Phil Taylor's papers
|
BACK TO : PROPAGANDA AND THE GWOT Year 3 - 2004 (mainly Iraq)
Freedom of Information is ... the Touchstone of all the Freedoms from RFE/RL RADIO FREE EUROPE/ RADIO LIBERTY RFE/RL Media Matters Freedom of Information is ... the Touchstone of all the Freedoms. 29 March 2004, Volume 4, Number 6 MAKING TELEVISION GOOD ENOUGH TO WATCHIN IRAQ By Catherine A. FitzpatrickMedia critic Marshall McLuhan once described television as a "cool" medium that reduces people, passions, and places to the dimensions of a small blue screen. Yet in ways McLuhan likely never imagined when he first conceived of the "global village" that the passions and prejudices incited by biased media coverage can be fiery indeed, as the recent bloodshed in Kosova illustrates. Control of the media is hotly contested, especially in conflict zones, where -- as was once said by journalists covering the Balkans wars -- "television is the continuation of war by other means." In Iraq, the stakes are high as various large media projects that have faltered in the past year are reorganized. Television will be a crucial factor for binding together the country when sovereignty passes to the Iraqis this summer, and will someday be the centerpiece of efforts to conduct free elections there. Veteran broadcaster Stephen Claypole is chairman of the London-based broadcast consulting company DMA-Media, Ltd. Last year, he served as temporary international media adviser to what was then known as the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance in Iraq, bringing to the job his previous experience in Kosova. Like other Westerners and Iraqis brought to the project, Claypole was initially filled with enthusiasm at the prospect of helping Iraqi television get back on its feet with the creation of the Iraq Media Network (IMN). "At the moment the statue of [former Iraqi President] Saddam [Hussein] came down, the trucks started rolling in from Amman and satellite TV became a boom industry, one of the few success stories," he told "RFE/RL Media Matters" in a recent interview. At least 30-35 percent of Iraqi homes now have satellite dishes, which are sold at bazaars for $100. Yet the original IMN project was plagued with difficulties, from mismatched equipment and delivery delays to such challenges as run-ins with a shady character pretending to be a "director-general" and offering "protection," Claypole recalls. "The whole issue of broadcasting is symptomatic of the complete shambles of the postwar preparations," says Claypole. Aside from technical problems, broadcasting suffered from too much effort by the authorities of the U.S.-led coalition to exercise "spin control" and manage the news, he said. The project wound up serving more as the voice of the occupation than the voice of the Iraqi people. In January, the Melbourne-based Harris Corporation was awarded a one-year, $96 million contract from the Pentagon to develop and operate the Iraq Media Network. The company will equip two national radio channels and two national television channels -- one for entertainment and one for news -- and will be assisted by Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International and Al Fawares, a Kuwaiti company with Iraqi ownership. A good portion of the budget will have to go to security for the studios, which will be inside the "Green Zone," and for the transmitters outside it. The new management and infusion of funds could mean the project will get on a sounder footing. Claypole is hoping for its success, but remains somewhat skeptical. "If the IMN continues to be a mouthpiece for the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and the Americans, it will have a very low audience. But if the intention is to transmogrify it into a public-service broadcaster for Iraq [that is] guided by an independent board and system of governance, it might pick up a substantial audience," he said. "But it will always be tainted by having been once the voice of the CPA." Claypole believes a great deal of training will be needed for broadcasters and that editorial content will need a "huge amount of work." Although many questions have been raised about the effectiveness of the so-called Marshal Plan of Advice given to the former Soviet Union in the form of seminars and technical assistance during the 1990s, Claypole says a lot of funding should be invested in training. "You need to create an Iraqi management team that will understand the advantages of being independent and promoting freedom of expression and liberty," he said. For that, the right influential people must be put into place. One veteran of media regulation who is determined to help bring about professional and independent media in Iraq is Simon Haselock. After tours of duty in Kosova and Bosnia-Herzegovina working to change a climate of hate-filled airwaves, Haselock was named director of media development and regulation with the CPA in Iraq this year. In a recent interview with "RFE/RL Media Matters," Haselock denied that he would serve as any kind of censor. Instead, he said, he will attempt to get a public-service broadcasting station up and running, using the old Iraqi state-run terrestrial station as a foundation. "We do not want the future Iraqi broadcasting to be a state organ. We want to make it a public service," Haselock said, contrasting the type of state broadcasting manipulated by the Hussein regime with government-funded public broadcasting in the vein of the BBC. Among Haselock's first tasks is to help create a governing body for the media that will be representative of the audience. Unlike Bosnia, where he had greater control, the Iraq project will be run differently. "What we learned from other places is that you want to use the local people at very early stages. You shouldn't run it for them, and then hand it over to them at some stage," he said. L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civil administrator for Iraq, announced on 24 March that a new Iraqi Communications and Media Commission (ICMC) will soon be in place to regulate publicly owned media and to create a Public-Broadcasting Service (PBS). Haselock anticipates that some 18 Iraqis will be selected from about 30 nominees -- nine for the ICMC and nine for the PBS. The selection process will be a "three-way choice" between the CPA, the Governing Council, and its media committee. Asked about the composition of the ICMC, Haselock deflected concerns that the process could be as politicized and contentious as was the recent drafting of the interim Iraqi Constitution. "The criteria are very strict. They will be proven people of impeccable reputation, recognized stature," he said. The commissioners will not necessarily be broadcasters and will not be chosen on the basis of ethnic or religious affiliations, but on the basis of their public standing. The job of the ICMC will be to regulate the frequency spectrum and to issue broadcasting licenses. Like many things in Iraq, the media effort appears to be rushing to closure before the 30 June deadline for the handover of power. After that, Haselock has been asked to remain as an adviser and is considering that possibility. He also anticipates that a tender will be mounted for two commercial television stations that will be formed to compete with the PBS. Meanwhile, what are Iraqis watching now? By the CPA's own admission, in a seven-city survey conducted in October by the U.S. State Department, only 36 percent of those polled about their viewing habits said they rely on the CPA-sponsored IMN for news, although 62 percent said they get their news from local television. (See the complete survey at 
