Arab TV’s Mixed Signals

Middle East Policy, June 2001, Washington, D.C.
Jordan Times, May 9, 2001, Amman

Last year, a Syrian journalist predicted that in 50 years’ time, historians will view Qatar’s wildly popular Al-Jazeera satellite channel as one of the most important political developments in the Arab world at the end of the 20th century. Few doubt that the 24-hour pan-Arab news channel has revolutionized the news industry in a region where turgid, heavily censored television news is standard fare. Since its launch five years ago, Al-Jazeera has emerged as the region’s most influential news channel, due in large measure to its uncensored news programs and debates that continually enrage thin-skinned Arab rulers. The response by the Western press has been gushing: Earlier this year, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman claimed that the station is "not only the biggest media phenomenon to hit the Arab world since the advent of television, it also is the biggest political phenomenon."

While much of this praise is richly deserved, such glowing analyses exaggerate Al-Jazeera’s true impact on Arab politics and gloss over some troubling details concerning the station’s financing. Writing in a recent issue of the quarterly journal Middle East Policy (produced by the Washington-based Middle East Policy Council), University of Tennessee adjunct professor of political science Louay Y. Bahry offers some sobering perspectives on the Al-Jazeera phenomenon.

Founded in 1996 on a one-time grant of $137 million from Emir Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, Al-Jazeera was expected to gain financial independence within five years. However, the station has failed in this regard and still depends heavily on subsidies from the Qatari state. Thanks partly to its hard-hitting reporting, Bahry explains, Al-Jazeera has failed to capture much of the region’s government-dominated advertising market for satellite television. Both the Saudi and Kuwaiti governments, for instance, have discouraged local companies from buying airtime on Al-Jazeera. Commercials are sparse, constituting only 40 to 45 minutes of any given 24-hour programming cycle.

"In reality, al-Jazeera still stands on somewhat shaky ground," writes Bahry. "It remains completely dependent, financially and otherwise, on the emir of Qatar, Hamad Bin Khalifah Al Thani, and his foreign minister, Hamad Bin Jasim Bin Jabr Al Thani. Any serious domestic political change in Qatar, such as instability in the ruling family or even a change of government — though currently unexpected, always a possibility — would impact al-Jazeera." Perhaps as a result of this dependence, the station, normally lauded for its uncompromising editorial edge, has proved notably soft in its coverage of Qatari affairs and of the ruling al-Thani family in particular.

The station’s true political impact is also open to question. In a sharp critique of Al-Jazeera and other new pan-Arab satellite television stations (many of which have been inspired by Al-Jazeera), Jordanian syndicated columnist Rami Khouri contends that such stations have not ushered in "a new era of political change and accountability," as many Western commentators believe. In his article "Arab Satellite TV: Promoting Democracy or Autocracy?" appearing on May 9 in the liberal English-language daily Jordan Times, Khouri argues that while satellite television programs and their boisterous debates can be entertaining, they don’t affect decision making in the highly authoritarian environment of the Middle East. "[M]edia activities in our region are still totally divorced from the political processes," argues Khouri. "An Arab viewer who might change his or her mind because of something they saw on television has no effective means of translating their views into political action or impact. For the political decision-making systems in most Arab countries are pre-configured to maintain a pro-government, centrist majority that allows more and more debate and discussion of important issues, but maintains real decision-making in the hands of small elite groups…."

But perhaps such a standard is too high. While Al-Jazeera is no substitute for participatory democracy, the station has certainly provided a popular outlet for a diverse range of ideas and opinions. Perhaps even more important, it has elevated the quality of journalism — and television news in particular—in the Arab world. Forced to compete with Al-Jazeera’s popular coverage, private and government-owned channels have begun to liberalize their content, finding it difficult to attract viewers with the dull and formulaic programming of old. In the long run, this healthy competition will grant Arab viewers a greater wealth of perspectives by which to make informed judgments and reveal state censorship to be increasingly anachronistic and obsolete.