Journalism in the dumps

Mostafa, an unemployed Palestinian refugee from Albaqaa camp in Jordan, unfolds a crumbled page of an old magazine in an attempt to read the stale news dated three years ago. This routine ritual comes usually after eating his falafel meal that was wrapped with the page. This is the only way someone suffering from poverty like Mostafa can read some news. It is common practice that the poisonous ink of the print hugs the meals of the poor in Jordan, where the 250 fills paid for the lowest-priced newspaper can buy such a humble vegetarian meal, described as “the kebabs of the poor.”

Among the society of the poor and deprived Almastoor was born, the first magazine of its kind in the Arab world, focusing on investigating issues related to the poor. Almastoor is an Arabic word which means “the concealed” or “the hidden,” but in slang it means the very poor person whose suffering no one knows of because of his noble nature and the fact that he never complains. This magazine investigates the lives of the people who live in the dumps, living on what other people throw away.

The monthly magazine was controversial because the poor who are investigated can't afford to buy it themselves. Still, someone in the struggling media business believed that such a phenomenon is worth the effort. Many considered that publishing such a magazine is a weird idea, especially since it does not bring revenues at a time when media and journalism have became a commodity. Besides, no one would be likely to advertise their products or services in a "poor people’s" magazine. The argument was, if the poor can't afford to buy the magazine, who is going to read it? And who is interested in knowing about the hungry unemployed?

Although the magazine itself had very limited resources, it is the first in the Arab world to focus on investigating poverty, where people have almost zero income and where there is no adequate social security system. (This is due to the fact that Jordan itself is unlike other Arab countries, since it has no natural resources or oil. And it has been the only country in the area that embraced waves of refugees over the years, starting with the immigration of the Circassians and the Chechens in 1858, Palestinian refugees in 1948 and 1967, and Iraqis in 2003.

The magazine not only faced shortages of funding, but it had to find its way in an extremely difficult position regarding investigative journalism, where self-censorship is still widely practiced. The first two printed issues were circulated in June and July 2005, bringing to local investigative journalism a new dimension because it tackled poverty with anthropology in mind.

Investigative journalism is a rare precious skill in the Middle East because it needs a fully committed journalist who works tirelessly for days or weeks, which results in high expenses. The mainstream media tries to escape employing investigative journalists because of their limited budgets, besides the fact that a good investigation brings trouble from the authorities and influential personalities involved. Publishing such a magazine resurrects the old question of why this journalistic art has been deformed to become only a poll-investigating exercise.

Ahmad Abu Khaleel, the editor-in-chief of Almastoor, said in in an interview that his magazine is unique regarding covering the lives of the marginalized from an anthropological perspective. Researcher and journalist Fahmi Abdel Aziz wrote about the poor community living at dumping areas like Alakaider, where all the people depend on what others have thrown away. Aebdel Aziz had to live in the dumping area to watch and investigate and record his comments, trying to understand their style of life. He confessed that he never knew that there are people actually living at the dumping areas in his city before; all he knew was that there were people who pick through the rubbish and use some of it or collect thrown-away empty cans to sell.

At a time when glossy magazines in some wealthy Arab Gulf countries like Dubai invest in investigating the lives of celebrities, and most of their revenues come from advertising the luxurious lifestyle of the wealthy, one can’t help but thinking of the gap and the ethical message journalism bears. Some journalists even feel guilty when their assignments come to write about bathrooms decorated with gold while they encounter those who can't afford even to have a glance at their articles.

Whose responsibility is it to write for and about the poor? Do we have to talk about the media always as an investment opportunity, or should we consider writing for the deprived as a must, keeping in mind that journalism is an educational tool that should come free some way or another?

Whose responsibility it is to enlighten the poor and inform them of their rights, tell them what harms their health, and who is taking advantage of them while producing bigger heaps of garbage?

Meanwhile, Mostafa, the Palestinian refugee, continues unfolding crumbled pages of old magazines after eating his falafel meal so he can read some free news. Maybe one day he will stumble upon a headline saying that he can return home to Palestine.

Arab Journalism and Egypt’s Claimed Control over UK’s Mosques

Anyone who reads the alarming title quoting the President of Al-Azhar University saying ‘We have put an end to the practices of some preachers in the Islamic centres of Britain’, published by Asharq Alawsat newspaper, Tuesday 21 Sept 2010 would think that UK is one of Egypt’s provinces.

I was intrigued to find out how Egypt or its AlAzhar University officials have been able to fix something inside UK and in what capacity.

