The power of the media in today’s world can not be over-emphasized. More than bombers, drones and missiles it is the media which now plays a decisive role in international conflict.
It is again the media which moulds would public opinion and influences decision making in international bodies more particularly in the United Nations. The cases of Palestine and Kashmir been witness to the fact that however genuine the case, we cannot curry the favour of the nations of the world without the support in the international media. Even to mobilise our own people, we need a strong and edible media.
The absence of a well developed and influential media is one of the basic reasons of the failure of The Muslim World in pleading Muslim causes in the international fora. The secret of Israel’s great success in winning unflinching political, economic and diplomatic support of the United States and its Western allies in its disputes with Arab countries is the influence that commands in the US media. As against the big clout of the pro-Israel lobby in the US, the Arab and Muslim countries stand no where. Nor do they have their own media strong enough to voice their opinion in the international fora.
The media in the Muslim world, including the Arab countries, lags behind that of Israel, India and the western countries. It is true both of the print and electronic media despite the large material resources of many Arab and Muslim countries.
There are historical reasons for this backwardness of the media in the Muslim world. It has been the result of the absence or weakness of modern democratic institutions in most of the Muslim countries. Many Muslim countries have strong monarchies where media enjoys only limited freedom. Those countries which have no monarchies also lay behind in media freedom. In short, none of the Muslim countries can boast of a world class media which can compare with that of the advanced countries of the west.
Regrettably even today when the power of the media is an established fact, few Muslim countries have paid any heed to establish strong media institution. The Muslim world does not have a functioning news agency of its own. As a result, we have to depend on foreign agencies even for the news about sister countries.
The OIC had made a feeble attempt to have an international Muslim news agency, but it failed to take off. Then have been a few individual organizations in Muslim countries publishing news papers or running TV news channels. Some liberalization is also in evidence in some of the Arab monarchies. But that is no answer to the need of the time.
All the Arab and Muslim countries should give top priority to the development of a free and responsible media to safeguard and promote the individual and collective interests of the Muslim peoples.
