The fight between some Arab broadcasters and lawmakers in the US who want to ban those "hostile to the United States" could not be happening at a worse time. Yesterday, Arab ministers of information gathered to "slam", in the words of the
, the US Congress for the bill the House of Representatives passed in December that imposes sanctions on broadcasters deemed a threat to the country. After a six-hour meeting in Cairo, the ministers issued a communique that said the bill was "considered an interference in the internal affairs of Arab states who regulate their media affairs according to national legislation."
That same day, Al Jazeera aired an audio tape reportedly carrying the voice of Osama bin Laden taking responsibility for the Christmas Day attempted bombing. Giving voice to Osama was what put Al Jazeera on the US government's list of things to be worried about back in the Bush Administration. The timing of this latest offering is unlikely to help Al Jazeera win back the hearts and minds of Americans enough to gain entrance into their coveted cable market -- something that seemed possible as recently as last July, when its English version
by a local cable broadcaster in Washington, DC.
But a more interesting question is whether Arab ministers of information will use this fight to exert more control over the stations that some of them have been seeking for years. On Saturday, Reporters Without Borders issued a
expressing concern that the ministers planned to respond to the move by the US Congress by creating their own "Office for Arab Satellite Television" that would "be in charge of enforcing guidelines aimed at ensuring that Arab TV stations respect the ethical standards and moral values of Arab society as well as ensuring that they no longer serve as fronts or outlets for "terrorist" organisations."
A similar plan was floated by the Arab League in 2008, and Reporters Without Borders was not a particularly big fan of it back then. But the context has heated up considerably since then. Will the US government's attempts to fight terrorism end up squashing free speech in the Arab world far more than it intends? Stay tuned.
