The powerful influence of the media in promoting ideas, opinions and cultural exchange is beyond doubt. Given the widespread global availability of satellite TV, fair-minded and peace-loving people would love the media to enhance, objectively, their understanding of different peoples and cultures, based on mutual respect and understanding. The global media is well-placed to perform such a role but all too often it fails because those who control global media empires tend to have other ideas: be that seeking to maximise profit or furthering other agendas.
If the media is to serve the common good and promote tolerance and respect across cultures, those who run and invest in the media industry need to demonstrate a high degree of responsibility by producing output which showcases local culture, serves their communities' needs and provides forums for cross-cultural discourse.
A Turkish proverb says that "investment has no religion". How true! If investment seeks only to maximize profit, any sense of responsibility is likely to fade away. Two recent examples merit examination.
While it has been a constant complaint of Arab politicians and thinkers that the Arab media in general has failed to address "the other" and present Arab causes and culture in a fair manner, Arab investors have willingly surrendered two important media forums that could have otherwise been put to good use to remedy that complaint.
Firstly, Yahoo! acquired the largest Arab internet portal, Maktoub. Choosing to sacrifice the opportunity to utilise their site to showcase Arab culture, the creators of Maktoub were content for their remarkable success merely to attract a giant investor to buy their work at a high price.
A second example is the recent partnership between a leading Arab satellite channels group and News Corp. The media magnate Rupert Murdoch purchased over 9% of the Arab media group, Rotana, owned by the Saudi business tycoon, Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal. The deal, announced in February 2010, also gives Murdoch's News Corp an option to double its share in Rotana within 18 months.
Murdoch's entrance into the Arab media sphere has given rise to much speculation about his true intentions and long-term plans. Murdoch announced that News Corp was interested in the Arab media market for business reasons. In a speech delivered at an Abu Dhabi media conference in 2009, Murdoch said the deal was not forged because Rotana needed finance, but rather because he wanted to "tap into Arab talents." He encouraged Arab governments to fully liberalise their media industries and promote creativity in the media, adding that creativity can become a resource that is "more precious than oil." With his investment in Rotana and the relocation of various News Corp channels from Hong Kong to Abu Dhabi, Murdoch was able to proclaim that his words were supported by his investment.
Murdoch's interest in Arab broadcasting has shed light on Prince Al-Waleed's old investment in News Corp, which seems to have been rarely discussed hitherto. Prince Al-Waleed is the second largest individual shareholder in News Corp, with about a 6% shareholding, and Rotana has started broadcasting Fox Movies, free-to-air, since 2008. Nevertheless, few seem to believe that the "Rotana deal" reflects the natural growth of a business relationship between old pals.
When Rupert Murdoch "Speaks Arabic": A Promoter of Creativity or Trojan Horse?
Arab observers, including writers, novelists, leading columnists and bloggers, hardly view Murdoch's step as innocent. "A bad smell in our air," wrote a leading Egyptian columnist and thinker, Fahmi Al-Huwaidi, with reference to News Corp's entrance into the Arab broadcasting business that followed Murdoch's entrance to the Turkish media industry. Recalling the notoriety of Rupert Murdoch's unswerving loyalty to Israel's occupation and policies, and his pro-war positions promoted by his empire dominating western media, Al-Huwaidi warns that Murdoch is planning to influence, in a similar way, the channels' mainly young Arab audience.
While some view Rotana as serving, consciously or out of greed, an agenda which aims to break taboos and to re-make Arab culture through pretty base programming, the suggestion is that things will only get worse with the new propagation of Murdoch's political agenda. Commenting on this possibility, Daoud Abdel-Sayyed, an Egyptian director, said he did not want to indulge in a comparison between "the bad and the worse."
Another writer comments that the Zionism which Arabs have been struggling to force back from their doors will enter from their windows through the partnership between Murdoch and Rotana. Izzat Kamhawi, a novelist, complained that Murdoch would force on the Arab audience the normalisation of relations with Israel. However, Murdoch's imminent threat is not seen as political. What matters to many players in the media space is that Murdoch will control one third of Egyptian film productions (which makes most Arab TV), enjoying exclusive video library and broadcast rights which Rotana already owns, including its substantial involvement in film and music production. The Egyptian government TV corporation and state-owned production companies have warned that they would cease to deal with Rotana if Murdoch purchased shares in it as an attempt to protect Egyptian and Arab art heritage from falling into non-Arab hands.
Few seem to have examined in any depth the potential impact of News Corp if it extends its control to the Islamic channel, Al-Resala, which belongs to Rotana group. Most concerning would be if News Corp were able to abuse the goodwill that Al-Resalah has developed among its audience (the Al-Resalah audience is generally assumed not to think much of Rotana's other channels at all!). Notably, Murdoch's entrance into the Turkish media was via the acquisition of a channel which broadcast Islamic content.
