumors and lies spread through the Arab orld media far faster than truth, especially when they involve "Israel," as this controversy does. Here's one account of the battle:
It all started with one columnist at a small independent newspaper called Al Arab Al Yawm ("Today's Arab"), Salameh Daraawi, who wrote a column based on an interview with some offiicials in the Jordanian Government that an agency used by Israel to promote the country's 60th Anniversary Celebrations -- an event Arabs justifiably look at in a different perspective, as their "catastrophe (al-Nakba) -- was also hired to help organize the country's national cultural festival.
When word broke, many of the performers said they planned to back out. King Abdullah intervened and in a rare public address insisted it was not true, although somewhere between the accusation and the denial is the real truth.
But it wasn't just about Israel, whose government works hard with its oppressive hypocritical policies and to earn its status as the Arab World's whipping boy. It also had to do with the sale of a major chunck of Jordanian land.
Now, some people look at this issue and say the concern is "the truth," as King Abdullah insists. Others in the media, who are now being harassed and intimidated, say it is also about "the truth," which the Arab World public rarely really gets.
I say this is a good development. What we need is more conflict between the Arab World media and the Arab World governments because in that conflict the public actually benefits. When the media and the public go at it, as they are now doing, they are forced to retreat from their early confident arrogance where they can say whatever they want, to defensive damage control, which usually involves, pulling back, correcting lies, adjusting claims and being more accurate.
Sure, there is going to be siome public relations "spin." But in conflicts like this, the media and the governments are forced to be "accountable." And accountability is more important than the "truth." Because the truth can be spun, distorted, analyzed in conflicting ways, seen in different lights and presented in contrasting context, far more than accountability which is the simple act of making those in power address the issues that concern the public.
The public is not stupid. They are very educated, be it in the Arab World or the West where there is just as much absence of government accountability than in the Arab World. They can tell who is telling the truth, but only when government leaders, and the media, are forced to openly discuss and explain and even squirem a bit by conflicts like this.
The battle in Amman Jordan between King Abdullah and the Jordanian and Arab World media is not a bad thing. It is a good thing.
Ray Hanania
www.TheMediaOasis.com