Speaking on the first day of the Asia Media Summit in Jeddah, Salaheddine Maaoui, Director General of the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU), said there are nearly 1,300 channels in the Arab world, broadcasting all kind of stuff resulting in chaos and confusion. Only 15% of these channels are owned by the government, the rest […]
Speaking on the first day of the Asia Media Summit in Jeddah, Salaheddine Maaoui, Director General of the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU), said there are nearly 1,300 channels in the Arab world, broadcasting all kind of stuff resulting in chaos and confusion.
Only 15% of these channels are owned by the government, the rest belong to private citizens. Anyone who has the money can set the agenda of a channel. There are no checks and balances, the government has little control over these channels, he was addressing a session titled Proliferation of Satellite Channels: Boon or Bane
Satellite stations, he said, have mushroomed over the last two decades.
Maaoui highlighted the negatives and positives of such proliferation saying that one good aspect of these channels is that Arabs now have more freedom of expression and greater variety.
However, the flipside of it is that there is no control. There is no legislation to govern them, he was quoted in Arab News.
He said there are regulations in other parts of the world to keep a check on spurious content being broadcast. The Arab world lacks such regulation.
We should have unified Arab standards to monitor what is aired on satellite television channels.
He emphasised on greater monitoring of content and self censorship rather than governmental control.
No, we are talking about certain media ethics that one should adhere to. We are not calling for suppressing information. We are calling for airing of better and credible information for the general good of society.
According to Maaoui, the Arab League did try to introduce some broad rules but the implementation was left to individual countries. As a result, their efforts did not bear fruit. The planning was great but the execution sloppy, he said.
Now they are working again to put some regulations in place, he said.
Others panelists speaking at the summit were Wen Shijun of China Central Television (CCTV), Eric Cremer of France 24 television channel, and Ratu Tevita Gavula Gonelevu of Fiji TV.
