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BACK TO : PROPAGANDA AND THE GWOT Year 3 - 2004 (mainly Iraq)
Al-Hurra draws mixed reactions after 7 months on air by Will Rasmussen  #
Daily Star, Friday, August 06, 2004 Al-Hurra draws mixed reactions after 7 months on air viewers suspect US bias By Will Rasmussen BEIRUT: When the US Congress poured $62 million into a new project to broadcast news from America across the Arab world, it likely had in mind areas like Rass an-Nabaa. The black, red, and white flags of the Arab nationalist group Al-Mourabitoun ripple lightly in the summer breeze along the narrow and dusty streets of this Sunni neighborhood in the heart of Beirut. When the corner stores close for the evening and residents trickle home from evening prayers, an increasing number will tune their televisions to Al-Hurra, a seven-month-old station which beams American-flavored news from Washington to 22 Arab countries. Despite widespread bitterness toward US policy here, reactions to Al-Hurra are not entirely negative. "I like it," said Ahmed Mahmoud, 27, as he lounged in the district's barber shop. "I didn't know it was American." Most of those who said they watched the channel applauded its documentaries on subjects such as the pyramids in Egypt or elephants in Africa, but Al-Hurra's news reports met with more skepticism. "If Americans treated Arabs like they show on Al-Hurra it would be great," said Wadah Youssef, 30, a Syrian who sells chicken at a roadside shop. Youssef said he doesn't believe Al-Hurra tells "the whole truth" about the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Al-Hurra joins Radio Sawa and Hi Magazine, both started after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, on the frontlines of America's effort to improve its image in the Arab world. Beirut, is a crucial testing ground for this effort to project an American voice into a region restive with resentment toward US support for Israel and the invasion of Iraq. If the station does not catch on here, analysts said, its future may be dim in the rest of the Arab world. "Beirut is probably more blase than other places because it is so exposed to so many trends and is itself so trendy," said Magda Abu Fadil, the director of The Institute for Professional Journalists at Lebanese American University. Abu Fadil said the station will need "a good three to five years" before its effect can be judged. There are no accurate statistics on viewership here, although a recent poll conducted Ipsos-Stat, found that 40 percent of Lebanese adults over 15 watched Al-Hurra during a week-long period in April, the second highest number in the Arab world behind Kuwait, where 44 percent of adults watched the station. In Jordan, 37 percent tuned in during the beginning of April, in Syria 29 percent, in the UAE 19 percent, and in Egypt 18 percent, according to the research. The same survey found that 53 percent of Al-Hurra viewers in the Arab world considered the news "very or somewhat reliable." Designed to provide an alternative to Al-Jazeera and other Arabic satellite stations, Al-Hurra ("The free one") broadcasts 24-hours a day on the same satellites used by the most popular Arabic channels. Al-Hurra and Al-Jazeera occasionally differ in terminology, with Al-Hurra referring to multinational troops in Iraq as "coalition forces" rather than "occupation forces," the preferred label for Arab broadcasters. Unlike Arab stations, scholars here said Al-Hurra does not properly address Palestinian grievances and will likely alienate many Arab viewers. Sateh Nouriddine, a media expert at Beirut's As-Safir newspaper, said Al-Hurra's coverage of the July 11 bombing attack on Tel Aviv, in which he said the station was too quick to dismiss the bombing as a "terrorist" attack, illustrated its detachment from Arab public opinion. "The mood in the Middle East is not against suicide attacks in Israel," said Nouriddine, who predicted Al-Hurra would shut down if US President George W. Bush is defeated by John Kerry in the upcoming election. Nabil Dajani, a professor and media expert at The American University of Beirut, criticized Al-Hurra for portraying the Palestinians as "the ones doing the killing" and Israel as reacting to terrorism. The station should do more, he said, to examine Israeli oppression. "It's a waste of time and money," Dajani said of Al-Hurra, which he believes Arabs only watch "by accident." Mouafac Harb, Al-Hurra's news director, said his station "provides the facts" on the conflict and doesn't try to play on the emotions of its audience. Harb criticized Arab media for unnecessarily rousing anti-American sentiment by "going out of their way" to report, for example, that helicopters used by Israel are made in America. Al-Hurra's more casual viewers aren't as troubled by the station's politics as some of the experts. "Of course it's biased," said Fadi Al-Qader, 22, a student hanging out with friends in Rass an-Nabaa. Qader said he enjoys watching talk-shows on Al-Hurra a few evenings a week "for passing time." To many on the streets, Al-Hurra's programs on topics such as American actors are eye-catching and refreshing. "I like watching the cultural programs but not the news," said Maher Qoteish, 22, a Syrian who works at a gasoline company and lives in Basta Tahta, a Beirut neighborhood with a mix of Sunni and Shiite residents. Qoteish said Al-Hurra's cultural programming provides "better explanations and more details" than Arab stations. "It's something new and different because it comes from the US," said Hassan al-Bahry, 24, a security guard who moved with his family from South Lebanon to Beirut after the 1982 Israeli invasion. For student Qader, however, politics aren't grounds for judging a TV station - he felt all media outlets in the Arab world peddle a particular agenda. "It doesn't matter if you watch Al-Hurra or something else," he said. Copyright (c) 2004 The Daily Star |