• Introduction
• GFMD 2011 Review
• Summary
• Africa
• Eurasia
• Conference documents
• Asia
• Asia Forum 2010 Conference Documents
• Bali Media Forum 2010
• Bali Media Forum 2011
• Independent Media Council Forum Malaysia
• Latin America
• Middle East/North Africa

Middle East/North Africa

MENA Media Development Groups Set Agenda for Action

Participants at the first Regional Forum for Media Development for the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) agreed that the lack of an enabling legal and institutional environment for media freedom was the biggest problem blocking media development in the region. The Forum took place in Beirut on November 1-2 and was attended by more than 60 participants from 18 countries.

But in spite of the restrictive environment, participants shared experience of how different media assistance groups helped enlarging the information space in the region.

“The MENA region is leading in digital activism, it has the fastest growth rate of internet users and the number of bloggers is increasing daily”, said Gamal Eid, Executive Director of the Arbe Network for Human Rights based in Egypt. “We need to engage with this community to work together towards better access to information.”

In her address, prominent Lebanese journalist May Chidiac, who was recently injured in an assassination attempt, called on participants to promote high standards of ethics in their work. “In a region blighted by conflict, journalists have a special responsibility to keep to standards of balanced reporting,” she said.

Nabil Khatib, Executive Director of Al Arabya, echoed her calls for high standards. “Media development in this region is not a question of money,”he said. “There are 400 satellite channels operating in the region, that are worth at least 4 billion US Dollars, but we have to ask ourselves whether we really respond to the information needs of our viewers.”

He highlighted the problem of access to information, which often means that journalists cannot find out key information on, for instance, the division of their own country’s national budget and called on civil society organisations to be more active in the campaign for freedom of information.

Participants elected Shibli Haitham Atoom from Jordan and Ali Djerri from Algeria as the members from the MENA region in the GFMD Steering Committee.

The meeting adopted a range of recommendations to be presented to the up-coming 2nd Global Forum for Media Development that will take place in Athens on December 7-10, 2008. Recommendations include:

• Joint campaigns for access to information should be one priority for media development and other civil society groups in MENA.

• Advocating for safety policies of media practitioners and offering assistance and support to victims of violence and their families should remain a top priority, especially in collaboration with other organizations already devoted to fulfilling this mission.

• Media development organisations in MENA should develop guidelines for transparency and good governance inside media companies and organisations, including clear information on ownership and structures safeguarding editorial independence.

• GFMD should assist in providing capacity building initiatives for media development organisations, in the area of advocacy, training, promotion of social responsibility, etc., as well as coordination between capacity-building efforts and identifying those agents most prepared to adopt and incorporate change.

• GFMD in MENA should work towards increasing support for independent media, including preparing an advocacy strategy for social responsibility for MENA business aiming for them to provide support to independent media.

• MENA media development organisations in the region should work to create and promote and independent rating/measurement tool for MENA media.

• GFMD should identify ways to increase cooperation with different international and donor organisations in the region in order to increase recognition of the important of the role that free, independent, pluralistic media play in promoting democracy, good governance, human and economic development in the MENA region.

• A business plan for the sustainability of GFMD at global and at regional level should be developed that defines the services to be provided by GFMD based on the diversity and richness represented in the network.

Based on these suggestions, GFMD in MENA should develop a strategy with specific objectives for achievement in the next three years.