As Fatah shuts down al-Jazeera in the West Bank, other anxious administrations are cracking down on Middle East media
A Good Comment
By Brian Whitaker
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 16 July 2009
".... The Arafat conspiracy theorists were given a boost on Tuesday when Farouk Kaddoumi, secretary-general of Fatah's central committee, claimed to have minutes of a meeting in which two senior Palestinians – Mahmoud Abbas (who replaced Arafat as president) and security chief Mohammed Dahlan – supposedly sat down with the Israelis and Americans and discussed Arafat's impending murder.....
The reaction from Fatah's establishment has been entirely predictable. Instead of doing the sensible thing and challenging Kaddoumi to produce his evidence, they have banned al-Jazeera – one of several TV channels that broadcast his remarks – from operating in the West Bank. Apart from being an infringement of free speech, this can only reinforce the belief of conspiracy theorists that something is being covered up.
What we see here, though, is also part of a much wider Arab problem – of leaders who can't adjust to a new era of transparency in which their actions are liable to be scrutinised and questioned as never before. The banning of al-Jazeera in the West Bank is just one example over the last few days of rearguard actions by Arab governments against this loss of control.
On Tuesday it emerged that a virtually unknown amateur poet in Egypt had been sentenced to three years in jail for writing verses that "insulted" President Hosni Mubarak (one of the offending lines said: "You made people feel confused and lost").
A Good Comment
By Brian Whitaker
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 16 July 2009
".... The Arafat conspiracy theorists were given a boost on Tuesday when Farouk Kaddoumi, secretary-general of Fatah's central committee, claimed to have minutes of a meeting in which two senior Palestinians – Mahmoud Abbas (who replaced Arafat as president) and security chief Mohammed Dahlan – supposedly sat down with the Israelis and Americans and discussed Arafat's impending murder.....
The reaction from Fatah's establishment has been entirely predictable. Instead of doing the sensible thing and challenging Kaddoumi to produce his evidence, they have banned al-Jazeera – one of several TV channels that broadcast his remarks – from operating in the West Bank. Apart from being an infringement of free speech, this can only reinforce the belief of conspiracy theorists that something is being covered up.
What we see here, though, is also part of a much wider Arab problem – of leaders who can't adjust to a new era of transparency in which their actions are liable to be scrutinised and questioned as never before. The banning of al-Jazeera in the West Bank is just one example over the last few days of rearguard actions by Arab governments against this loss of control.
On Tuesday it emerged that a virtually unknown amateur poet in Egypt had been sentenced to three years in jail for writing verses that "insulted" President Hosni Mubarak (one of the offending lines said: "You made people feel confused and lost").
....In Jordan, for instance, the main front-page "news" every single day is what the king did yesterday.
The Arab League has also sought to hold back the tide with its Satellite Broadcasting Charter. Issued last year, mainly at the instigation of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, it was widely viewed as a last-ditch attempt to assert control over the medium, and it will almost certainly fail.
Sooner or later, Arab leaders will have to recognise that they can no longer dictate what can or cannot be said in public. Increasingly, their actions and decisions will be held up to the light...... In some countries politicians manage to adapt, but for the current generation of Arab leaders the shock of the new media may prove just too much to bear."
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