JEDDAH, 25 March 2003 — In the 1990-91 Gulf War, few people were able to follow events as they happened. This time around, many Arab satellite channels and regular television channels, including Saudi Television, are providing full and instant coverage.
News agencies and newspapers have war correspondents everywhere in Iraq and the countries around it.
“Most of us are watching the Arab channels and don’t want to watch the foreign channels,” said Samar Fatany from a local English radio station.
“I think CNN has lost its credibility. The Arab channels like Al-Arabiya, Al-Jazeera and Abu Dhabi are doing much better; they bring live pictures and factual information, and they are very professional in delivering the news,” she said.
As for the local Saudi television channels, she does not think that they have reached that level of professionalism, but this could be good experience for them and they are learning and improving. She believes that the Saudi daily newspapers in Arabic and English are doing a good job of giving a balanced coverage of the war.
Fatany has an hour-long show twice a week called “The Open Hour,” where she reports on the latest news, conducts live interviews and receives call-ins.
“We hear a lot from expatriates about how they feel, and we discuss the general preparations by civil defense and the municipalities,” she said. “People feel safe because we are far from the war zone, but that doesn’t mean they are not sad about what’s happening.”
The American Fox television channel is very biased in its coverage, and CNN is a little more balanced and objective in its coverage, according to Dalal Dhia, director of women’s programming on the Saudi Arabic radio channel.
As for the Arabic channels, she is particularly happy with Abu Dhabi.
“It’s balanced, objective and it’s the fastest in getting the news to the extent that CNN, after it was kicked out of Baghdad, is relying on it for the latest pictures and news.” However, she had harsh words to say about other Arabic satellite channels, which she believes deliberately seek to incite people.
“Our hearts go out to the Iraqis but I think it’s important that the audiences are not goaded by exaggerations and rumors,” she added.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate to show all those pictures of the dead and injured, especially to our children,” said Dr. Haifa Jamalallail, dean of Effat College, expressing some of her disappointment over the media coverage. Another disappointment is over “discrepancies”.
“I don’t know what to believe,” she said, “journalists there are relying on officials for information without checking its accuracy, which could be misleading and cause anger.”
Fatin Bundagji, director of the women’s training program at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that although she was tired of watching she still tuned in.
“The Arabic media coverage is great, but what is it going to achieve?” she asked. “It’s depressing, it’s frustrating, it’s too late,” she said. “We are a reactive nation, we should have had a strategy, a media campaign, some preventive measures.”
She feels that Muslims are being attacked as a nation and as a religion. “We should have a media plan to counter the West’s campaign against us and we should adopt it and implement it.”
For Bundagji, transparency and a unified vision are important. “Unfortunately, each of our channels and newspapers is working on its own without a unified plan or a common goal,” she complained.
