Phil Taylor's papers
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BACK TO : PROPAGANDA AND THE GWOT Year 3 - 2004 (mainly Iraq)
Arabic TV network aims to boost America's battered image in the Muslim world from the Straits Times 
US: Arabic TV network aims to boost America's battered image in the Muslim world Even as Washington gets set to start an Arabic-language satellite TV network, a senior official said the United States' image abroad is so bad that it will take years to repair The Straits Times Friday, February 6, 2004 WASHINGTON - Even as Washington gets set to start an Arabic-language satellite TV network, a senior official said the United States' image abroad is so bad that it will take years to repair. President George W. Bush announced on Wednesday that next week, the government would launch the Al-Hurra network, which is designed as an alternative to Middle-Eastern broadcasts often critical of the US. He said Al-Hurra would join other US government broadcasts which are aimed at cutting through the 'hateful propaganda that fills the airwaves in the Muslim world' and telling people 'the truth about the values and the policies of the United States'. 'The truth always serves the cause of freedom,' he said. The need for such a channel to change attitudes about the US was emphasised by Ms Margaret Tutwiler in her first public appearance as the State Department official in charge of public diplomacy. On the same day that Mr Bush spoke, she told a House appropriations sub-committee that the US standing abroad had deteriorated to such an extent that 'it will take us many years of hard, focused work' to restore it. 'Unfortunately, our country has a problem in far too many parts of the world, a problem we have regrettably gotten into over many years through both Democrat and Republican administrations, and a problem that does not lend itself to a quick fix or a single solution or a simple plan,' she said. She agreed with the main findings of an independent panel led by Mr Edward Djerejian, a former ambassador to Israel and Syria, that American outreach had suffered from budget cuts and neglect since the end of the Cold War. The panel asserted that US prestige had dwindled, that much of America's charity was overlooked and that its overall approach lacked strategic direction. 'The bottom has indeed fallen out of support for the United States,' Mr Djerejian told the sub-committee in his first public presentation of the report. The report, requested by the sub-committee's Republican chairman, Mr Frank Wolf, identified systemic problems, including a lack of Arabic speakers in the State Department - only five Americans are fluent and 'TV-ready', he noted. It also noted the decline in the number of public diplomacy officers, from 2,500 in 1991 to 1,200 last year. The report called for a greater role for the US private sector, especially its media companies, in developing creative new ways to reach out to Arab youths. Ms Tutwiler said she was determined to work within the existing budget of about US$600 million (S$1 billion) for worldwide public diplomacy. That will include exchange programmes, partnerships between US embassies and local institutions, and the supply of textbooks to local schools. But Mr Wolf said the administration's overall res- ponse to the report was 'lacklustre' and 'disappointing'. Republican Representative Jim Kolbe cited polls showing that only 15 per cent of Indonesians, 7 per cent of Saudis and 15 per cent of Turks have a favourable image of the US - despite their governments' friendly ties with Washington. The US government is trying to address its image problem partly through the 24-hour Al-Hurra, whose name is Arabic for 'the free one'. US officials have acknowledged that they plan it as a rival to Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based satellite network, and Al-Arabiya, based in Dubai, which have often drawn complaints about their programming from senior Bush administration officials. The broadcasts will be transmitted from Virginia and will include news, sports, movies and educational programmes. They will be aimed at the young audience in Arab countries. But experts on the region have questioned whether the effort will draw enough viewers to justify the expense. Audiences in the Middle East are generally sceptical about America and have not responded well to other US government efforts to improve America's image in the region. Date Posted: 2/6/2004 |