CAIRO, Feb. 15, 2008 (MENASSAT) – "A mysterious, retroactive text, repressing freedoms," is how regional and international organizations have described a charter recently adopted by the Arab Ministers of Information. Entitled 'Suggested Guidelines and Principles for Organizing Sattelite TV in the Arab World,' it aims to do away with the margin of freedom that exists in the world of pan-Arab sattelite TV today. Of the twenty-two Arab countries, only tiny Qatar showed some reservation about the new rules.

The controversial document consists of 18 articles, and is the result of six months work by a committee of academics, some of whom have previously defended laws restricting journalistic freedoms in Egypt and demanded censorship on e-media.

Arab values

At Egypt's demand, the proposed charter was added to the agenda of a special summit of Arab Information ministers which started in Cairo last Tuesday. As soon as it was signed, the charter was sent to the various Information Ministries and concerned parties in the Arab countries and the Arab associations working under the Arab League.

In signing the charter, countries agree that apply its content to all existing and future agreements with TV stations, including those established in so-called "free zones."

It was agreed that all satellite TV should abide to the following conditions:

– not to offend the leaders or national and religious symbols in the Arab world;
– not to damage social harmony, national unity, public order or traditional values;
– to conform with the religious and ethical values of Arab society and take account of its family structure;
– to refrain from broadcasting anything which calls into question God, the monotheistic-religions, the prophets, sects or symbols of the various religious communities; and
– to protect Arab identity from the harmful effects of globalization.

The charter comes complete with sanctions in case any of the rules are violated. These start with a simple warning to the station in question, before graduating to the confiscation of material and equipment, financial and ultimately the permanent cancellation of the station's permit.

As an afterthought, the document also mentions "the citizen's right to knowledge."

E-media are next

According to Arab media sources, a plan to set up a regional commission for Arab media will be presented during the next meeting of the Arab Ministers of Information in June, with a view of controlling the implementation of the agreement and to receive complaints about breaches of any of its articles. Some sources also indicate that the Arab league is working on a similar document to control all kinds of electronic media.

Egypt's government adopted the charter – retroactively – during a meeting that lasted an hour and a half, which is more than the time the Arab ministers spent on studying the document.

On Wednesday, Egypt's Information Minister Anas al-Faqhi said  on Egyptian TV that the charter was immediately sent to Egypt's Media Production City and Nile Sat company (from where dozens of satellite TV's broadcast), to be added to the existing broadcasting agreements.  He also said that the charter would apply to any future agreements with satellite TV channels wishing to use Egypt as a headquarters, open a bureau there or even have a correspondent there.

A week earlier, officials in the Egyptian ministry had already asked Media Production City not to give a permit for a trial period to Egyptian al-Hayat channel, which was supposed to launch its programs last January 18th, on the excuse of waiting for new instructions. The ministry also stopped the transmission of "Seaa bi Seaa" (Hour by Hour) on as-Saa TV, which was to have started broadcasting on February 3rd.

This charter is also expected to affect the margins the BBC's new Arabic-language channel, which is scheduled to start broadcasting on March 11.

On top of this, the Egyptian government is planning to issue a national "information law," further restricting the right of citizens and journalists to gather information. Under the new law, the right of journalists to gather information would become a privilege rather than a right.

Reactions

Many organizations have already issued statements concerning the charter, including Egypt's Arab Network for Human Rights Information (HRinfo), which described the charter as "restricting the freedom to exchange information and imposing tough restrictions on the satellite broadcasting freedom in the Arab world under flimsy and useless claims, aiming to block the right of the Arab citizen to knowledge based on a diversity of sources and visions."

HRinfo also mentioned that the adoption of the charter by Egypt and Saudi Arabia comes at a time when both countries "explicitly reject freedom of speech and opinion, and deploy all their efforts to shut down the voices calling for democracy and reform."

The Paris-based media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders issued a statement saying that, "These regulations are not only repressive but also retrograde. Instead of working to relax the often very rigid press laws in force in their countries, the Arab League information ministers have banded together to put pressure on news media that have been annoying them and escaping their control."

The reason for this new policy, according to RSD, is that, "Since their emergence in the region, satellite TV stations have revolutionised the news media in the Arab world. Unlike the national TV stations that have to censor themselves, stations such as Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya are forums for free speech in which the peoples of the Arab world can hear their grievances expressed."

Moussa

RSF called on the Arab League''s secretary-general, Amr Moussa to "intercede with its member states and convince them to rescind [the charter.]"

However, Moussa has previously declared in a message read by his deputy that adopting and discussing this charter among the Arab Ministers of Information is a good example of the spread of Arab teamwork to cover all the areas of collective Arab concern in a way reflecting the necessity of collective Arab efforts.

Only tiny Qatar, the home of Al-Jazeera, showed some reservations about the charter, talking about the necessity to present the charter to its own legislative authorities. But when challenged by the Egyptian Information minister, his Qatari counterpart said his reservations were legal not political.

In the end, the charter was adopted unanimously according to the Arab League’s laws.

Al-Jazeera

Al-Jazeera also issued its own statement, calling the charter "a risk to the freedom of expression in the Arab world. Some of the language contained within the Charter is ambiguous and could be interpreted to actively hinder independent reporting from the region."

Al-Jazeera, which launched in Arabic in 1996, has never refrained from criticizing human rights violations in many Arab countries, including Egypt.

In a clear reference to Al-Jazeera, Dr. Maguy Halawani, a professor at Cairo University and the dean of a private media academy, said that many Arab satellite channels continue to criticize Egypt more than any other country. They present only the negative side, Halawani said, and in doing so they give the Egyptian government an excuse to take  measures against these channels, which she describes as "yellow media."

Binding or not?

Some confusion remains about whether the charter is binding.

One day before its adoption, Kuwaiti Information Minister Sheikh Subah al-Khaled Ahmad al-Subah said the charter is "a pilot and organizing, non-binding document", while his Egyptian counterpart said the day of the adoption that "the charter is binding for all the Arab countries."

The Yemeni Minister, Hassan Lawzi, said that a binding legislation would give many Arab countries freedom from the circle of fear and daunting of the media and cultural multiplicity, "pushing them to walk forward with courage."

And SMS too...

The Egyptian minister assured that the values are the same in all the Arab countries, so there should be no difficulty in explaining the charter's provisions. He also mentioned in passing that censorship will also apply to text messages that are sent by viewers from their cell-phones to be broadcast at the bottom of TV screens.



Also read:

From MENASSAT: Taking Arab media back to the dark ages

From The Economist: How governments handle the news

From Reporters without Borders: Arab League adopts strict rules for satellite TV stations

From ARTICLE 19/IFEX: A major setback to freedom of the press in the region