The peninsula Newspaper
Wednesday, 21 December 2011
Even though the growing amount of frustration cannot be ignored in the arena of the Qatari press, the opportunities that restore hope for change appear from time to time, though they are few, especially when we are going through the time of radical change that is sweeping the Arab world from its ocean to its Gulf. The hope today may come back with the emergence of a new Department of Media Development. Will it be an active factor in bringing about a paradigm shift in the court of the Qatari press or it will be just a department to take its title?
(1) The rapid deterioration experienced by the Qatari press, or the press in Qatar as it pleases some, from topping the list of Arab countries in term of international reports on the status, freedoms and the expression, to the dramatic decline of getting out of the list of top countries because it did not move and at remained as applauding spectator. Its ideas, concepts and methods didn’t change in conversation, expression and daring. It did not differ and change while it is watching the waves, hurricanes and volcanoes that are flying around, hitting, breaking and destroying thrones and changing leaders, presidents, authoritarianism, dictatorship, totalitarianism and Arab military after half a century of repression, silencing, shackling and torturing. The media landscape has changed after the revolutions of the Arab streets from Tunisia, Egypt and Libya to Yemen, Syria, Bahrain and Kuwait. It broke the barrier of fear and the events topped the forums and social networking websites. The facts were reported from the inside while the international news media such as CNN and BBC, Al Arabia and Al-Jazeera ahead of them failed to do that. They only reported what was going on through the camera of a mobile phone carried by a citizen in the street inaugurating the era of new media in the Arab world. Many Arab newspapers and Arab media became aware of the size and spread of change, their covering ceiling rose high and they got rid of the node of political and media censor and began to lead the community, reflect and contribute to the formation of its fateful decisions. The role of the press in our society should reflect the size of the moves undertaken by Qatar at home and abroad and make radical change in order to bring it again to the forefront of the Arab media.
(2) The Department of Media Development, in Qatar Media Foundation, supported by its new director who experienced the media milieu, can contribute strongly to support the press with the national elements in the administration and editing and writing of reports, investigations, studies, research, analytical articles and columns of opinion. There are simple and practical steps that must be a point of breakthrough and will not cost the administration any burdens or financial benefits or long and complicated routine procedures that may take many years without the results on the ground. The most important of them is the benefit from the elements that work in the local newspapers at the present time as they have the expertise and long experience in management, editing and writing by giving them full time without incurring any expenses, whether by the Department of Media Development or by the newspapers in which they work. This supports the resolution of the Council of Ministers on 11.03.2010 by encouraging Qataris to work in the journalism field, which stipulates to enable the Qatari personnel currently working in the local newspapers as (part-timers) to work full time as a journalist while preserving their financial dues provided by their government bodies and institutions. The move will open the field widely to attract national elements that have a desire to work in the press by joining the various news organizations in the country that print and publish in Arabic or a foreign language. This would be a motivation and an encouraging step that will take us to attract the new generation of Qatari cadres (both genders) including the graduates of the media and the press (and from different disciplines, including the production and graphics), who are graduated from the University of Qatar or foreign colleges and institutes inside and outside the state each year, so that they can be employed according to the employment and financial status given to Qatari graduates.
Later on, they can be assigned as trainees in the local press to work full-time while enjoying all the advantages of Qatari graduates who work in the public bodies in terms of (loan / land / salary). Here I mentioned a text from the cabinet resolution calling to enable a number of students who are studying media and journalism at the University of Qatar or foreign universities and colleges in the state and have not graduated yet to get a job in the local media like high secondary school Qatari graduates who work in ministries and government institutions in the State during the holidays, vacations and other days of the year.
(3) The media is in a real danger as the revenue of many newspapers has fallen, their income hit and their doors are closed. There are more than 65 local newspapers closed in Britain alone in the past months as a result of the economic crisis and competition from alternative means of communication. But the main problem lies in the structural composition, as the habits of readers have changed and there are many sources of information. This situation requires all media organisations to change quickly or they will find themselves outside the arena completely. Perhaps one of the most prominent obstacles that the media in Qatar should get rid of is that it had been transformed to a public relation foundation, and not a fourth power based on the foundations of journalism career, through disseminating news about the ministries and institutions in a glorifying and celebrating way instead of oversighting, holding accountability, highlighting the defects and shortcomings, addressing them and providing the solutions, alternatives and treatment. This is due to the absence of professional staff in dealing with news, information, numbers and statistics. Astonishingly this is required in the network of Al-Jazeera but absent in the local media.
The hope is growing today in Qatar that the media will be supported with the national elements who remained absent during the eighties, nineties and even in the twenty first century due to the absence of the press and media law and the lack of an umbrella or association for the press or media as well as the absence of material and moral incentives and the existence of many reasons for not working in the local press though the Qatari journalist has a genuine desire to contribute in the development and progress of his society through free writing and expression.
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