Hughes Fine-Tunes Her Outreach Efforts

Polls: Al-Arabiya Making Gains

Al-Jazeera Dilemmas

When Technology is Not the Solution

Iraq Faces Brain Drain

Iraqis Address Turmoil through Satire

Political Comedy on the Rise in Egypt

Italian Magazine Apologizes for Cartoon

Mixed Reactions to Tel Aviv Bombing

References

Download PDF version (up to 10MB) Click here to donate Join our e-list! Enter your email below:

Despite an ill-fated debut with a widely criticized "listening tour" of the Middle East, Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes "has quickly advanced her public diplomacy agenda in the 7 months since she took office," suggests the Washington Post. According to the Post, Hughes "has managed to set in motion substantial changes in the ways an often lumbering government bureaucracy reacts to the swirl of news, gossip and rumors that make up today's 24-hour news cycle."

"I am trying to lay the foundation for a dramatically different 21st-century diplomacy," says Hughes. A longtime adviser to President Bush, she stresses that "there is information overload everywhere—a bunch of it wrong, a bunch of it fabricated—and rumors get around the world in an instant on the Internet."

Hughes has introduced a "rapid response" unit that monitors Arabic-language news, distributes early morning summaries, produces instant reports on issues of central concern abroad and makes suggestions to counter negative reports. The Undersecretary has also lifted the government's informal ban on US officials appearing on the Doha-based television news network Al-Jazeera, created a regional spokesman's office in Dubai, issued talking points officials can apply to emerging controversies and facilitated the availability of US ambassadors to give interviews overseas.

Former US ambassador Edward P. Djerejian also notes that public diplomacy alone "cannot carry the whole burden," as policies truly shape the US image. The war in Iraq and the perception that the United States is biased toward Israel in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict are difficult hurdles to overcome, he adds.

Despite "broad consensus [that] we need to improve public diplomacy effectiveness," there is concern that the measures used might not be reliable or quantifiable, says American Foreign Service Association President J. Anthony Holmes.

A collaborative effort by Secretary Hughes, major American companies and the private sector public diplomacy initiative Business for Diplomatic Action (BDA) has published a new World Citizens Guide. The "Guide," reports the British Daily Telegraph, features 16 etiquette tips on how US business employees can help improve America's battered international image." The Telegraph also reports that Business for Diplomatic Action and the State Department are considering issuing the small pamphlet with every US passport. Advice ranges from refraining from bragging and talking politics to listening attentively.

"Surveys consistently show that Americans are viewed as arrogant, insensitive, over-materialistic and ignorant about local values. That, in short, is the image of the Ugly American abroad and we want to change it," explains BDA President Keith Reinhard. "In many parts of the world, America is not getting the benefit of the doubt right now." BDA has already made 200,000 similar guides available for American students abroad and plans to create a more picture-filled "World Citizens Guide" for children or youth visiting foreign countries.

Page up

The latest monthly television ratings of Saudi Arabia by Ipsos Stat, a leading market research company active in the Middle East, show that Al-Arabiya is making further gains over Al-Jazeera as the number one satellite television news outlet in the kingdom. According to March 2006 audience figures, the Saudibacked satellite news channel secured a 27.3% audience rating as the top Arabic-language news channel, compared to 16.7% for its Doha-based competitor.

However, writes Alvin Snyder of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy in a Middle East Times article, Al-Jazeera was in the lead with 29.5% compared to Al-Arabiya's 20%. "Because a viewer may have watched a channel more than once on the previous day, and the ratings are cumulative, the percentages for all channels when added together will exceed 100 percent," he highlights. "A poll reflecting actual viewing will differ from other surveys, such as an earlier Zogby poll, which asked respondents to name their favorite channel."

Al-Arabiya Director of Corporate Communications Jihad Ali Ballout said that controversial interview topics, a family-oriented morning show and a number of exclusive interviews help explain the channel's growing success. Snyder argues that "the competitive ranking for Al-Jazeera, especially in Saudi Arabia, is important to its planned English all-news channel [Al-Jazeera International] that may debut this summer, after several delays." The Saudi market is key as close to 70% of Arab media's advertising revenue originates there, he adds.

