RIGHTS-MIDDLE EAST: Waiting for Others to Stop Censorship

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Kim Ghattas

BEIRUT, Oct 7 1999 (IPS) - Challenged by new media and non governmental groups stretching the boundaries of freedom of speech, censorship in the Middle East has been loosing ground this decade, albeit rather slowly, as governments seem to expect others to lead the way.

In most Arab countries is still taboo to openly expose governments to public scrutiny, let alone report on issues such as human rights abuses or corruption. Officials are particularly sensitive to critical reports concerning friendly neighbouring countries.

Al-Jazeera, a Qatari satellite-TV station exemplifies the region’s enhanced freedoms with its live programs about social issues, politics, and democracy and current affairs in countries of the region.

The channel has irked many of these countries’ governments. Al- Jaxeera’s offices have been closed in Jordan and Kuwait, but remains a favourite station for many Arabs.

In Lebanon, probably the country enjoying most press freedom in the region, things are also going back and forth.

“Since 1992, we’ve been testing the waters, stretching the boundaries and saying a bit more everytime. We reached a great level of openness around 1994 and 1996,” said Samir Kassir, a journalist with An Nahar, the country’s leading Arabic language daily, and editor of the Arabic version of the Paris-based monthly Le Monde Diplomatique.

“There is no censorship in Lebanon. The only thing you don’t write critically or mockingly about is Syrian president Hafez el Assad,” he added. His views are positive about the situation in Lebanon and the rest of the region, except for Syria and Iraq, where severe restrictions remain in place.

Yet, the Lebanese media are not as free as they were before the 1975-1990 civil war and have suffered somewhat since the country fell under the direct influence of Syria in 1990.

It is also not easy for journalist to embrace a cause they are not quite familiar with. For many journalists in the Middle East, press and expression freedoms are not yet a concept thoroughly assimilated.

Non governmental organisations (NGO) such as the London-based Centre for Media Freedom (CMF) are helping regional journalists, lawyers and other free-speech campaigners in their campaigns to bring reforms to local legislation and raise awareness.

Middle East journalists are still closely tied to their governments, argues Said Essoulami, a founder of CMF, as most journalists in the region work for national news agencies, ministries of information or state-owned media.

“There are no other regional independent groups. There is the Arab federation of journalists, but it is made of 12 unions, of which ten are controlled by their governments,” he added.

Essoulami is hoping to open regional centres in Morocco, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon.

“In Syria, we can write anything we want, we can even write about the president,” a journalist with the Syrian Times told IPS. But usually, writing about president Hafez el Assad consists of reporting his moves and speeches rather than digging into the country’s political system.

Formally at war with Israel, Syria is under a state of emergency since 1963. This gives the authorities full control over the press – none of the country’s three newspapers is independent or privately owned and their content usually reflects the government views.

Ten Syrian journalists are currently in prison, one of them since 1982. Most of them were jailed for their political activity or their involvement in human rights campaigns.

Human rights are one of the region’s main taboos. Even in relatively liberal Lebanon, an issue of The Economist, the British weekly magazine, containing a special human rights report, did not make it into the country.

Foreign publications entering Lebanon are submitted to censorship and the Department in charge has reportedly even hired Italian, German and Spanish-speaking censors for a more comprehensive control. Locally published newspapers are subject only to a silent process – self-censorship.

“Fear of what might happen if you write something is often enough to keep a reporter from writing it. Many journalists don’t want to get in trouble, they just want their pay-check,” said Kamal el Battal, director of the Lebanese human rights organisation Mirsad.

El Battal is hoping to organise a regional seminar on the issue but has until now received little response from local journalists. “There is no freedom of the press or of expression, we’re even getting close to a point where there will be no more freedom of thought,” he added

In Egypt, state-censorship was officially imposed along with the state of emergency declared in 1981, after the assassination of president Anwar el Sadat. Some newspapers have been unable to obtain licenses to print their issues in Egypt itself and are printed abroad.

One of them, The Middle East Times, has a long list of articles censored as the newspaper enters Egypt, which the publishers make available in the paper’s World Wide Web page.

Censorship is also present in Jordan, but the government’s Press and Publications department seems to implement it as lightly as possible and claims that 98 per cent of foreign publications make it to the market.

A harsh press law was passed in Jordan in 1998, banning the media from publishing reports about 14 vaguely described subjects, such as anything related to the King and the royal family, any information about Jordan’s armed forces, or false rumours.

Ironically enough, it is also forbidden to write anything that would threaten personal freedoms.

The Jordanian press law also forbids spreading information that might harm the country’s relations with friendly states. In the volatile Middle East, many countries watch what is being said about their neighbours, afraid of damaging carefully tended relationships.

“You can’t just suddenly allow a free press – people in Jordan aren’t all ready for it. But mainly, it is people in other countries who are not and if in Jordanian papers we criticise a neighbouring country, they won’t understand why we don’t shut down the paper that offended them,” a Jordanian member of Parliament told IPS.

“But you cannot freeze Lebanon’s press waiting for the other countries to catch up,” el Battal replies.

Political change is essential in the march towards freedom of the press but even then, results are not automatic. In Jordan, Bahrain and Morocco, who have recently witnessed changes in leadership, censorship is still enforced.

In Jordan, where there is a formal plight to be light-handed, since the ascension to the throne of King Abdallah in February, four journalists have already spent time behind bars because of their work.