The loss of credibility, among the challenges of journalism
Journalism in Arabic today was the title chosen by APEAE to analyse the challenges facing Arab journalism in the coverage of the humanitarian crisis, the advantages and disadvantages of digitalisation and the training of Arab journalists, among other issues.
The difficulty of reporting on conflicts such as the war between Israel and Gaza because the international press is not allowed access, the current distrust of journalism due to the existing polarisation and the digital inequality that exists between some countries and others were highlighted. However, when it comes to reporting, it was stressed that the problems are the same for all journalists.
Taking part in the debate, moderated by journalist Elisa Loncan, were Tarek Khedr, president of APEAE and professor at the URJC; Daniel Peral, former TVE correspondent in Jerusalem and author of the book Visit Palestine; Javier Fernández Arribas, director of Atalayar and president of the International Press Club; and Pablo Sapag, professor at the UCM and author of the book Syria Perspective.
Osama Alsaeid Kortam, director of the Egyptian newspaper Al-Akhbar, was also scheduled to participate in the meeting, but was unable to attend due to the imminent ceasefire agreement in Lebanon, which was announced while this event was taking place.
Professor Sapag pointed out that this meeting inaugurated a series of APEAE events with the aim of ‘projecting a different image of our countries, which are always in the news because of conflicts’, and added that the Arab media are pluralistic, have varied agencies and there are many sources to turn to.
The difficulty of reporting
Before introducing the debate, and asking the participants how the conflicts in Gaza, Israel, Syria, the West Bank, etc. are covered, Sapag gave a brief overview of the history of journalism in the Arabic language, highlighting four clear capitals: Beirut, Damascus, Cairo and Baghdad, and he went back to 1828 to date the first newspaper printed in Arabic in Egypt, a late date, he said, compared to La gaceta de Madrid of 1666, due, among other things, to the difficulty, due to its own peculiarities, of bringing the Arabic language to the press.
For his part, Tarek Khedr stressed that the association he presides, born in 2008, embraces all the sensibilities and tendencies of the Arab world, and had a memory for the 190 Palestinian journalists who have died to date, ‘never in history had there been this massacre’, he stressed, journalists who are the only ones, he said, who can transmit something of what is happening in the face of the blockade on both sides.
Fernández Arribas referred to the fact that the global situation we are experiencing, ‘if we don't have a third world war, it is similar to it’, and warned that behind the development and progress we are experiencing, we are creating an authoritarian populism that threatens democracies. ‘What is happening in the world affects us all, and from a journalistic point of view it is complicated to exercise it with rigour and distance, because sometimes journalists seem like militants’, said the director of Atalayar, who said that one of the main problems of journalism is the lack of credibility, at a time ‘when journalism is more necessary than ever’.
Daniel Peral denounced the fact that the challenge of information is not only in Arab journalism, but also in Western journalism, because neither Israel nor Palestine are being allowed to enter the area to report on what is happening in Gaza. For the former correspondent in Jerusalem, the responsibility to enter or not should be the responsibility of each journalist, of each media outlet.
In the same vein, Fernández Arribas stressed how information and journalists (as we saw with the kidnappings in Syria) are used and described it as unacceptable that the international press is not allowed to enter Gaza, but added that it was also unacceptable that, for example, in Madrid, we accept press conferences without questions. ‘There is a lack of information and for some time now, each side has been using its information as a weapon’, he said.
Professor Sapag was very critical, saying that the Western media despise the Arab media, considering that they are all governmental, when, he said, this is not the case. ‘The Arab media themselves have the challenge of breaking with this image,’ he said.
Digitalisation
Regarding the risks and advantages of digitalisation in the Arab media, Fernández Arribas pointed out that the evolution of these media from paper to internet has been the same as in the West; Daniel Peral referred to the Arab Spring, recalling that it was then thought that the great change would be brought by Twitter, by freedom, but that this was not the case; while Professor Sapag alluded to the great differences that exist between Arab countries, since in some cases digitalisation does not reach 30%. The professor also stressed the importance of knowing how the media ecosystem works and denounced the lack of trust in the Arab media.
Elisa Loncon, for her part, launched her final reflection and pointed out that if we understood that differences are less than affinities and that the countries of the Mediterranean have common roots, conflicts would diminish. Finally, she encouraged the students to travel ‘because nationalism and separatism can be cured by travelling’, she said.
Throughout this meeting, there was interaction with the students, who said that they do read newspapers, despite what is said about young people; that social networks are important, because sometimes you can find out about certain facts that the media do not give you because of the videos or photos that people upload, and they talked about the role they play in countries where there is strong repression or a lack of freedom of expression. They also highlighted the loss of trust and credibility of some media, because the sources are not reliable either, and they spoke of the need for geolocation.