Daily Star - Arab Journalists Convene In Beirut To Discuss Censorship

BEIRUT: Journalists and authors from across the Arab world convened in Beirut on Friday for a European Union-funded media censorship conference. The SKeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom’s “Censorship on the Media in Arab and Mediterranean” will discuss and construct ways to counter “censorship in all its forms; religious, economic or political,” according to SKeyes President Giselle Khouri.
The European Union has donated more than 1 million euros to SKeyes since its inception two years ago and the head of the EU delegation to Lebanon told assembled ambassadors and international delegates that press freedom was a basic requirement of civilized society.
“The media has the right to freely express every opinion, whatever it is,” Patrick Laurent. “The freedom of the press and the freedom of expression are intricately linked, forming the absolute requirements of a democratic society.”
The two-day conference will see speakers from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt and Tunisia, as well as academics from Italy and France, discuss issues such as cultural censorship, financial monitoring and internet freedom of speech.
Information Minister Tarek Mitri, himself a former journalist, said that Lebanon, while leading the Middle East region in terms of freedom of press expression, still practiced some degree of censorship.
“Freedom of the media and press is safeguarded yet there is a contradiction between what Lebanese see themselves and the facts of media freedom,” he said. “I am looking forward to the day when we can disregard censorship in Lebanon.”
According to the censorship monitor Freedom House, Lebanon ranked 118th in the world in terms of press freedom – 3rd in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region – being labeled as “partly free.”
Laurent said that Lebanon’s press freedom was ahead of many other countries. “Today, Lebanon is clearly distinguished by a total freedom of expression in nearly all subjects, and being the most appropriate climate for debate,” he said.
Although only Israel and Kuwait officially have greater media freedom, Mitri said that much work was needed in order to ensure Lebanese journalistic integrity was upheld.
“In Lebanon we have certain kinds of censorship,” he said. “We are in a country where the freedom of information is consecrated yet what restricts the freedom of media is the absence of autonomy which would allow those involved to practice his job” without interference.
Lebanon officially pre-censors very little media output but, according to Mitri, pressure is exerted through politically orientated media outlets.
Self-censorship, he added, was “putting pressure [on journalists] from political entities.”
Mitri said politicization could be seen in all walks of Lebanese media, particularly exemplified by coverage of the ET409 plane crash. He said individuals striving to uphold certain principals of openness and honesty would lead to greater press freedom.
“I try to call for a voluntary commitment to professional ethics,” he said. “What we lack in Lebanon, as seen with the coverage of the Ethiopian air disaster, is the commitment of media professionals and corporations. These ethics should be a safety valve which insures against defamation of character.”
Laurent reiterated Mitri’s stance that more effort was needed from both governments and journalists to raise the respectability of regional media organizations. “In the [MENA] region, a lot of progress is still to be made, particularly on the freedom of the press – it is that which we have failed to systematically and forcibly tell governments,” he added.
Khouri said that SKeyes would continue its attempts to reduce media censorship throughout the region.
“We remain motivated to help journalists in the interest of Lebanon and we believe that the Arab world will be better with better freedoms,” she said.
Laurent praised the role civil society can play on pressuring regimes to allow greater press freedom, adding that all countries had the right to free media.
“The freedom of the press is not a luxury of rich countries … it is a way of monitoring the condition of a country’s development, the flourishing of its society, the success of its economy [and] the radiation of its culture,” he said. “The press plays a social role which is almost always positive. A society without a free press is an ill society.”