Snyder also contends that "in the Middle East, some believe that the novelty of Al-Jazeera, which was the first to challenge state-run television channel monopolies in the Middle East, is wearing thin," while others find that the channel "is at a competitive disadvantage" due to a Saudi government-imposed ban. Above all, he writes, "competing channels in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Middle East are but a fraction of the competitive forces that Al-Jazeera International would be subject to in the United States, with its American idols, well-entrenched broadcast news networks, cable channels and more than 1,000- strong, local television news broadcasts on stations throughout the country."

Page up

Reuters reports that Egyptian security forces detained the Cairo bureau chief of Al-Jazeera on April 27 for allegedly reporting "false" news during his coverage of the Sinai bombings that occurred days before. Hussein Abdel Ghani, according to the Doha-based satellite television news channel, was released later that evening on a bail of 10,000 Egyptian pounds ($1,745). The journalism advocacy group Reporters Sans Frontières and the Egyptian Journalists Union condemned the arrest, along with Egypt's Kefaya opposition movement.

"The prosecutor ordered Hussein's arrest pending investigations into charges of broadcasting false information, which the authorities said was aimed at spreading chaos in the country," reported Al-Jazeera on its website and in major news bulletins. Abdel Ghani reported on April 26 that militants had attacked a police checkpoint in Eastern Egypt, a report denied by the Interior Ministry, explains Reuters. Abdel Ghani in turn denied the charges held against him.

In a recent commentary for The National Interest, Marc Lynch discusses the links between Al-Qaeda, the Arab media and American propaganda. Lynch, who serves as associate professor of political science at Williams College, posits that the relationship between Al-Jazeera, other Arab broadcasters and Al-Qaeda is highly complex. While American policymakers often characterize Al-Jazeera as a mouthpiece for Al-Qaeda because it airs videos from Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, neither Al-Qaeda nor Al-Jazeera is fond of the other, he adds.

Lynch notes that Al-Jazeera frequently airs negative coverage of Al-Qaeda and hosts critics of the organization, while Al-Qaeda often denounces the channel because "Al-Jazeera is hardly a paragon of Islamist advocacy: Many of its leading news presenters and talk-show hosts are beautiful, unveiled women and many of its popular figures are determinedly iconoclastic." Many of these same videos are aired by Western and other networks worldwide.

Further complicating the picture, "an evergrowing panorama of satellite television stations now ensures that the norm is diversity and competition," writes Lynch. "The average Arab viewer routinely channel surfs among competing news stations like Abu Dhabi TV and Dubai TV, the extreme propaganda of Hizballah's Al-Manar, the mixed entertainment and news of Lebanon's [Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation] LBC and Future TV, the rapidly expanding array of religious programming and the writhing, barelydressed music video vixens of Rotana TV."

In light of the low viewership rates of the US government-funded Arabic television channel Al-Hurra, government officials should encourage inter-Arab debate and appear more frequently on Arab-owned channels to participate in discussions, suggests Lynch. Such activities are key America's "War on Terror," he writes, because "Arab satellite television remains the strongest force today pushing for change in the region and one of the biggest obstacles to Al-Qaeda's agenda of imposing a monolithic Islamic identity."

The London-based weekly Observer reports on the upcoming launch of Al-Jazeera International (AJI), the Arabic-language news channel's Englishlanguage counterpart. While AJI recently hired two senior journalists from Fox News and will host other notable western journalists, The Observer contends that "the prospect of an Arab news channel, beamed directly into American homes alongside CNN and Fox News, could prove an incendiary one…particularly if the tone of its coverage mirrors that of its sister channel." Nigel Parsons, Al-Jazeera International's British managing director, contends that AJI's coverage will lead to a better understanding of the developing world, especially the Middle East.

Page up

Despite technological advances in the Arab world and more liberal coverage of controversial issues, Arab media has so far failed to influence the region's politics. Participants of an April 25 panel discussion on the rise of Arab media detailed the media explosion that has marked the region since the 1990s. Some 180 Arabic-language satellite television stations currently broadcast worldwide, in addition to increased internet access and new radio stations.

"This new media appears to be offering greater liberation, more information and more diversity of news sources," says American University's Edmund Ghareeb. Previously taboo topics such as government corruption, human rights violations, women's rights, and atheism have been discussed widely. "There is no doubt that the new media has broadened the range of debate," he added. "It has lifted the ceilings of discussion. It has brought new issues, new ideas."

