Privatizing Aljazeera
Aljazeera has announced they are developing a plan to become self-sustaining. It would end nine years of subsidization by the Qatari government. The original plan was to have done this by 2001, five years after the station's founding. The articles speculate that Qatar has raised the issue with AJ in order to divert U.S. pressure away from the government.
Posted by Matthew Burton on January 31, 2005 at 09:16 PM in Aljazeera | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (71)
Media mogul accused of running Saudi-funded propaganda campaign
Saad Al-Bazzaz, the founder of Baghdad's most widely circulated newspaper (Al-Azzaman), is allegedly using Saudi money to fund the paper. Bazzaz also runs Al-Sharqiyah, the new Baghdad-based satellite network. He was Saddam Hussein's media chief prior to his 1992 exile. A NY Times article (see #2) from 2003 has, in light of this news, some interesting comments on Bazzaz:
"To spend all this money, to make all this investment, to take all this risk, it is because I am a politician," said Mr. Bazzaz, Al Azzaman's editor and publisher, "and to be a politician, you have to use the media as a channel."...Mr. Bazzaz demurs when asked about his financial backers, saying that most of the shareholders in his business are from his family, which he says comes from old Iraqi money.
Posted by Matthew Burton on January 27, 2005 at 11:08 AM in Native media | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (171)
RFE/RL on native election coverage
The new edition of Media Matters gives us some much-needed fresh information on how domestic media are covering the election:
Reports and commentaries in print media have devoted much attention to debating topics such as the efficacy of postponing elections, the role that Islam will play in a future Iraqi state presumably led by a Shi'ite majority, the possible withdrawal of multinational forces, the Kurdish issue and the Kirkuk election, the coming constitution that will be drafted by the elected parliament, and the need to support democracy and transparent elections. Newspapers have also covered official statements from the Iraqi Independent Election Commission concerning the elections. At least three dailies claim to have their own research institutes that regularly carry out public-opinion polls on the election, which they routinely publish. Coverage of the local governorate elections has been sparse outside the areas of Kirkuk and Baghdad.
Iraqi television channels have done a thorough job of promoting voter participation, and have frequently carried public-information advertisements urging Iraqis to vote. However, the ads give little information about where and how to vote. Iraqi radio has also devoted much time to election coverage, particularly stations that support a radio call-in format.
No raw coverage, unfortunately. Here's the full article.
Posted by Matthew Burton on January 24, 2005 at 05:04 PM in Elections, Native media | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (775)
Iraq's Blogosphere and the Election
Someone wrote to me a few days ago with a question: what role are Iraqi bloggers playing in the election, and how does Iraqis' skepticism of established media promote interest in blogs? My reply, translated from email-speak into blog-speak, is below:
Continue reading "Iraq's Blogosphere and the Election"
Posted by Matthew Burton on January 22, 2005 at 04:28 PM in Elections, Internet | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (152)
MEMRI posts election PSAs
The Middle East Media Research Institute has compiled advertisements promoting the election from Al-Iraqiya, Al Arabiya and Abu Dhabi TV. Most of them are public service announcements, including one that depicts the withdrawal of the coalition. The one exception is an ad for Allawi. Overall, very professional. The PSA's were produced by something called the Future Iraq Assembly.
Posted by Matthew Burton on January 22, 2005 at 03:48 PM in Advertising, Elections, Native media | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (66)
Spirit of America to blog election
Spirit of America, which we first mentioned last April during their campaign to raise money for Marines to buy broadcasting equipment, will be watching the election from DC using information sent in through their own Arabic blogging tool.
Posted by Matthew Burton on January 17, 2005 at 12:02 AM in Elections, Internet, Public diplomacy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (280)
Foreword to Issue 28
We recognize the delay between issues, a result of the absence of coverage of Iraq media developments. There has been a loose resolution of the issue of a Higher Media Commission and its relationship to the National Communications and Media Commission and the Iraqi Media Network. The reconstituted Council will serve, and is serving, as a senior advisory group that assists in developing policy for the government, that evaluates and assesses performance, that charts new directions, and that helps to identify opportunities. How this will work out in practice depends on the strength of the NCMC and the IMN. The NCMC, with Siyamend Othman as CEO, has recruited a deputy, held training sessions for journalists in preparation for the election, and has been preparing tenders for national channels. The IMN saw the departure of Jalal al Mashta as director general. There have been serious debates about the management of the IMN and the future of its relationship with Harris Corp.
