A FOREIGN APPROACH TO COMMUNITY

I thought this article showed how the mainstream media operates in different countries and what restrictions they have to deal with thus having great effects on the communities both by building or destroying communities.

The United Nations’ role in Arab media

A voice for the community?


The United Nations has always demonstrated an interest in the Arab world and emphasised the need to find solutions for the political and social issues related to the area. The recent report by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Arab Human Development Report 2003 (AHDR), is a reflection of this. According to this report, ‘[i]n most Arab countries, the media operate in an environment that sharply restricts freedom of the press and freedom of expression and opinion ... Censorship is rife and newspapers and television channels are sometimes arbitrarily closed down. Most media institutions are state-owned, particularly radio and television’ (Arab Human Development Report 2003, p.3). The AHDR focuses on the lack of freedom in the Arab information environment.
Other reports also emphasise the need for the development of Arab media to promote and practice democracy, such as The Sana’a Declaration 2004, which was issued by the Inter-Governmental Regional Conference on Democracy, Human Rights and the Role of the International Criminal Court, held in Sana’a, Yemen, on 10-12 January 2004. The declaration stipulates that:
A free and independent media is essential for the promotion and protection of democracy and human rights. Pluralism in the media and its privatization are vital for contributing to the dissemination of human rights information, facilitating informed public participation, promoting tolerance and contributing to governmental accountability. The media should contribute effectively and responsibly towards the strengthening of democracy and human rights knowledge.
This report came as a continuation to The Sana’a Declaration 1999, which was issued at the end of the Emerging Democracies Forum held in Sana’a in July 1999, and which states that ‘[p]ublic participation in democratic decision making is enhanced by providing for private ownership of media and ensuring the impartiality of state-owned media through independent boards or other means’.
In light of these declarations, there clearly is awareness for the need to reform current Arab media practices to ensure that the media serve the people and in turn the people’s voice is heard. However there are no clear directions on how this reform is to be achieved and what form of media policy needs to be implemented.
Although there is a noticeable emerging public sphere as a result of new media technologies, there remains a significant digital divide. The internet ‘has created a small but important space for open debate. Of course the readers of … [the internet] represent the more educated sectors and are not fully representative of whole Arab societies’ (Hamzawy 2005, p.B07). The AHDR states that ‘the low number of Internet users in Arab countries is due to a number of factors, the most important of which are: computer and Internet illiteracy, the high cost of the lines used and high personal computer prices and access fees’ (Arab Human Development Report 2003, p.64). Media channels need to be accessible to the majority of the people regardless of their social conditions.
There is a need for creating a space in the Arab media environment for a third media player, alongside government and commercial media, as a licensed community based broadcaster and press. It is worth considering therefore the Arab media setting and the possibility of the emergence of a third tier of media, where the community can freely aspire to freedom of speech that the AHDR requests. Third-sector media organisations, with the support of the community, can rise to fill a gap in the local Arab information environment. The economist Burton Weisbrod notes that not-for-profit organisations are funded by people who want more of a particular product or a different feature, and are prepared to pay for it (Weisbrod 1997). When the community owns the media, this logically leads to democracy. Community media are the citizens’ media.
However, before the question of the emergence of community media in the Arab world is raised, it is necessary to comprehend the current Arab media landscape in the face of a rapidly changing media environment.
Liberty of expression
The Arab media landscape has changed dramatically in the past 10 years, with particular emphasis on the growth of television satellite channels. Mamoun Fandy believes that despite the emergence of modern means of communication, there is still a disjunction between this phenomenon and the reality of Arab politics and societies (Fandy 2000, p.379). Naomi Sakr emphasises that Arab media are highly politicised and that accordingly government-controlled local media makes the coverage of local issues limited. Sakr states that ‘[s]atellite channels are aimed at the widest possible audience. They cannot do what the national terrestrial media should be doing. To sum up: the Arab media landscape has been revitalised but some more new elements, which are essential to free expression, have yet to emerge’ (Sakr 2003).