The first question that comes to mind is has UK and its politicians became bankrupt of ideas that they resorted to the expertise of the Middle Eastern officials to solve their alleged internal problems? Does Egypt really have a say when it comes to local policies in UK? And why would UK officials take advice from a source that proved not to be able to handle its own internal affairs? And most of all, was what Asharq alAwsat newspaper reported accurate? If UK needs advice or help from a Muslim source, why has it resorted to Egypt? Why not request the advice from Indonesia for example since Indonesia is the largest Muslim country by population, and home for 15.6% of the world's Muslims, or why not ask the advice of any other Asian country since around 62% of the world's Muslims live in Asia.

The second line of the title for the same article came with smaller font and humbler calmer rhetoric: ‘Dr. Abdullah Al-Husseini told "Asharq Alawsat": Al-Azhar University is to open dialogue with the West’.

We are left confused by the two different tones of the headlines, and which one of them to consider. We wonder, whether the Asharq Alawsat newspaper is adopting sensationalism, or there has been really a formal request by UK seeking an Egyptian rescue mission on this matter.

Reading down the article, the content says: during the interview with the President of Al-Azhar University, Dr. Abdallah Al-Husseini said that "his University has ‘put an end’ to the ‘wrong behaviour’ of some preachers in Islamic centres and some of the mosques in Britain".

Wow, ‘put an end’?...This seems strong, I was eager to know how a Middle Eastern University has helped UK to ‘put an end’ to what seems to be a huge problem. The report claims that Dr. Husseini said that the Sheikh of Azhar, Dr. Ahmed Al-Tayeb, headed a delegation to visit the mosques in London, and the outcome was that Al-Azhar university has implemented a ‘rehabilitation’ course for ‘those Imams’ to correct their methods of preaching Islam. The butter of the long article can be simply be squeezed into a line of information that says 20 imams from UK, mostly Afghan, attended a course supervised by Al-Azhar University. That’s all.

One wonders, why amongst the millions of courses implemented in different fields and organized annually in UK between mutually interested parties none of them use such rhetoric to insinuate control or an upper hand but this one.

For those who are not familiar with the Arab Press, and who might not understand this example of language masculinity that insinuates being in charge, one should bear in mind that, everyone in the Arab world wants to be in charge or be the leader, no one wants to be led. Arabs like to be in the position of telling others what to do, being in charge and leading others make them somehow feel good about themselves for playing the role of the shepherd and not one of the sheep. This attitude can be noticed through Arab journalism practices.

Asharaq AlAwsat is a Saudi newspaper, and Saudi media has always done its best to reflect Saudi Arabia as the leader and the guardian of Arabs especially when it comes to subjects related to Islam. It is a well known fact that both Egypt and Saudi Arabia stroke each others’ ego, since Egypt as well considers itself the leader of the Arab world politically, and has a record of media stunts to prove that. Such as its latest manipulation of the photo of the world leaders’ summit held in USA which was published by the leading national Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram, that doctored the photoshopped front page picture, to bring the Egyptian President Hosni Mubark from the back in the original photo, positioning him right at the front. This manipulation of facts contradicts the ethics of journalism and basic common sense, since the host usually leads the way ahead of his guests in his own home not the other way round. Besides, Mubarak, at the age of 82 is the eldest of all the leaders present at that summit and it is natural that his steps might be slower than Obama's and could not race him to the front position.

Having to shift Obama’s figure, the host, and all the other leaders, and placing them all behind Mubarak, who was the last in the original photo, became a source of media ridiculing carnival around media circles in a way that might have even embarrassed President Mubarak himself.

The Editor-in-chief of the Al-Ahram newspaper, Osama Saraya, has not apologised for his professional failure, nor did he have the gut to resign from his post and take responsibility for embarrassing all Egyptian journalists. His action was even more shocking when he resorted to the attack policy as a defence mechanism, saying in his official response: ‘The picture has been published in that manner to express and portray the exact important political position of President Mubarak and his unique and leading role regarding the Palestinian issue’.

Surely this reply reflects professional immaturity by insinuating that all the other leaders present at the event including the American host himself do not match Mubark’s importance. Saraya’s naïve reply reflects as well an ethical gap between the media in Egypt and any other progressive free transparent media in the world.

It seems that those who are in charge of Arabic press have the illusion that they are addressing an ignorant oppressed herd and that no one from outside their borders has access to their fabricated stories. They presume that there are no monitoring bodies over their amusing news, and the bloggers are as frightened as the journalists employed and paid by their governments.

Some Arab editors-in-Chief think that they can treat the readers around the world with the same contempt they treat their own readers at home by forcing them to swallow their fabricated news and their manipulated content. For those ‘churnalists’ I would say, wake up. You are living in the globalisation era, where a reader in a remote area of India can read the same news article at the same time a reader at the outskirts of the Arabian Desert when they both strike their computer keyboards, besides, the Western world does not suffer a shortage of translators, nor your fellow citizens are as naive or ignorant as you might hope they will be.

Iqbal Tamimi is Director for Arab Women Media Watch Centre in the UK.