BBC Arabic, a new western propaganda outlet coming to the Middle East in a week
How much this wounded region of the world can take? From political influence to military occupations, from cultural invasion to vilification, to stealing souls, fortunes, values, security, hope…etc. and worse than that, “Brain Wash”.
Each news corporation that operates in Arabic serves a certain agenda; both AlJazeera and AlArabiya are owned by Arabs but it’s clear that they have certain objectives to achieve, unfortunately evil objectives.
AlHurra is a pure American propaganda outlet, while AlAlam News is Iranian, and even the Europeans are trying to gain some influence in the Middle East through DW and now BBC. I wonder why French are not so active in this field.
Everybody wants a piece of the Middle Eastern cake!
The BBC, British Broadcasting Corporation, announced the launch of an Arabic channel dedicated to the Middle East next week. Even with this lovely cute face of one of their presenters, BBC is hiding an ugly side, just like everybody does.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 at 11:36 am and is filed under Arabia, Controversial, Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
on March 4, 2008 at 1:49 pm Lina wrote:
hmmmm… one has to be fair though, that long before everyone in the world wanted a piece of the Middle East cake, the BBC Radio Arabic service provided the best coverage of the region.
on March 21, 2008 at 2:13 pm Jeff wrote:
BBC Arabic channel has been launched at a crucial juncture of history as its target audience marks the fifth year of Iraq invasion. The audience in the Middle East and elsewhere will anxiously observe how BBC Arabic carries different messages across its different platforms.
Take for example the BBC survey conducted about the situation in Iraq on the eve of the fifth year of invasion. A report on BBC World News Tonight on BBC4 cited a survey speaking about “safer neighbourhoods” and a “Sunni awakening” as signs of improvement.
One wonder if footage of Adam Brook’s 17 March report on the boys’ race on Fallujah’s roads and his interview with Dr. Monjed Al-Rezali, Head of the Baghdad Morgue are used on BBC Arabic Channel and how the audiences respond to it.
Similarly while reporting about events in Palestine, it will be interesting to see how diplomatic editor Mark Urban’s March 11 despatch from Gaza compares and contrasts with what is shown to BBC Arabic. This concerns how a story is framed and who gets a chance to be represented.
The Arab information ministers recently adopted a “Charter of Principles” seeking to regulate satellite broadcasts, raising fears among media circles of a concerted move to muzzle stations. Some implications are already visible: Clock TV — owned by Lebanese and Libyan investors — canceled plans to start a new talk show called “Hour by Hour,” after the Egyptian government objected to it, apparently because it feared it would become a new voice of criticism. “Free speech in Egypt will not be the only victim here, it’s the whole Arab world,” said Khairi Ramadan, who was to host “Hour by Hour,” dubbing the charter a “huge step backward.” “There are serious fears of this charter and the bigger danger is to come.”
Launched in this backdrop in a week when the OIC summit is held, can BBC Arabic with its 70 years engagement with the Arab audience signal a huge step forward?
One wonders how in its interaction with the OIC leaders it upholds, promotes and strengthens the cause of free speech through raising awareness and prompting mobilization.
In an arena where the perceptions are seen and shown through a lens of local biases, above all, the Arab audience will judge if BBC Arabic as conciliatory media embodies certain idealized roles of media in the development and maintenance of a peaceful, democratic civil society. A conciliatory media is one that works to offer in-depth and diverse perspectives with regard to issues of collective social importance. In a typology that draws on existing research by Cottle (2006), Lynch & McGoldrick, and Howard outline seven characteristics of media that best serve a conciliatory function: (1) “image to the invisible”; (2) “claims, reason and public argumentation”; (3) “public performance and credibility”; (4) “personal accounts and experimental testimonies”; (5) “reconciling the past, towards the present”; (6) “media reflexivity”; (7) “bearing witness in a globalized world”; (8) Avoiding victimizing and demonizing terminology; and (9) demonstrating a commitment towards finding mutually agreeable political solutions rather than enflaming existing hostilities.
It is proposed that, when a media organization embodies such characteristics, it can work towards debunking cross-cultural stereotypes, inject a multicultural knowledge into the public sphere, and even work to produce reconciliation among cultural antagonists. The big question here is whether BBC Arabic is up to the task?