Concurring with Ghareeb, Al-Jazeera Senior Producer Rula Dajani argues that the affect of these developments on political culture cannot yet be evaluated. Despite freer speech on new news outlets, television viewers "are being faced with the political culture in the Middle East."

Salameh Nematt, the Washington bureau chief of the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat showed more skepticism toward the seemingly freer discourse in Arab media. While recognizing that governmental reform is debated on satellite television channels, which he considers "the biggest and most important, most influential media in the Arab world," he does not believe they aim to change the Arab mind-set because most are government-owned. "These governments have no interest whatsoever in a free media that could undermine them," he said. "They do it for the sole purpose of discrediting the cause of reform."

"There is no doubt that nothing has exasperated the rulers of many of the Middle Eastern countries and pleased the audiences as much as the new media," says Ghareeb, who also doubts the media will lead to political activism. Meanwhile, Nematt argues that the largest satellite television news stations, such as the Qatari-financed Al-Jazeera and the Saudi-backed Al- Arabiya "are playing more of a destructive role than a constructive role" on the region's political culture.
Page up

Iraq's contemporary tribulations make the headlines of major news day by day. But Iraq's "brain drain," the departure of a large number of educators, intellectuals and skilled professionals, is an important issue that receives far less attention. Iraq's reconstruction efforts are in dire need of educators and professionals, but increasing numbers of doctors, professors, engineers and others are migrating in light of the intense violence wracking the country.

The UK's Daily Telegraph reports that at least 182 academics have been murdered since the 2003 invasion and that in the past four months, 331 school teachers have been killed, while nine medical workers died in a single day in Mosul. As a result of such widespread targeted killings, skilled segments of the population are shrinking as those wealthy enough leave the country.

Many Iraqis, comments the British daily, "believe that the targeting of professionals is part of an orchestrated campaign." According to Isam Kadhem al-Rawi, head of the Association of University Lecturers, removing educated thinkers, militias and political groups will experience less dissent while realizing their political objectives.

Page up

With pen and sketchpad, Iraqi political cartoonists are taking aim at the state of Iraq three years after the fall of Saddam Hussein. "Under Saddam, political cartoons appeared, but they amounted to little more than state propaganda," explains The New York Times. But "With few restrictions on speech now, dozens of newspapers have blossomed in Iraq, and all the major ones seem to run one or two cartoons a day."

However, today's Iraqi cartoonists are deeply cynical, prompting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to call Iraqi cartoons a sign of the population's impatience over long-running negotiations to form a new cabinet.

A cartoon from the conservative Shiite daily Al Bayyna al Jadidah questioned celebrating the third anniversary of the symbolic toppling of a Saddam statue in central Baghdad by US forces. The cartoon's empty boots symbolize the war's soaring toll, which counts close to 2,400 US troops and over 34,000 Iraqi civilians, soldiers and police officers. Other cartoons criticize the lack of political progress in Iraq, the escalation of violence and the role of regional and international actors.

Page up

With censorship still prevalent in Egypt, even one of the Arab world's most popular comics must tread cautiously on stage. A controversial figure, Adel Imam, removed an episode featuring The Big Man, seen to represent President Hosni Mubarak or his son Gamal, for his latest film, The Yacoubian Building. "Simply, we would not have been able to make the movie," he explains to the Washington Post.

Heavy police guard was present during the making of The Terrorist, where Imam plays the lead role of a fugitive assassin who retreats to a family of wealthy Muslims and must hide his aversion to their Western-like lifestyle.

During Algeria's civil war, where radicals assassinated artists and journalists amongst others, Imam brought the dictatorship satire El-Zaim to Algeria. "I wanted to take a stand on this. My wife once said to me, 'Stop, think of our children,'" he said. "Later, when a schoolgirl was killed by shrapnel in a terrorist attack, she said, 'Keep on. Do it for our children.'"

A critic of the increasing religious restrictions in Egypt, Imam says that recent displays of violence between Muslims and Coptic Christians shows that "we are not as tolerant as 40 years ago. Our religious discourse is bad. This is the greatest crisis Egypt faces." Longing for the more relaxed and cosmopolitan Cairo of days gone, Imam says he believes "in social context for movies…We need a new generation that will create such films."