Also, in light of Rupert Murdoch's business in other regions, one can imagine what damage he may inflict if News Corp controls an Arabic language news channel that Prince Al-Waleed is planning to launch.
The general perception is that while Murdoch's involvement is currently limited to an essentially entertainment-focused media group, he will leverage that position to creep into other areas and to influence the messages in future Arabic films, documentaries, and other programming.
As described by a prominent Egyptian novelist and scriptwriter, Osama Anwar Okasha, Murdoch is a "Trojan horse" through which Israel may achieve that which it has failed to achieve over decades: to penetrate Arab culture.
Despite these concerns, News Corp's ability to win hearts and minds of Arab spectators may not be stronger than that of the American-backed, Arabic language channel, Al-Hurrah, as noted previously on UmmahPulse. As one observer put it:
"The majority of Arabs have expressed their concerns about Murdoch dipping his toes in the middle eastern media, as everyone knows his appetite for business expansion. He will never be satisfied with this one step: the minute he is in, he will keep expanding and grabbing more media outlets. The main problem is that the Arabs see Murdoch as someone who does not respect them, their faith, or heritage. The majority say that he is gambling with his money if he thinks that the Arabs will forget his far right wing political news machine, or his pro-Israeli stance, and the way his own Fox News portrays Arabs and Muslims in a negative manner. Many even have already begun to call for boycotting Rotana should his investment be finalised."
It's Time for Arab Liberals to Speak Up
The concerns triggered by Murdoch's foray into the Arab media bring under scrutiny the puzzling call of Arab liberals to embrace a globalised media in their back yard while preserving Arab culture and identity. Such advocates have failed so far to explain how Arab identity can be promoted in a totally open market, which is subject to global media empires and their attendant agendas. Certainly, it is not by issuing press releases condemning Israeli attacks.
Recent moves by media giants like News Corp penetrating the Arab media - Muslim countries' airwaves, homes and minds - should force Arab liberals to reassess their utopian vision of a benign and respectful exchange between cultures, which was envisaged by early writers such as Ameen Rihani and which seems to have been overtaken and frustrated by the not-so-secret designs of global media empires.
It's time for Arab liberals to speak up in defence of their cause: why is allowing News Corp and others to invade the local media space a good thing?
The Wisdom of the 'Ulamaa
The imperative of preserving one's culture and identity, and the significance of the media's role in this regard, has been well recognised by the 'ulamaa (Muslim scholars). They have identified the dangerous consequences of failing to develop media outlets which serve the objective of preserving Muslim identity and culture. In a number of lectures delivered in Damascus and Cairo in the 1950s and 1960s, the late sheikh Abu Al-Hasan Ali Nadwi focused on the media's role in helping to develop a Muslim identity to face contemporary challenges. He expressed bitter disappointment with Arab media at that time (the relevant lectures were compiled and published by Dar Al-Fikr, Damascus in 2002 as "Muslims and the Cause of Palestine").
The following two quotes from speeches delivered in 1976 reflect the wisdom and vision of the 'ulamaa:
"We should move quickly to form Islamic media, otherwise Europe will invade us through the media and deform our ethics through television, radio, and cinema. Tomorrow, we will reach the time when television stations are connected with satellites. While television reception is limited nowadays [. . .] once broadcasting takes place through satellites, one will be able to receive it from anywhere in the world. [Then,] malign media will invade our homes and we will not be able to avert it [unless] we establish an Islamic media." (Muhammad Kutb, Islamic Media, a speech in the conference on Islamic Media and Human Relationships, Al-Riyadh, 16 October 1976, published (in Arabic) by World Association of Muslim Youth, 1979).
"And Arab beaten media did not content itself with accepting to be interfaces to present opinions of those who pay and ideas in return for dirhams or dinars [. . .] but it also has accepted again to [be in disconnect with the nation's challenges]" (Yusuf Al-Azm, Contemporary Arab Media and its Impact on the Generation's Bewilderment and the Nation's Defeat, a paper presented in the conference on Islamic Media and Human Relationships, Al-Riyadh, 16 October 1976, published (in Arabic) by World Association of Muslim Youth, 1979).
The sad reality remains that, despite genuine efforts to produce responsible content through several decent and responsible journals and TV channels, the dominant strand in the Arabic language media seems to be alien to the concerns and recommendations of the 'ulamaa.
In short, as noted by experts recently, "Arab media fails society." On the world stage, this failure hinders the enhancement of intercultural understanding and harms the objective presentation of Muslim causes and concerns, at a time when a robust Muslim media is most needed to counter the spread of Islamophobia and to correct the negative stereotypes of Muslims.
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