media_habits_survey.html.) Among Iraqis with satellite access (estimated at one-third of those polled), the pan-Arab channel Al-Arabiyah (37 percent) and the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera (26 percent) were the networks of choice for news. But among those Iraqis with only local television, 59 percent said they depend on the IMN for news about their country, the CPA reported. Western commentators generally view the content of the Arabic stations, which is often critical of the occupation, as biased. In February, the Iraqi Governing Council barred Al-Jazeera from covering its official activities because it had allegedly "shown disrespect to prominent religious and national figures," AP reported 31 January. The reason was a show called "Israeli Infiltration In Iraq" that claimed that IGC members and political figures are being influenced by Israel. Al-Arabiyah was also banned from IGC events after airing an audiotape purportedly of Hussein urging Iraqis to resist the U.S.-led occupation. The twin topics of the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq are endless, deeply felt subjects for Arabic television, which experts say has become much better at spot-news coverage and open debate than it was a decade ago. But it is still not covering most Arab governments with quite the same critical eye it has for the West. Avi Jorish, a Middle East scholar writing for the "Middle East Quarterly" (Winter 2004), is concerned not only about anti-Americanism, but about the celebration of radical Islam on some pan-Arabic television that can encourage violence. Al-Manar -- the official television station of the Lebanon-based Hizballah, a terrorist group supported by Iran -- is undermining the Iraqi occupation throughout the region, Jorish says. The station's satellite broadcasts provide heavy coverage of the Palestinian intifada and Islamist resistance in general. Jorish obtained an interview with Al-Manar officials in which they admitted that they cover and promote Palestinian suicide-bombings as acts of martyrdom, while not actually directing them. An Al-Manar graphics specialist told Jorish that music videos are used to "help people on the way to committing what you in the West call a suicide mission." Al-Manar was the first station to broadcast the canard that Jews stayed home from work and survived the 11 September 2001 World Trade Center attacks. And, since the military campaign in Iraq, it has repeatedly broadcast people chanting the slogan "Death to America." Haselock and others knowledgeable about the media scene in Iraq say that while the audience for Al-Manar might be growing in the Arab world, viewership in Iraq is low. The CPA's figures put it at 1 percent among those who have access to satellite television. While a law on television and regulations for satellite television will soon be drafted, the ICMC obviously cannot control stations outside of Iraq. Asked about the problem of inciting hatred and violence on some Arabic stations, as well as the anti-American rhetoric, Haselock commented: "Why should we do anything about it? We should be concentrating on whether there is plurality. TV should be good enough so that people want to watch it. The only way to take on the Al-Jazeeras is to produce good TV." The United States recently launched the Arab-language satellite-television station Al-Hurra to battle for hearts and minds in the Arab world, mindful of how much anti-American sentiment is bolstered and fostered by television. Although the kind of regulation that Haselock did in Bosnia is credited by press freedom monitors such as Freedom House with removing hatred and gross bias from Bosnian television, Haselock believes that his function in Iraq -- and that of the new commission -- will not so much be to regulate heavily as to create an environment in which public and commercial broadcasting can flourish. He likens the job to establishing the field demarcations and rules for a soccer match. "You need to set rules, which both teams have agreed to, and both teams must accept an arbiter and the consequences if people transgress rules," he reasoned. Groups like the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) are more immediately concerned now with securing the safety of the players on the field. Twenty-one journalists have been killed in the line of duty since the cessation of hostilities, including a sharp spike in the last few weeks. Two Al-Arabiyah journalists were killed by U.S. troops in an incident at a checkpoint on 18 March. The same day, a journalist for the CPA-backed Diyala TV was killed and several others injured when unknown assailants fired on a company bus in Baqouba. The CPJ says that journalists face attacks on their hotels, deliberate shootings for their reporting, carjackings and hold-ups, and random incidents related to working in a war zone. On 24 March, an Iraqi translator working for "Time" magazine was shot and severely injured in what "The New York Times" described as "the latest in a series of attacks on Iraqis working for Western news organizations." Joel Campagna, Middle East expert at the CPJ, says that while his organization has called Iraq "the most dangerous place in the world" for journalists,Iraqi reporters have made an impressive comeback after years of being shackled by oppressive censorship. While satellite television is booming, terrestrial television is also very influential, Campagna told "RFE/RL Media Matters," especially taking into account reports of viewers in various regions of Iraq and throughout the region. He also noted that there is an explosion of newspapers,from professional dailies to extremely partisan magazines and tabloids -- papers that Haselock says will be more difficult to regulate than television. The drafting of the new media law is being closely watched by many foreign and domestic experts and by journalists in Iraq. A key issue will be whether insult and libel will be a crime punishable by imprisonment, and whether prosecutors will be entitled to file libel cases to defend public officials. Havelock and groups like the CPJ favor the liberal international norm of making libel a civil offense, but they can only make recommendations to the Iraqis themselves, who must draft and live with the law. Catherine A. Fitzpatrick is the editor of "RFE/RL (Un)Civil Societies." |