Saturday, June 14, 2008

Solutions for an "effective" media

Fahed Fanek, chief of the government mouthpiece (Al Rai) is wringing his hands over the ineffectiveness of Jordanian media. He complains that people criticize the media without offering an alternative. Charging opponents with not having an alternative is almost a reflex with Fanek.

I understand the dilemma. The government wants a free press without anybody saying anything uncomfortable. This press should also be highly credible. Why is this task so difficult? I don’t know what he means by “effective”? Actually, I do.

Anyway, here is my alternative. Let people say and publish what they want. I know this sounds novel. I have another simple suggestion for the “effectiveness” problem. Let the government tell the truth. It will be difficult at first, but they might get used to it.

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3 Comments:

At 1:01 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Your alternative is the only possible true alternative Khalaf.

In this piece Fanek, a media worker himself, falls into the same pit though. He complains without practical suggestions. His piece is good to know, and useless.

Back to your suggestion... fear. Fear holds everything and everyone back. And it's been so long since we expressed fearlessly, that it's a forgotten practice by the fragments of a media industry itself, people in general, and certainly the system.

This fear will inevitably ease away with time as more voices go online, online goes mainstream, and that adorable little tool with a pulse in your pocket connects like minded people ignoring their petty and useless formal systems who chose to be left behind.

 
At 11:41 AM, Blogger Tallouza said...

what's up Khalaf? If you ran out of subjects, I can think of at least 5 that we would love to hear hear your take on :-) Inshallah all is well.

 
At 1:17 PM, Blogger Ali Dahmash said...

Free Media, and that's why the Government have shut down ATV on its first broadcast! Bunch of corrupted beraucrats!

 

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