According to the AHDR, the media in the Arab world does not hold independent sources of information due to the media depending mainly on foreign sources of information. They rely on western news agencies, as news agencies in the Arab world are ‘stateowned and oriented to serve and promote state policies’ (Arab Human Development Report 2003, p.60). Another issue that the AHDR highlights is the fact that:
[N]ews reports themselves tend to be narrative and descriptive, rather than investigative or analytic, with a concentration on immediate and partial events and facts. This is generally true of newspapers, radio bulletins and televised news. The news is often presented as a succession of isolated events, without in-depth explanatory coverage or any effort to place events in the general, social, economic and cultural context. (Arab Human Development Report 2003, p.61)
These are common issues that mark the media in the Arab world and tend to lead to a media landscape that lacks the ability at this stage to provide a liberal, independent and local form of broadcasting. Although there is a growing phenomenon of privately owned media outlets, most Arab media institutions remain state-owned. Nevertheless any operating media enterprise is subject to state control, an issue that jeopardises freedom of thought and reasoning. In an area of high political activity this is crucial.
According to Edward Said, ‘[n]o society is entirely free of control over thought and expression, though not all such control is instituted and maintained by the government’ (Said 1996). Nevertheless, liberalism has defied the degree of government control and relied on the concept of civil society. The term ‘civil society’ often ‘refers to the arena of uncoerced collective action around shared interests, purposes and values. In theory, its institutional forms are distinct from those of the state, family and market …’ (What is Civil Society? 2005). Community broadcasting, as a third tier in the international media landscape, has become the voice of the people independent of private or state-owned media.
International Models of Community Media
In developing countries, community radio is seen as a powerful tool for conflict management and resolution. It acts as a potential agent for social change, and is perceived as an engine for democratisation. It is also an important tool for development. With a high rate of illiteracy in many developing regions, radio is in many circumstances the only affordable medium reaching large audiences. A distrust of government or state-owned public media in some countries has sanctioned the emergence of local community radio stations. In the West, community radio plays a smaller role in the wide media landscape, but it aims to realise targeted needs of certain community groups (Community Radio 2004).
Around the globe, grass-roots establishments have formed their own means of communication where the needed financial means could be obtained (World Broadcasting 2002). Community radio can thus be seen as part of a broader struggle for access to communications media. The idea of a right to communicate has gained support in the past 25 years and ‘includes the principles of access, participation and self-management in communications’ (Lewis 1984, p.17), which is based on a conception of media as instruments for social groups to reproduce and represent cultural identity, to voice social and economic demands and to create new social relations.
Until relatively recently South Africa had a tightly controlled broadcasting environment that was monopolised by the state-controlled South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). In 1988 the Film and Allied Workers Organization (FAWO) was formed to focus on how to free the broadcasting environment from the effects of apartheid and to encourage a progressive broadcasting culture that offers a diversity of voices from a broad range of communities (Dowmunt 1993, p.90). Since the early 1990s, following the democratisation of the Republic of South Africa, the airwaves have been opened up. Community radio is rapidly being recognised as playing an important role in the development of civil society in South Africa by widely reaching the poor (ICASA 2003).
In Ireland community radio was a product of a pilot project that was established by the Irish Radio and Television Commission (IRTC) in 1994. This resulted in the licensing of 11 stations that were originally only allowed to broadcast until the end of 1996 but were then granted a one-year extension. The project led to the conclusion by the IRTC that community radio is a vital sector of Irish broadcasting (Price-Davies & Tacchi 2001, pp.38-40).
Italy’s Radio Popolare is an interesting model of community-based media due to its early experience in the democratisation of broadcasting. Radio Popolare began broadcasting in 1976 in Milan. During the 1980s the station moved away from its links to left organisations and trade unions to adopt a more independent stance. It was born of the convergence of interests between the broad and extreme left and the parliamentary left, in the autonomy of information (La Storia 2002). It is now considered to be one of the most important independent sources of information in the country.
