As people struggle to overthrow their tyrants in the Arab world, social networks were their journalistic tool. But for this tool to be effective, they need the media to spread it further wide. And in process, people found themselves in the middle of a very complicated relationship between media and politics .. They found themselves in a two-front war. A front in the streets against the tyrant's security apparatus, and a front of propaganda war against the nature of media structure in the Arab world.
During the uprising in Tunisia and Egypt, a media line-up started to unfold, Al Jazeera (sponsored by State of Qatar), and behind it few newspapers, it sided itself with the rights of the protesters. In the other hand, Al Arabiyyah (sponsored by the House of Saud) and behind it all the state-sponsored media and press in the Arab world, all sided with the regimes. This line-up created a perception among Arab people that classified Al Jazeera as a revolutionary news network, and Al Arabiyyah as the regimes mouthpiece. But as uprisings swept through most of the Arab world, from Bahrain to Morocco, this line-up shattered, and both channels were selective in supporting this uprising or this regime, and people found themselves confused, before they realize that neither was Al Jazeera revolutionary, nor was Al Arabiyyah pro-regimes. They both were mouthpieces of their sponsors, and advocates of their policies.
Press, or media in general, in any country, is an element of its political sphere. And it won't be able to survive, neither financially, nor politically, if it represents the opinions and perspectives of its editors and writers alone, or in disregard to the interests and views of more influential economic and social streams. Therefor, freedom of press is not guaranteed by an article in the constitution or a pledge by the political authority, it is only can be guaranteed if the economic and social streams are able to defend their right of free of expression. Accordingly, the degree of freedom in media and press is a refection of the balance of power between various social/economic interests. In another word, it is an outcome of the degree of pluralism in the society and the social/economic interactions and balances of that degree. Obstacles of liberating the press are rooted in theses social/economic interactions and balances.
In the Arab world, and due to its social structure and development (attempts for more understanding of this social structure are in this article , and this article), politics were centered in a totalitarian form of power, and any attempt to empower a dual or plural social or political life was considered a rebellion. In the post-independence in the Arab world, any toppling of totalitarian regime was made by another of the same sort. Let alone, that despite the rich diversities in the Arab world, and despite that Arab society tolerates, to some extent, different ethical beliefs or groups of people, but it fails to hold that all are equal, and accordingly, failed to reach the degree of moral realism. These characteristics of the Arab social structure paved the way for totalitarianism to maintain its grip on power, and as a result, freedom of media seized to exist.
The nature of this Arab awakening is not aimed only at toppling totalitarian regimes, it is in fact, an uprising to topple totalitarianism itself. And it is not wise to argue that the media structured under totalitarianism will act or behave, in covering these uprisings, as free media. It is almost the first time in six decades in the Arab world, that ordinary people, unarmed, and from all walks of life, rise to change the balances and interactions of their political life, and toppling a tyrant took them 23 days in Tunisia, and 18 days in Egypt. But restructuring the social/economic balances and interactions, to reach moral realism or pluralism, will take decades more. And the pace of this restructuring will define the trend toward free media in the Arab world. It is needed to maintain pressure on the media and to keep criticizing its double standards in dealing and covering the uprisings across the Arab world, it is part of the propaganda war. But we have to bare in mind, that this media is just a production of our social structure, it is our production.
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