MEDIA
Through Asian eyes
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The first Asia Media Summit held in Kuala Lumpur in April attracted over 450 participants from about 50 countries across Asia and many other parts of the world. AMMU JOSEPH reports on the main themes discussed at the three-day gathering.
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THE sensational media expose of the grotesque abuse of Iraqi prisoners in the custody of United States armed forces in the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad had not happened when the first ever Asia Media Summit took place in Kuala Lumpur last month. If it had, it would no doubt have added another dimension to some of the debates at the Summit, especially since sections of the mainstream media in the U.S. played a crucial role in bringing the gross violations of the human rights of Iraqi detainees to public attention across the world.
As it is the shadow of September 11, 2001 and reverberations from the ongoing conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine-Israel could be felt throughout the Summit. Of the 15 sessions spread over three days, at least half lent themselves to discussions on the post-9/11 media scenario and, specifically, the media's perceptions and presentations of Muslims and Islam, especially in the context of the "war on terror." If the speakers did not directly refer to these situations and the media-related issues flowing from them, interventions from the floor invariably did.
The underlying theme first cropped up during the inaugural session on April 19, after the keynote address on "The Challenges of Multi-Religious, Multi-Ethnic and Multi-Cultural Societies" by Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Prime Minister of Malaysia. The very first question posed to him during the 45-minute Q&A session that followed concerned the media's perception and portrayal of Islam; subsequently the Prime Minister was asked for his views on the media's coverage of the war in Iraq as well as the issue of Palestine, fresh in everyone's mind after the assassination of the Hamas leader, Dr. Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, just two days earlier.
It recurred during the second session of the day, billed as "A Dialogue of Civilisations." A number of speakers referred to the stereotyping in the media that denies the diversity that marks the several disparate cultures thriving in the so-called Islamic world, and obscures the fact that Islam is interpreted and practiced differently in the many countries located in various regions of the world where Muslims form the majority of the population. As Dr. Riad Ismat of Syria, Deputy Minister, Culture and former Director General of Syrian Radio and Television, pointed out, there are substantial variations in the social, cultural, and religious ethos of even Arab nations, which are rarely recognised by the international media.
The most substantive critique of the media's role in obstructing, rather than promoting, dialogue was offered by Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, President of JUST World, Malaysia, in his paper, "The Media, Islam and the West." According to him, much of the media on both sides of the divide continue to view the other civilisation as a monolithic, homogenous entity and, therefore, tend to perpetuate prejudices and stereotypes. Focussing primarily on the largely negative portrayal of Islam and Muslims in the mainstream Western media (a term that was effectively questioned by several participants from countries in the Western hemisphere who have their own quarrels with the dominant "international" media), he submitted five explanations for the failure of the media "to meet the challenge of improving relations between Islam and the West."
In his view, the negative mindset within the media alluded to in the late Edward Said's 1981 study, "Covering Islam," and the media's failure to recognise the reality of neo-imperialism and "the global hegemony exercised by the world's only hyperpower," are not conducive to dialogue. At the same time, he acknowledged, the siege mentality developing within the Muslim community is not helpful for dialogue either. The media's tendency to highlight the sensational — including tensions and conflicts between civilisations and religions — rather than "the quiet, often unglamorous work of building bridges between communities" also militates against dialogue. Similarly, the customary low level of information and knowledge among media practitioners about cultures and religions other than their own obviously diminish their ability to contribute to civilisational dialogue.
The theme could not but emerge again during Session III, on "The Media and the Fight against Global Terrorism." As Shashi Tharoor, Under Secretary General for Communication and Public information, United Nations, suggested in the earlier session, terrorism can best be fought by tackling the hatred and fear of the "Other" that are based on ignorance and misunderstanding. According to him, the media — "one of the great educators of the modern world" — and especially television, which alone reaches some 2.5 billion people every day, "can choose to be purveyors of weapons of mass distraction. Or they can choose to be builders of a better world... (they) can reinforce existing negative stereotypes or build new positive ones. (They) can denigrate and dismiss cultures that are different, or ... show how wonderful this odd and quirky world is."
The first session of the second day of the Summit was wholly devoted to a discussion on "The Media and Islam." Fortunately, however, the focus of each presentation was sufficiently different to retain interest.
Syyed Ata'ollah Mohajerani of Iran, Advisor to the President and former Minister of Information, Culture and Islamic Guidance, once again called attention to the problem of stereotyping, pointing out that it was important to ask the question: "Which Islam and which media?" For example, he said, to one side of Iran lie Afghanistan and Pakistan, "sharing the Taliban version of Islam," at least in their border areas; on the other side there is Turkey and its government's divergent interpretation of the faith. Yet, he said, as far as the Western mass media is concerned, Islam is synonymous with fundamentalism and terrorism, and, consequently, all Muslim individuals are fundamentally terrorists.
In his interesting presentation on "The Danish Media and Islam," Dr. Tim Jensen, a scholar of philosophy and religion, mentioned that he had just contributed a chapter to yet another of the long series of recent books on Islam and Muslims: this particular one edited by a leading Danish journalist and published by the Association of Journalists in Denmark in order to encourage more informed local media coverage of events or issues related to Islam. Positive as such an effort may seem, he said, the question is why such a book is still required after at least 15 years of experience covering stories about Islam and Muslims. According to him, at a time when the unemployment rate in Denmark was as high as eight per cent and the proportion of Muslims in the Danish population as low as two per cent, the local media paid more attention to the latter, presenting them primarily as a hindrance to national integration and cultural assimilation, than to the dismal job situation.
