On November 11, at the ASBU BroadcastPro Summit, our keynote speaker Her Excellency Sameera Ebrahim bin Rajab, Minister of State for Information Affairs and the Official Spokesperson for the government of Bahrain, brought an important issue to light. Her sentiments were echoed a week later by Queen Rania of Jordan at the Abu Dhabi Media […]
On November 11, at the ASBU BroadcastPro Summit, our keynote speaker Her Excellency Sameera Ebrahim bin Rajab, Minister of State for Information Affairs and the Official Spokesperson for the government of Bahrain, brought an important issue to light. Her sentiments were echoed a week later by Queen Rania of Jordan at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit. Both women expressed concern about how Arabs were being perceived across the world, thanks to outfits like ISIS.
“The perception of Arabs as terrorists, reactionaries and savages has never been more rampant,” HE Sameera Rajab stated in her speech. Queen Rania seconded that in her own speech when she decried how “a minority of irreligious extremists” was “using social media to rewrite our narrative hijack our identity and rebrand us”.
“The rich and ancient cultures of 22 countries the cosmopolitan character of over 350 million people the diverse heritage of these historic lands Islam, a religion of peace, tolerance and mercy reduced to this,” she commented, pointing to a slide filled with images of violence and war.
“Thats what ISIS is doing to the Arab world and all of us. These images dont represent me anymore than they represent you. Theyre alien and abhorrent to the vast majority of Arabs Muslims and Christians. And they should make every Arab across this region seethe. Because theyre an attack on our values as a people. And on our collective story.”
Wherein lies the solution?
While Queen Rania called for education to fight this, the rallying call from HE Sameera Rajab to the MENA broadcast community was to use the most powerful medium they had in their hands television.
“It is true that television productions are associated with market conditions, yet we should not forget that TV programmes have a role to play in social life, one which should not be overlooked in the service of market needs operators [and] producers must not forget that TV programmes influence public opinion.”
The ASBU BroadcastPro ME summit served as a platform for influential government entities this time to remind broadcasters about their social responsibility, even as they debated the technical and commercial aspects of television in the Middle East. We bring you the details inside.