As a result of its commitment to the public interest, Radio Popolare functions as a community radio station despite operating on a commercial licence, as all profit made is returned to the station; it is thus acting as a non-profit organisation. Radio Popolare started off as commercial radio, but, not wanting to rely on advertising alone, the station called on its audience to support Popolare by buying shares. Shares were issued to create a democratic structure in which the shareholders of Radio Popolare would have a say in the policy of the station (Laureys 2002). Starting from the early 1990s, Radio Popolare became controlled by the cooperation of workers and collaborators. Around 12,000 shareholders own 40,000 stocks of the company; this is an indication of the importance of listener support for the station.
Based on an interview conducted by Francois Laureys with the station director Marcello Lorrai in January 1999, one of the most popular programs broadcast on Popolare since 1976 is Microfono Aperto (Open Microphone), in which listeners respond via talkback to specific themes related to the news, involving the community at a time when talkback radio was not common.
In 1981 Radio Popolare established a network to exchange news programs with other radio stations elsewhere in Italy. This service started out with radio stations around Milan, and since 1995 the network has expanded via satellite to most of the major cities in north and central Italy. Currently 20 Italian radio stations make up the Popolare network, in Rome, Florence, Bologna, Venice, Verona, Torino and Bari. Stations from southern Italy were not included as there were fewer in quantity and most had extremely low budgets. However, Popolare aims to expand the network both geographically and in terms of input by raising the quantity and quality of regional news (Laureys 2002). Radio Popolare could serve as an example of the development of community radio on a commercial-based licence.
Yet there are some community stations that are continuously struggling in the face of government control. According to an article entitled Community Radio Muzzled by Stefania Milan, a Brazilian community radio station called Radio Restinga was shutdown in 2004 in Porto Alegre. In March 2004 only one frequency for community broadcasting was allocated in Brazil by a federal resolution. From around 5,500 and 10,000 community radios in Brazil, Agência Nacional de Telecomunicações (Anatel) only recognises 2,620 active radio channels, which include community radio stations (Community Radio Network 2005). According to Stefania Milan, the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) is preparing a campaign for the government to grant the Brazilians the right to communicate (Community Radio Network 2005).
As part of The Milan Declaration 1998, AMARC calls for ‘[i]nternational recognition of the community broadcasting sector as an essential form of public service broadcasting and a vital contributor to media pluralism and freedom of expression and information’. It is vital that freedom of expression in the form of community broadcasting continues to be encouraged and supported by the international community.
Australian/Arab Community Media
The establishment of Arabic community-based programming can be seen in the example of ethnic community radio in Australia, where, by comparison, there are fewer restrictions on programming content and more opportunity for a democratic outlook. There have been successful examples of Arabic community broadcasting in Australia, such as Melbourne Ethnic Community Radio – 3ZZZ.
As an ethnic community radio station, 3ZZZ services 58 ethnic communities with specialist programming. 3ZZZ started broadcasting on a regular basis in June 1989. Working from studios in the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, the station broadcasts 24 hours a day. It is estimated that more than 400,000 people listen to 3ZZZ every week (3ZZZ 2002).
Ethnic broadcasting in Australia goes back to 1973. The ethnic communities began to work together with sections of the wider Australian community, and threw their considerable strength and influence into the campaigns for access to the nation’s airwaves. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) had been encouraged by the Whitlam Government to open an ethnic ‘access’ station in Melbourne in 1975. The community access radio 3ZZ came into existence, owned and assisted by the ABC, with 20 ethnic communities being the first to broadcast in their ethnic languages (Dugdale 1979, p.37). In 1977 the Fraser Government closed down 3ZZ and eventually set up the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), 12 years after 3ZZ’s closure. In August 1989, 3ZZZ, a community offshoot of 3ZZ, obtained its licence.
