Daoud Kuttab, an independent Palestinian journalist and media commentator, points us to the launch of a new Arabic-language TV station called Alhurra ("the free one"). The US-sponsored network is one of an ever-increasing number of government-controlled broadcasting outlets in the Mideast.
The new station joins America's Radio Sawa and its slick Hi magazine as post-September 11 Arabic-language media tools that the US hopes to use to win Arab hearts and minds. Judging from the broadcast content of its first day, Washington has a long way to go to achieve its goals. Alhurra operates with a $62-million grant from the US government. Judging from its first broadcast day, there is no hint it will ever become self-reliant. Listeners can only conclude that Alhurra will always be an instrument of the US government. The US secretary of state has a permanent seat on the station's board along with four Democrats and four Republicans.
Sponsoring foreign radio broadcasts has been a favorite tool of colonial European governments. The British have been bankrolling foreign broadcasts on the BBC; the French on Radio Monte Carlo. But neither has attempted televising in Arabic, via satellite, as does Alhurra. Arab regimes have for years monopolized the mass media to control their people and maintain power. But Alhurra will not contribute to efforts by many in the Arab world who want the air waves to be free to private and independent ownership. While some expected the new station to be an important addition to the plurality of opinions available to the Arab public, its first day of broadcasting confirmed what the skeptics have been saying all along: What the US needs to do is change its policy, not its media strategy.
Link to Kuttab op-ed about Alhurra in this week's Jerusalem Post, link to recent NPR story, Link to Alhurra.com.
