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The Layalina Review

VOL. V NO. 4, January 30-February 12, 2009

Arab Media Progress

Muhammad Ayish, writing in The National, argues that Arab media is transitioning from "centralized, politically-conscious and state-controlled planning to market-inspired management," becoming "a viable communications industry."

Ayish adds that "media can be an instrument of national integration and cultural development in addition to having a market-orientated role…The underlying value of media industries is not financial or technological, but intrinsically social." As such, Ayish judges the Arab Media Outlook 2008-2012 to be "outstanding" but overtly financial in its analysis.

The eighth annual Arab Journalism Award has received a record 3,113 entries for the 13 award categories, a rise of 19% over the previous year according to a press release on AMEInfo. Maryam Bin Fahad, Executive Director of the Dubai Press Club, said that the increase was a "major milestone."

Of the entries, which will be trimmed down to a shortlist by April, 32% were from Egypt, followed by Saudi Arabia with 10%, Kuwait with 7%, the UAE with 6%, and Lebanon with 4%. The categories with the most entries were investigative journalism and press interviews.

In Saudi Arabia, two developments will help to enrich television coverage and expand the impact of programming. Al-Insaniya, claiming to be the world's first satellite channel focused on issues of deprivation and poverty, has recently been launched in Riyadh, reports Shalid Ali Khan for the Saudi Gazette.

Dr. Hassan Alwan Oudha, Al-Insaniya's General Manager, claims that the channel "is the first such channel launched from Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom of Humanity, aimed at serving underprivileged people in the Arab World." The channel's studios, based in Cairo, Riyadh and Jeddah, have already recruited a staff of 200 people.

Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Culture Information (MOCI) has also announced, via a PR Newswire press release, an effort to transform and modernize the kingdom's broadcasting.

MOCI has purchased 21 AM radio transmitters, 40 FM radio transmitters, and 36 TV transmitters from Harris Corporation, "to allow for the broadcast of audio and TV programs terrestrially throughout the kingdom." The TV transmitters will also serve as a "critical element" of Saudi Arabia's upgrade of its television infrastructure.

MOCI currently owns four TV channels (operating both terrestrially and via satellite) and four radio channels (operating in both FM and AM frequency bands).

Despite these developments, the Arab media landscape has also suffered recently as the global economic downturn starts to bite, writes Al-Arabiya's Courtney Radsch. The Arabic daily Assawt has published its last edition, and is "a victim of the financial crisis that has battered the local economy," according to editor-in-chief Yussef al-Sumait.

Assawt's demise follows the temporary shutdown of Lebanon's English-language Daily Star, which was saved after a settlement with Standard Chartered Bank.

Dr. Nabil Dajani, professor of communications at the American University of Beirut concludes, "The newspapers in the Arab world are facing a serious crisis, circulation is going down badly, you don't have many people reading newspapers, and limited advertising."

Dajani added that the lack of computers and internet access in the Arab world also poses a problem for publishers who may want to follow the financial models of their Western counterparts.