Many other community stations now provide ethnic access programming. According to the Community Broadcasting Foundation (CBF), ‘[t]here are 75 stations (35 metropolitan and 40 regional stations) in Australia that provide in excess of 1,200 hours per week of local programming in 86 languages. Over 2,500 volunteer broadcasters are involved in ethnic community radio in Australia’ (CBF 2002, p.2).
At 3ZZZ, up to 400 volunteers broadcast in 58 community languages. Some of these volunteer announcers have been with 3ZZ since its beginnings, hence representing the older generation. Some ethnic language groups have tried to accommodate a younger generation of broadcasters into their programs within their youth programming sections. Ethnic community stations are also providing an essential service to the new wave of migrants to Australia (Forde, Meadows & Foxwell 2002, p.ii).
The 16-member Council of the Ethnic Public Broadcasting Association of Victoria (EPBAV) is the governing body of 3ZZZ. A minimum of 25 people from an ethnic community can form an ethnic community broadcasting group at 3ZZZ, but groups need to have at least 40 financial members to be eligible for an hour of airtime. To comply with funding guidelines, ethnic programming must be mainly in a language other than English, contain no more than 50 percent music content, have a spoken word content of no more than 25 percent religious material or references, be locally produced under the auspices of a recognised local ethnic community language group, and broadcast between 6am and midnight (Ethnic Grant Funding 2002).
There are around seven Arabic language programs broadcasting on 3ZZZ; these are structured to provide Australian Arabs with news from their countries and also provide news to help them in their stay in Australia. The example of Arabic community broadcasting has been successful, allowing for an analytical approach to political events and social issues. The Australian government has also supported broadcast training to allow for new migrant groups to form localised language programs. Therefore, the possibility of having community based Arabic programming in the Arab world is not foreign, however a legal and legislative framework would need to be developed to work in accordance with the current media landscape in the Arab world.
Conclusion
There is a dire need for the creation of a legalised third tier in the Arab world where local communities can operate their own media that in turn would allow them to generate a public sphere that is necessary at this stage of development in the area. As the AHDR stipulates:
The conditions governing media ownership in Arab countries raise many questions about the real opportunities available to Arab citizens for exercising their right to issue newspapers, attain information, express thoughts and opinions and monitor government institutions. Another point of concern is the selective homogeneity of Arab media content, considering that diversity of information is an important prerequisite. (Arab Human Development Report 2003, p.65)
Alternative media gives way for diverse voices to be heard. John Downing explains that, ‘[w]hen the mainstream media misrepresent social and political realities, then, again, alternative media come into their own. They provide an alternative public forum … to the official forum and the official story’ (Downing 1995, p.250). However, the extent to which the current legal and legislative media framework in the Arab world would allow for the development of community media remains a valid question.
Abdelwahab El-Affendi states that, ‘[n]ot only must independent media organizations be permitted, but they should be encouraged by unconditional government financial support, preferably dispensed through impartial institutions in accordance with agreed criteria and safeguards’ (El-Affendi 1993). This could be a valid transitional step for the emergence of community media; community media is a necessary stage in the development of Arab knowledge.
The establishment of community media falls under the final recommendation in the AHDR of the ‘five pillars of the knowledge society’, in which it is stated that there is a need for ‘[e]stablishing an authentic, broadminded and enlightened Arab general knowledge model’ (Arab Human Development Report 2003, p.180). The media has a major role to play in the building of knowledge societies. The creation of a third tier could be that model, the model of community broadcasting.
The United Nations plays and continues to a play a vital role in the education of Arab nations for the sake of political, social and religious freedoms, which would normally be vented through various information channels. In the case of the Arab world, the Arab Human Development Report could become a basis for this aspiration.
Saba ElGhul-Bebawi has worked in the Arab world as a radio broadcaster and journalist, working for the English Service of Radio Jordan and freelancing for CNN. She has also worked as an administrator, broadcaster and trainer in various community radio stations in Australia. She completed her first MA on community radio analysis at Monash University, in Melbourne, and her second MA thesis on community media policy at Queensland University of Technology. She is a lecturer in Journalism and Communications at Monash University.
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