Arab Broadcast Charter: Take Two

Lebanon, considered the last bastion of press freedom in the Arab world, has succumbed and signed the Arab broadcast charter approved by the region's information ministers, raising further hackles by critics of censorship that regimes are increasingly concerned about domestic unrest and their contested hold on power.

"Journalists and human rights organizations continue to blast this document and its restraints on broadcasts under the rubric of guidelines to organize satellite channels in the Arab world," said Mahasen Al Emam who heads the Amman-based Arab Women Media Center.

She questioned the need for the charter since Arab governments already hold sway through the power of licensing the satellite channels in the first place.

Lebanon's information minister had to sign the document as this Arab League initiative falls under the purview of the Lebanese National Audiovisual Media Council, a maligned body of appointed officials with sectarian baggage that determines broadcast policies as opposed to the Information Ministry that merely implements the regulations, said an industry insider.

"My fear is that the charter doesn't just hamper freedom and limit media creativity, long a trademark of some Arab (mostly Lebanese) satellite channels, but it's a death sentence against Arab satellite networks competing with stations that have sold out to certain Arab regimes," Al Emam lamented. She also chairs the Free Media Union.

She said Arab information ministers were still swimming against the tide of democracy by hanging on to nonsensical ministries reflective of oppressive governments.

The heretofore non-binding charter entitled "Principles for Organizing Satellite Radio and TV Broadcasting in the Arab Region" released in Cairo February 12 is the brainchild of Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Only Qatar has expressed reservations about signing it.

But it could be the precursor to an anticipated crackdown on maverick channels like Qatar's Al Jazeera that has long alienated Arab regimes with its special brand of provocative news reporting and challenging talk shows.

Al Jazeera newsroom (Abu-Fadil)

The pan-Arab daily Al Hayat quoted Egyptian Information Minister Anas Al Fiqi as saying the charter's adoption by majority vote made it binding and that wide-ranging discussion on an implementation mechanism was in the works.

Article 4 of the 13-page charter requires Arab channels to protect free competition in broadcast services and "not adversely affect civil peace, national unity, public order and public morals," among other things.

A more controversial clause in Article 5 calls for "guaranteeing Arab citizens' rights to follow national, regional and international events in which national sports teams participate through open and un-coded signals," regardless of who owns the exclusive broadcast rights to these athletic events.

"While I believe that the Arab audiovisual media are in a mess and need regulation, I am opposed to having this regulation come from governments," said American University of Beirut professor Nabil Dajani, adding that media were also not to be trusted with the task of self-regulation given their profit-seeking interests.

The charter recommends that regulatory bodies of the Arab League's 22-member states confiscate equipment, impose fines, and suspend, refuse to renew or withdraw licenses from satellite channels that authorities deem to have violated its "principles," reported advocacy group Human Rights Watch in a release lambasting the document.

The Reuters news agency said the document "echoes the language found in press laws used by some Arab countries to prosecute journalists critical of their governments."

Writing in the Arab Reform Bulletin of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Marwan Kraidy said that while the charter's passage seemed sudden, momentum for it had been building since the 2006 Lebanon war.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the charter's main backers, had initially slammed Hezbollah's adventurism by triggering that summer's conflict that unleashed Israel's wrath on Lebanon but later backed off when Hezbollah seemed to hold its own and deal Israel a bloody nose in the 33-day conflict.

"In the meantime, Hezbollah's Al Manar television climbed to the top ten in pan-Arab ratings, and live talk show hosts struggled to prevent callers from heaping verbal abuse on pro-U.S. Arab leaders," wrote Kraidy in reference to countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

Article 6 of the charter bans stations from broadcasting "all forms of provocation to violence and terrorism, while distinguishing between it (terrorism) and resistance to occupation."

It left a gray area in that article's other clauses calling for special attention to be paid to the style of dialogue, ethics and respect for the rights of others to respond to attacks or criticism.

Kraidy argued that by penalizing content viewed as promoting sexual activity and alcohol consumption and purporting to protect Arab identity, the charter aims to placate conservative Islamists -- such as Egypt's restive and banned Muslim Brotherhood -- and nationalists fearful of the encroaching and destabilizing effects of globalization.

Ironically, Egypt reportedly pulled the plug on a UK-based satellite channel called Al Hiwar (dialogue), the third such station to be banned on the Egyptian-controlled bird NileSat, given its anti-government programming. Analysts believe Al Hiwar has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Arab Network for Human Rights Information condemned the ban in a statement it issued in Cairo saying the measure "contradicts all professional values and criteria."

Al Hiwar co-founder Azzam Al Tamimi told the Saudi-owned daily Asharq Al-Awsat the channel was informed NileSat would break an earlier agreement to carry its signal soon after the broadcast charter was endorsed, but gave no reason for the action.

"We continue to broadcast on other birds and are looking to broadcast on Arabsat (another carrier aimed at the Arab world) while our lawyers study legal action against NileSat," Al Tamimi added.

Meanwhile, NileSat president Amin Bassiouni, who doubles as chairman of the Arab League's Arab Media Committee, told Asharq Al-Awsat he was unaware of any ban, and denied such a measure was triggered by the broadcast charter.

Vague clauses in Article 7 of the document provide greater opportunities for restrictions, calling for bans on broadcasts undermining Arab solidarity and other buzzwords translating into dissent.

"This step is part of an ongoing official Arab policy that seeks to control the satellite revolution and independent newspapers and through them to control political openness called for by freedom-loving movements," noted Mahasen Al Emam.

According to Kraidy, it remains unclear whether the charter is merely a symbolic gesture or constitutes a concrete step toward a repressive pan-Arab media policy regime.

"With over 400 channels peddling fortune-tellers, alternative medicines, Jihadi ideas, titillating bodies, and stock market schemes alongside more mainstream news and entertainment, a regulatory framework is not in itself a bad idea," he said.

But Arab governments' repressive track record is legend, he noted, adding he feared increased crackdowns would involve more online media and mobile phones.

A possible solution is taking regulatory measures out of the hands of both governments and the media and handing the task to international organizations, said Dajani.

"Public institutions need to be involved and UNESCO came up with a workable solution in the 1970s...available in a UNESCO document entitled 'COM MD 20' (http://unesdoc.unesco.org/ulis/cgibin/ulis.pl?database=ged&req=2&by=3&sc1=1&look=new&sc2=1&text_p=inc&text=Panel+of+Consultants+on+Communication&submit)," he said of a group of consultants, including himself, who authored the study.

Press freedom advocates, however, call this a recipe for disaster since UNESCO is beholden to its member states, including Arab countries, and cannot be trusted with such a mandate.