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Al
Hurra: The free one
Gary
Fitleberg
The
U.S. is making a bid to reach the Mideast’s young people with
a satellite channel. Will the win the media war for the minds of the
Middle East’s future intellectuals and leaders? At a time when
anti-Americanism seems to pervade every street and living room in
the Middle East, Al Hurra (or “the Free One”) is making its bid
for Arab influence and interest.
The
five-week-old-Arabic-language satellite television channel is the
U.S. governments $62-million effort to reach young Arabs. Hopefully,
the American broadcasts of Al Hurra will counter some of the
negative and shameless political propaganda of the Arab nations
state-controlled media and other stations which also promote hatred,
incitement, terrorism and violence such as Al Jazeera.
It
will be quite difficult to educate people as to facts and truth when
the y are bombarded daily with lies and myths such as
“Palestine” & “Palestinians” (no such separate language,
nation or people) “occupied territories” ( actually disputed
territories- they were only occupied by the Arabs of Egypt and
Jordan for nineteen years from 1948-1967) or “West Bank”
(actually t he ancient biblical home of the Jewish people called
Judea & Samaria).
So
far, the target audience is skeptical at best. Some are skeptical.
Some are bored. All are not used to hearing the real facts and
truth. According to Ali Belail, a 36-year-old television producer in
Cairo, “They’ re not very subtle. I guess they know people are
going to be apprehensive. They’re banging people on the head,
hammering at the idea they’re being objective.” Hussein Amin,
Chair of the Journalism department at American University in Cairo
commented, “The people are watching [Al hurra] just to criticize
it. They think that not only does the American government not
understand them, now its trying to send them messages.”
In
Cairo, the teeming heart of Arab world, it’s difficult to find
young people who have even heard of the channel, much less those who
have tuned in. As for those who have watched Al Hurra, they tend to
pan it, but not for politics. They say it is boring. Better boring
and honest.
According
to Abdallah Shleifer, a mass media professor at the American univ
ersity in cairo, “The region is infected with knee-jerk,
hysterical anti-Americanism. An environment like that will be hard
for Al Hurra.” The Jordan Times published a spicy and tart
editorial in an admission of the lack of democracy and freedom in
Arab nations recognized that “The region braces itself for a wave
of change as the masses realize the errors of their fundamentalist
ways.”
A
Kuwaiti Analyst Abdallah Sahar said, “It should tell people how
America h as tolerance and real freedom,” adding, “If these
issues were addressed fairly, it could be important.” No matter
what sorts of shows it aired, the Virginia based Al Hurra was in for
a struggle. Its creation was vilified in the Arab world where
freedom of press and freedom of speech is unknown. The Arab
editorial pages declare d Al Hurra’s editorials as a dangerous
invasion, an insult, a blunt arm of propaganda. The offensive to win
the court of international public opinion is often a treacherous one
waged through the Internet, news releases but most often through the
inaccurate mainstream media.
The
war on words is often as hard fought as the combat on the diplomatic
and military fronts. And the Arab political propaganda campaign has
enjoyed immeasurable success internationally with its widespread
lies and myths. Arabs speak with one voice. Their message is very
clear. Annihilation of Israel and the Jews. Arab nations have
consistently deflected worldwide attention from their own corrupt
dictatorships, repressive regimes, and tyrannies in order to try to
hide their won serious threats to their own people’s lack of
democracy and freedom with crimes against humanity that include
human rights abuses and violations that are amongst the worst in the
world.
Al
Hurra is an uphill battle but a critical one in the media war for
minds in the Middle East. The war of the words. It is a war Western
civilization can not afford to lose. | 
