One Wild Ride: Journalism in the Middle East (Part 3 of 4)
By Heather Murphy, 09.22.05
Journalistic opportunities have increased but journalists in the Middle East still face intense risks.
Reporting politics in the Middle East can become a violent business. Even indigenous reporters who work for CBN, such as Lebanese-born Salam Eid, face special risks.
When the anti-Israeli militant group Hezbollah gained control of Southern Lebanon in 2000, Eid became a target. As a reporter and producer at the CBN affiliate in the Israeli-occupied buffer zone, Eid produced stories that urged viewers to “stop using terror as a tool,” stories that offended Hezbollah. Without local Israeli protection, Eid and his family had no choice but to literally run across the border to Israel for safety, leaving their home, possessions, extended family and community behind.
He now resides in the United States, safe from Hezbollah, but separated from his homeland.
“It hurts so much,” he said. “It’s like if you have the capacity to give, but you could not give.”
By bringing a different flavor to Middle Eastern conflicts through the broadcasts he produces for CBN, Eid has found an outlet to help the situation while in exile. But ultimately all he wants is to return to his family home in Southern Lebanon.
“Instead of being in a small jail, I’m in a big jail,” he said. “It is an annoying situation that I live with day in and day out. If there is a voice of justice [in Lebanon], I’m going back. But as long as I see hypocrisy, I cannot go.”
Caught in the Crossfire
Christian and American journalists are not the only reporters facing danger in the Middle East. Practicing journalism freely there can be deeply challenging to anyone who attempts it.
In May, women journalists were physically and sexually assaulted in Cairo, Egypt, allegedly by members of President Hosni Mubarak’s political party. Human rights watchdog Amnesty International reported that security officers reportedly did not intervene as the women were attacked, while they were supposed to be covering rallies against a referendum approving multi-candidate presidential elections.
One week later, Samir Kassir, a popular Lebanese journalist and activist, was assassinated when a bomb exploded in his car. Many Lebanese presumed it was placed there because he spoke out against the Syrian influence in his country.
Even Jordan, who Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called “a good friend… [with an] increasingly shared vision of reform in the region” during a speech there, is not without controversy. According to the global news provider United Press International, The Jordanian Organization for Human Rights reported that the government there committed 12 press freedom violations in the last two months, including censorship, license denial for publication of books and pressuring journalists.
“They must adhere to government policies. Criticizing leadership is a no-no,” George Thomas said of his Middle Eastern colleagues.
Those in power in most Middle Eastern countries tightly scrutinize their local reporters. Eid calls these reporters “compromisers”, journalists who are bound by their culture and the relationships they have with those in power to report only what the dominant leadership wants published.
And in a society where there is a consequence for every action, journalists are paralyzed to practice their craft independently and openly.
“The vast majority have to toe the party line,” Thomas said. “They have some latitude but they have to be very, very careful.”
“Even if they [Middle Eastern journalists] have the courage to tell the truth, they wouldn’t,” Eid said. “They know they would be killed or arrested and tortured forever.”
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