Datin Rose Ismail, Managing Editor of the New Straits Times, Malaysia, had a different take on the subject, based on her 20-year experience in reporting on "political Islam." While acknowledging that Islam in Malaysia — widely perceived as a "progressive, modern Muslim nation" — is different from manifestations of the religion in many other countries, she cited worrying examples to suggest a gradual "closing of the Muslim mind" even in that country. According to her, much of the local media tends to err on the side of superficiality in their coverage of religious matters, possibly to avoid having to face the repercussions of getting anything wrong. But she ended on a positive note, taking heart from recent developments in the country's political arena, which indicate that the majority of Malaysians are in favour of Prime Minister Badawi's progressive, inclusive approach to the religion, articulated in the recently introduced concept of Islam Hadhari.
Chandra Muzaffar, in his second presentation at the Summit, opted to go beyond the tendency of the mainstream media — in the West as well as other non-Islamic nations, as he put it — to highlight the negative aspects of Islam, preferring instead to focus on the question of how Muslims could and should respond to the situation. In his view it is important for Muslims to ensure that they do not reinforce stereotypes by indulging in behaviour that conforms to such stereotypes. He said it is vital for them to demonstrate that people like Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and the rulers of Saudi Arabia represent fringe elements within Islam and among Muslims, and to speak up against the attitudes and actions they promote. In addition, he said, it is necessary for Muslims to show the world the alternative reality of Islam as a religion of peace, and of Islamic societies and cultures that are not antithetical to democracy, where the rights of both women and minorities are protected. And, finally, he suggested, it is "incumbent upon Muslims to demonstrate that Islam may actually offer solutions to the complex challenges confronting the world."
It was clearly no accident that the Summit was the setting for the announcement of the first Special Television Award for "Promoting Religious Understanding" instituted by the Asia Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD). The Swedish television network, SVT, won the award for its documentary, "Papa Dallas," about an endearing Muslim migrant from Senegal living in Sweden. The first runner-up — among a total of 38 entries from 30 organisations and individuals located in 25 countries — was "Tomorrow's Islam" submitted by ABC Television, Australia.
Dominant as the media representations of Islam/Muslims theme was, it was not the only issue discussed at the Summit. Jointly organised by the AIBD, News World Asia and the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS), the event covered most bases in terms of media matters of current interest, although the sessions were patchy in terms of quality (which was not surprising in view of the scale and scope of the affair). Among the predictable issues discussed over the three-day meeting were: globalisation, cultural diversity and the media; ethics and the media; violence and the media; women and the media and, of course, HIV/AIDS and the media.
There were a number of other sessions, too, including one on lessons to be learnt from media reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan; another on the media and sports with a special focus on the Olympic Games scheduled to be held in Beijing in 2008; and a third on the concept and practice of "peace journalism," based on all the well-known principles of professional journalism but going beyond reporting on conflict to provide audiences with background and context, cover the many conflict-related stories and issues often neglected by conventional war correspondents, and — most importantly — highlight efforts towards conflict resolution.
There was also the mandatory session on public service broadcasting in the era of globalisation and privatisation, with most speakers cautioning against dismissing public broadcasters as irrelevant relics of the past, but stressing the distinction between government/state-controlled media and independent/autonomous media serving the public interest.
The session focussing on the safety of journalists in the present global media environment was one of the most impassioned sessions of the Summit in view of the context: nearly 1200 journalists killed in action over the past decade, including nearly 40 over the past year in Iraq alone. The star speaker was Chris Cramer, Managing Director, CNN International and President of the Brussels-based International News Safety Institute (INSI), launched in May 2003 by a coalition of more than 100 of the world's leading media organisations, journalists' associations and press freedom groups.
According to him, reality television has acquired a new meaning, with journalists covering conflicts increasingly finding themselves in the line of fire, not only in the form of "collateral damage," but often as "intended targets" seen by some as "fair and legitimate prey".
"We are at a very dangerous crossroad in our profession," he said. "We must either find solutions or retreat to our studios, withdrawing from our national and international responsibilities." The establishment of an Asian News Safety Institute (ANSI), headquartered in Kuala Lumpur and working closely with the INSI, to help train journalists for work in hostile environments was announced on the last day of the Summit.
Despite the broad participation and the packed agenda, however, the Summit did not quite live up to expectations in terms of enabling a better understanding of the state and status of Asia-based media, not to mention the media in the Pacific region. Thanks, perhaps, to the preoccupation with the "international" media's sins of omission and commission in covering Islam and Muslims, there was little discussion of the challenges and opportunities confronting the media within the many countries and various sub-regions of the continent.
Similarly, there was hardly any reference to the paucity, pitfalls and possibilities of intra-Asia Pacific media coverage — i.e., coverage of developments in different parts of Asia and the Pacific by media located in other areas within the region.
What is more, with several speakers representing governments and/or official "public" broadcasting institutions, it was difficult to get past the platitudes and rhetoric to salvage whatever information and analysis they offered about the media in their respective nations.
The few glimpses of the media in different Asian countries that emerged from some presentations — invariably by academics or media professionals — were tantalising, because they revealed many issues of common interest and concern but there was insufficient time and space to discuss them in any depth or detail.
However, since the Asia Media Summit is to be an annual affair from now on, there will no doubt be future opportunities to further explore the media across the vast and varied continent.
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