Why Media is independent in Arab Country's? | INDEPENDENCE AND SELF-REGULATORY MECHANISMS

 Why Media is independent in Arab Country's? | INDEPENDENCE AND SELF-REGULATORY MECHANISMS

Media regulation has been relatively new in the Arab region given that media were largely state-owned and under direct government control prior to the 1990's. By and large, the regulatory bodies in the region dealing with media outlets and activities have been state bodies and parliaments.

 Despite the technological developments in several countries in the past decade and the ensuing shift towards privatization of media ownership, media have remained regulated primarily by the state through one of its departments or ministries.

A 2012 study by the Pa-nos Paris Institute and the Mediterranean Observatory of Communication found that four of the eight Arab countries studied had a regulatory authority other than a government ministry to oversee licensing and to monitor the content of national media. 

There have not generally been quotas on equal representation of women in media regulatory bodies in the region.

Public service broadcasting has been virtually non-existent in the Arab region as a consequence of the lack of legal regulatory frameworks to support and promote this component of media pluralism. There have not been independent press councils in the region, although this may be shifting in countries undergoing transitions.

The year 2011 marked an unprecedented development regarding media relations with the state in much of the region, especially the countries that experienced major political changes. These developments have prompted calls to revise media regulations and regulatory bodies to ensure independence. 

In the transitional countries, activists and journalists called for doing away with the institution of Ministries of Information or Communication. In Tunisia, the creation of an independent audiovisual regulatory authority was announced on World Press Freedom Day in 2013.

a year after the country hosted UNESCO’s annual global celebration of this international Day. In Libya, laws and regulations affecting media operations and practices have been changed, amended, or introduced.

 Elsewhere in the Arab region, there has not been lessening of government control through allowing an independent regulator to manage broadcast licensing or permitting print media to operate without licences. The regulatory functions have continued to be highly controlled if not directly administered by governments. 

There has been an emerging trend of regulating the internet in many parts of the region. Routinely, the majority of the broadcasting and print media have been required to obtain licences before being able to operate in the Arab region.9

 The process of licensing media has reportedly often been politicized. Government ministries, usually the Ministry of Information, have been responsible for media and publication licensing in several countries, particularly in some of the Gulf States but also in other countries.

 Barriers have remained for private TV news channels (terrestrial as well as satellite stations based in the country) because the state has remained dominant either through direct ownership and control over editorial content, or through the granting of licences to individuals affiliated with or favored by ruling elites who often have vested economic interests that have limited their independence from government [see Arab Region: Media Pluralism].

 Ownership rules and regulations have tended to be unclear in much of the Arab region, along with the procedures for obtaining a broadcasting licence, which has almost always been conditional on obtaining state security clearance. In many countries in the region, journalists were also required to be licensed, although this trend was most common in some Gulf States. 

The expansion of journalistic platforms has made determining who is a journalist increasingly complex, facilitating the selective targeting of bloggers.

The past couple of years have indicated a potentially emerging trend in the North African sub region towards the creation of independent regulatory bodies. In Algeria, the 2012 new media law established the Regulatory Authority for Print Media to manage newspaper licensing, which envisioned the creation of a regulatory authority for audiovisual media. In many transitional countries, the momentum towards a more independent regulatory system seems to have stalled. 9 Licensing of media outlets is the duty of various governmental bodies in the Arab countries.

State licensing has increasingly been required for internet publishing; independent bodies have not usually performed this licensing function. An emerging trend requiring news websites with local audiences to register and be licensed has been evidenced by new regulations introduced recently in many countries.

 Regulating internet news content has contrasted with a trend towards loosening the regulatory framework to provide for greater competitiveness in internet provision [see Arab Region: Media Freedom]. The Arab Ad-visors Group reported that whereas there were five countries with internet monopolies and 12 competitive internet markets in 2005, there were 14 competitive markets in 2011 and only one monopoly.

Media Free Zones, which are a mixture of public and private partnerships, have continued to be popular during this time period primarily for economic reasons; they have typically been regulated by different ministries than the rest of the media and were intended to provide for more freedom from government interference. 

Commercial and ownership regulations have tended to be more favorable in these zones, but governments nonetheless have reportedly sought to maintain control over content, including through direct censorship and through self-censorship by journalists.

 The trend towards pan-Arab media regulation signaled by the adoption in 2008 of the Arab Satellite Broadcasting Charter appeared to have faded over the ensuing years, while there have been other initiatives aimed at establishing links between regulatory institutions. 

The Ministers of Information of all but two members of the Arab League signed on to the Charter in 2008, which sought to regulate the burgeoning satellite television industry as well as content. It appears to not have been put into practice. Concurrently, the 2008 creation of the Union for the Mediterranean, followed by the Mediterranean Network of Regulatory Authorities, has sought to build common links and strengthen cooperation across the Arab region and with the European region.