Study reveals shortcomings of Arab media

Syria’s civil war has had an impact on the media in the Middle East and North Africa. The type of impact was revealed in a new study by the Lebanese Maharat Foundation, which examined the media coverage of refugees and migration in Jordan, Libya, Egypt and Morocco.

The key finding of the study? That the further away a country was from the Syrian conflict, the poorer the quality and scope of the coverage became. "We identified a direct correlation between proximity to the conflict and diversity of the reporting," says Roula Mikhael, managing director of the Maharat Foundation who headed the study.

The Maharat Foundation is a Lebanese non-governmental organization (NGO) that positions itself as a watchdog for press and media freedom in the region. To carry out the study, the Foundation analyzed reports and stories from five to ten different media in each of the countries surveyed.

The study looked at the frequency of refugee coverage appearing on TV, in online media and daily newspapers, as well as the angle taken towards migrants attempting to enter these countries or those in Europe. For this, the NGO surveyed media reports from 2015 through to February 2016.

Open debate versus propaganda

Egypt’s press devotes little space to the refugees' stories

The results varied widely. The study indicated that in Lebanon, a country with a population of just over four million, information on the arrival of some one million Syrian refugees was comprehensive and diverse.

However, this could not be said of Egypt, currently under the military rule of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, or of the Kingdom of Morocco. The study found that most media in these countries displayed a one-dimensional and limited view of the refugee crisis, and that coverage frequently echoed national propaganda.

Mikhael explains that in the case of Egypt, "The issue was exploited for election purposes, and solely focused on what the Egyptian government was doing to resolve the crisis. There was rarely any coverage of how the refugees themselves felt about their situation," she says. In Morocco, the country farthest away from the conflict compared to the others surveyed the topic was virtually taboo and balanced reporting was particularly hard to find.

Jordan proved to be something of an anomaly. It is a small country with roughly 6.5 million inhabitants, and according to official estimates, has received more than 600,000 refugees – making it one of the countries hardest-hit by the refugee crisis. This is certainly reflected in the large number of media reports appearing, but not in the diversity of approaches.

"In Jordan, many journalists have resorted to just repeating official government press statements," says Mikhael. "In Lebanon, however, even though it’s in a similar situation, there has been an open and critical debate about the challenges." Instead of government propaganda, she says, it’s been possible to observe pluralistic debate.

Keeping an eye on the world: Billboard for Al Manar, a Lebanese TV station

Refugees rarely given a voice

The study found that only journalists in Lebanon were approaching the refugees themselves as sources of information; this resulted in greater objectivity in media discussions and debates. This objectivity, the study found, was often missing in the other countries surveyed, where media reports regularly carried racist undertones.

Many stories differentiated between "us" and "them". Refugees were repeatedly portrayed as solely responsible for everything from higher unemployment to deteriorating economic conditions, price hikes and water shortages. Many reports talked of a "ticking time bomb" and of "incalculable threats to security".

One shortcoming common to almost all reports surveyed was that they focused almost exclusively on the negative repercussions of migration, with only rare examples of opportunities or successful integration.

Another core finding of the study was that the media surveyed rarely provided readers, viewers or users with the information needed for understanding the dimensions of the crisis within a broader global context. The current debate is dominated by concerns about national borders. "There’s hardly a journalist who thinks in terms of how it’s all connected. This," she says, "encourages false stereotypes and traditional prejudices." Her advice is for media companies to give some thought to the rights of migrants, provide more critical and balanced reporting and contextualize issues within the bigger picture and as part of long-term trends.

African refugees in Egypt: Media coverage only when it’s in the government’s interest

Summit for new reporting guidelines

At the invitation of DW Akademie and the Maharat Foundation, leading editors from Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco met for the "Regional Media Summit" held May 11 – 16, 2016 in Beirut. Some of the reports that had appeared in their countries were surveyed for the study.

The summit’s goal was to draw conclusions from the study’s findings and discuss next steps. "The editors-in-chief agreed with the study’s critique and asked us to voice these concerns even more loudly," says Mikhael. The participants agreed on a media framework with guidelines for more sensitive reporting on refugees and migration.

Summit participants also committed themselves to including these new standards in their further training. Workshops are to be conducted as part of the cooperation between the Maharat Foundation and DW Akademie.

The new reporting guidelines state that, "We will report in a responsible manner, supported by facts, without exploiting the suffering of the refugees in an unprofessional, biased or exaggerated manner." Instead of being simply pawns, refugees are to be given an equal voice; instead of simply echoing the government line, journalists are to take into account the voices of local people. The dignity of the refugees and of the local population is to be central to the reporting. "Refugees are humans, and this simple message has to be conveyed in every report," says Mikhael with conviction. But she also knows that the road ahead is going to be a long and bumpy one.