Page up

The editor of an Italian monthly religious magazine linked to the conservative Roman Catholic Opus Dei group apologized for publishing a cartoon of Prophet Mohammad that offended Muslims, reports the Middle East Times.

According to a statement published by Italy's ANSA news agency, Cesare Cavalleri of Studi Cattolici (Catholic Studies) said that he did not intend to upset Muslims and that he was surprised by reactions to the cartoon. "If, contrary to my intentions and those of the author, anyone felt offended in his religious feelings, I freely ask him in a Christian manner for forgiveness," he emphasized.

The cartoon, which appeared in the magazine's March issue, showed Prophet Mohammed among the damned of Dante's Inferno, cut in half for "bringing divisions to society." Cavalleri argued that the cartoon was "interpreted as anti-Islamic when it was a condemnation of the cultural identity crisis of the West."

The pan-Arab daily Asharq Alawsat notes that a minister in Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi's cabinet was forced to resign earlier this year after wearing a T-shirt with a caricature of Mohammad on state television. The incident was blamed for rioting in Libya against Italian interests.

Page up

The state-owned Egyptian daily Al-Gomhuria called that the April 17 suicide bombing that claimed nine victims in Tel Aviv a response to Israeli attacks on Palestinians. In contrast, Al-Ahram, also state-owned, argued that the bombing should be condemned as an act of terror because it targeted civilians and damaged Palestinian interests.

An Al-Gomhuria editorial criticized the US and Israeli efforts to isolate Hamas after it won elections in January and took over the Palestinian cabinet, arguing that "this is why the guerrilla martyrdom operation in the heart of Tel Aviv yesterday [April 17] took place, and all subsequent operations." It is rare for Egyptian state media to give such forceful support to Palestinian militancy against Israel, and in particular to a suicide bombing, emphasizes Ha'aretz. Al-Ahram called the bombing a guerrilla operation, but the editorial argued that the bombing gave Israel a pretext for the use of force and that violence did not serve either side's interests.

[1] Fields, Suzanne. April 24, 2006. "A Nanny Guide to Making Nice." Washington: Washington Times.
Kessler, Glenn. April 19, 2006. "Hughes Tries Fine-Tuning To Improve Public Diplomacy Picture." Washington: Washington Post, A15.
Sherwell, Philip. April 16, 2006. "Speak softly, don't argue and slow down." London: Daily Telegraph.
[2] Snyder, Alvin. April 18, 2006. "Viewpoint: Al-Arabiya as new favorite satellite TV." Middle East Times.
United Press International. April 17, 2006. "Rumsfeld: No US-Style Democracy in Iraq." Washington.
[3] Aljazeera.net. April 27, 2006. "Egypt releases Al-Jazeera journalist." Doha.
Reuters. April 27, 2006. "Jazeera TV says Egypt police detain journalist." Dubai.
Associated Press. April 26, 2006. "Slain Al-Arabiya journalist honored by Neiman Foundation." Cambridge, MA: Boston Globe.
Ackerman, Spencer. April 26, 2006. "Is Al-Jazeera the next PBS? Coming to America." Washington, DC: The New Republic.
The Observer. April 23, 2006. "Fighting Talk as Al-Jazeera Goes Global." London: Guardian.

Lynch, Marc. Spring 2006. "Al-Qaeda's Media Strategies." Washington: The National Interest.
[4] Terzopoulos, Alexia. April 26, 2006. "Arab politics unchanged by freer media." Washington: United Press International.
[5] Poole, Oliver. April 17, 2006. "Killings lead to brain drain from Iraq." Baghdad: Daily Telegraph.
[6] Wong, Edward. April 19, 2006. "Iraqi cartoonists get chance to draw conclusions." Baghdad: The New York Times.
[7] Williams, Daniel. April 24, 2006. "In Egypt, Revival of Political Farce." Cairo: Washington Post.
[8] Middle East Times. April 17, 2006. "Italian Catholic magazine apologizes over new Mohammed cartoon." Rome.
Asharq Alawsat. April 17, 2006. "Italian Editor Apologizes to Muslims." Rome.
[9] BBC. April 18, 2006. "Tel Aviv bombing dismays papers." London.
Bright, Arthur. April 19, 2006. "Israel to forgo military response to bombing." Boston: Christian Science Monitor.

Page up