The relationship between Al Jazeera and the Prime Minister's office remains problematic. A lengthy and, in general, favourable article about Al Arabiya in the New York Times Magazine was indicative of a trend to look at that channel as "the reasonable" one in the competition for Iraqi (and Middle East) satellite space.
-Monroe Price
Posted by Matthew Burton on January 15, 2005 at 03:53 PM in From the Editors, Higher Media Commission, NCMC | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (131)
Rebuilding Iraqi Television: A Personal Account
Gordon Robison, who blogs on Middle East media at USC Annenberg's Center for Public Diplomacy, sent this to us. "The article is a reflection on
Al-Iraqiyah from my perspective as a consultant overseeing the channel's
news department for four months in 2003-04." (A PDF version of this article is also available.)
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October 27, 2003 was the first day of Ramadan. It was also my first day at a new job as a contractor with the Coalition Provisional Authority, the American-led administration in Occupied Iraq. I had been hired to oversee the news department at Iraqi television.
Continue reading "Rebuilding Iraqi Television: A Personal Account"
Posted by Matthew Burton on January 15, 2005 at 03:50 PM in Al-Iraqiya/Iraqi Media Network, Public diplomacy, SAIC | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (239)
Call for papers
JOURNAL ON ARAB MEDIA ACCEPTING PAPERS FOR FIRST EDITION
Academics and journalists are invited to submit manuscripts for possible publication in a new annual journal dedicated to media in the Middle East.
Continue reading "Call for papers"
Posted by Matthew Burton on January 15, 2005 at 12:26 PM in Links and Announcements | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (92)
Symposium announcement
EASTERN AND ARAB MEDIA TO MEET IN AUSTRIA
More than two dozen journalists, editors and news executives from Western and Arab media will gather in Salzburg, Austria, for a symposium on the challenges and opportunities facing news professionals in the modern world.
Continue reading "Symposium announcement"
Posted by Matthew Burton on January 15, 2005 at 12:24 PM in Links and Announcements | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (193)
Khaleej Times (Dubai): Al Jazeera not to bow to pressure
The boss of Al Jazeera TV has vowed that his channel would, under no circumstances, bow down to any external pressure and continue to render its duties in the same manner.
"We will never be influenced by any criticism whether internal or external. We respect our profession and will never give up on principles and ethics under any circumstances," Waddah Khanfar, Director-General of the Qatar-based channel told Khaleej Times yesterday. More
Posted by Matthew Burton on January 12, 2005 at 10:00 PM in Aljazeera | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (90)
IMDN is now a blog
This is something that I should have done long ago: convert the newsletter into a blog. This format will encourage much more discussion and get us more exposure. Over time, I'll be backfilling this blog with material from old newsletters; hopefully, I'll be able to alter the post dates accordingly. We will probably continue to publish the newsletter, as many of our readers probably find this more convenient.
Posted by Matthew Burton on January 12, 2005 at 09:46 PM in From the Editors | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (36)
Baghdad paper on CPA and press freedoms
Jan 5 Editorial from Baghdad's Al-Dustur:
...the Americans and their cronies have declared war on Al-Dustur. Al-Dustur is our source of pride but they have classified it as hostile to the US presence in Iraq and its troublesome enemy...
Continue reading "Baghdad paper on CPA and press freedoms"
Posted by Matthew Burton on January 5, 2005 at 03:43 PM in Native media | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (93)
NYT Mag: The War Inside the Arab Newsroom
New York Times Magazine on Al Arabiya:
Al Arabiya's sophisticated production values set it apart from other Arab news channels. Its sets and graphics have a clean, high-tech look, and its news bulletins are fast-paced -- no item lasts longer than two and a half minutes -- and are introduced with a dramatic drumbeat. While Al Jazeera anchors sit at a desk in front of a drab two-dimensional backdrop that looks a little like a local American news set from the 1970's, Al Arabiya's news is broadcast from the floor of its futuristic in-the-round silver-and-glass newsroom. More
Posted by Matthew Burton on January 2, 2005 at 03:14 PM in Al Arabiya, Middle East media | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (290)
AP: Tape shows Al-Jazeera, Saddam link
A videotape found in a pile of documents in Baghdad following the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime shows a former manager of the Al-Jazeera satellite channel thanking one of Saddam's sons for his support and telling him that "Al-Jazeera is your channel," the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported Sunday. More
Posted by Matthew Burton on January 2, 2005 at 09:38 AM in Aljazeera | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (315)
