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In the aftermath of the Arab Spring revolutions, journalists ask: “Who is a journalist?”

A repeated concern at the ENJN closing conference, expressed mostly by delegates from the Middle East and North Africa, revolved around the definition of a journalist today.

The exceptional development in recent years of social networking technologies seems to have given every citizen the necessary tools to become a potential news reporter.

Social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube played a significant, possibly determining, role in galvanising public support during the wave of rebellions which swept across the Arab world earlier this year. Protesters actively used social media platforms to communicate updates about the Arab Spring uprisings to the outside world, thereby generally filling in the gaps left by traditional media due to the restrictions imposed on them.

As a result, bloggers and social media users became increasingly viewed and described by the public as “independent” “news sources” and “citizen journalists” as opposed to mainstream journalists who were seen as mouth pieces of the authorities.

Many delegates felt that this simplistic, unnuanced, image of the news reporting process, mainly created by the rise of social media, was putting their profession under threat.

“Can we still talk of freedom of speech in the age of Internet?” asked an Arab delegate. “I would say that at this time, our problem is not one of freedom, but rather, how the citizens stole our profession.”

“The public doesn’t know what we really do,” said a colleague. “And no wonder - information networks scramble the true journalistic work.”

Another delegate warned against the risks for the public to rely blindly on the internet as a source of information: “Internet is a new force, with tremendous possibilities. At the same time, it’s one big dump.”

“How do I build trust now?”

The most important aspect in the relationship between journalists and the public is the element of trust. Yet, this is precisely what has often been lost in many EN countries due to decades of heavy media censorship and state-control.

A Tunisian political news reporter summarised an issue many journalists in transition democracies are struggling with when she asked: “I have worked for 23 years for Tunisian state media, I want to be a good journalist, how do I build trust now?”

Another important factor behind the feeling of professional insecurity expressed by some delegates is the lack of adequate professional training that for decades has affected the quality of journalism in countries under authoritarian rule.

“There are far more TV and radio stations and newsrooms in the Arab world than there are trained journalists,” noted Jamal Dejani in his keynote speech.

“In Tunisia today, most journalists are not trained as journalists,” commented a political reporter from Le Quotidien in Tunis. “It’s very difficult to find a sports or a financial journalist who would be able to start working the next day.”

“80% of journalists in Tunis have not studied journalism in university,” Hani Hazaimeh, a reporter with The Jordan Times, quoted his Tunisian colleague as saying, via Twitter.

These questions and remarks made it clear that although the sense of regained freedom of expression had given journalists enough reason to feel hopeful for the future, they were aware that many challenges are still lying ahead in the transition to democracy.

A profession under threat?

On various occasions throughout the conference, panelists tried to assuage delegates’ anxieties towards media developments which seemed to be perceived as threats to journalism.

Citizen journalists and accredited journalists should not be viewed as competitors, stressed former BBC Global News director Richard Sambrook. “It is wrong to consider this issue in the light of amateur journalists vs. professionals.  It is very important to realise journalism is not just something you can pick up and do over night.”

Richard Sambrook

Sambrook pointed out however that some of the functions of journalism are today being performed by non-journalists: “A journalist is someone who carries out his or her job of looking at the world on a daily basis. That does not mean that those people who do it part time or those people who do it just out of love for their community do not provide good information sometimes, nor do they necessarily behave in an inadequate fashion in terms of credibility. It is that day-to-day activity that separates the two but we don’t want to discriminate.”

Sambrook tried to boost delegates’ professional confidence by reminding them of the unique qualities and assets which constitute the value of professional media practitioners.

“Citizens don’t have the skills that journalists have. They can’t verify and analyse like we can. As journalists we do have the expertise to evaluate and uncover information. We have the expertise to verify.”

Seen in this light, citizen news reporters are not a threat to the profession but rather a resource. “We need to have more confidence as professional journalists in social media. The public has always been there and they have always had voices,” Sambrook explained.

Ivan Nikoltchev, head of the Media Unit at the Council of Europe’s Directorate General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs, analysed the question from a broader democratic perspective: “There is no fundamental need to define who is a journalist and who should be accredited. If the main objective is to ensure that the public is informed, so that it can participate well in the democratic process, it does not matter whether the information process happens through traditional journalism or citizen blogs, as both can be considered as democratically relevant forms of journalism.”

Challenges ahead

Sergey Strokan, political commentator at the Russian daily Kommersant, Jamal Dajani, Vice President of Middle East, North Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean at Internews Network, and Konstanty Gebert, international reporter and columnist at the Polish daily “Gazeta Wyborcza”, acknowledged and warned about the challenges ahead, especially those related to the key values of journalistic independence and freedom of expression.

A major difficulting facing journalists in the aftermath of the Arab Spring is that, even after a revolution, nothing changes overnight. “The overwhelming regime influence from the top still remains, decades after its toppling,” noted Jamal Dajani. Journalists should be aware that “old habits, such as government- and self-enforced censorship, die hard.”

“How do you work alongside journalists that were regime roadies/informers?” asked an Arab journalist.

Konstanty Gebert provided a straightforward answer: “If there are no free journalists, they should be trained, otherwise the transition will not work. This requires a certain level of purging. Unjust as that may be, it is less unjust that leaving the regime puppets in place.”

Konstanty Gebert

For Gebert, media independence essentially boils down to a matter of financial independence: “Media outlets should be financially independent, otherwise they would be influenced by outside interests. This means that they would be betraying the citizens’ interests.”

“Konstanty Gebert: whoever pays ur salary dictates ur work. #ENJN,” Hani Hazaimeh quoted Gebert as saying, via Twitter.

In the same breath, Hazaimeh however wondered: “Konstanty Gebert “independent media is media that doesnt take money from anybody” Is this possible???? #ENJN”.

For his part, Jamal Dejani cautioned the new, non-state controlled, media platforms in the Arab world to beware of other potential influencers, such as authoritarian oil oligarchs from the Middle East.

“@JamalDajani puts new free Arab media on notice, compares E Eur oligarch $ that flooded into post-Soviet media to #Saudipetrodollars #ENJN,” relayed Courtney Radsch, journalist and Senior Programme Officer at Freedom House, via Twitter.

Going back to basics, Sergey Strokan captured the main principle to keep in mind when performing any journalistic activity: “If we are not scared and we understand that our responsibility is first and foremost to our audience, and not to our editors or owners, then journalism will not die.”

Richard Sambrook’s tone sounded predominantly positive and hopeful when he concluded that, in spite of the fact that journalists “are bound to face more difficult times [than I did] in developing their career, their new capacity to develop their voice is unique.”

“I’m very envious of their experience,” he said, “I don’t think that there are more exciting times for journalists.”

———

ENJN closing conference - Media Futures - Policy, Politics and Power, 10-11 October, Brussels

More than 200 journalists and media professionals from southern Mediterranean, Eastern European and Southern Caucasus countries met on 10-11 October at the ENJN closing conference in Brussels to exchange views on the democratising power of new media in the context of the Arab Spring revolutions and gather insights from experiences in Eastern Europe. Speakers and participants engaged in a lively debate, moderated by   journalist and broadcaster Samira Ahmed, on the challenges facing the business of news reporting in transition countries. Here are the main takeaways of the discussions that took place on the first day of the conference.

Links:
ENJN closing conference: main takeaways - Day 1
ENJN closing conference: main takeaways - Day 2
ENJN closing conference website
ENJN website
Photo coverage
Video coverage
Blog post by conference moderator Samira Ahmed

Tags: arab, credibility, definition, enjn, eu, future, independence, journalism, journalist, neighbourhood, news, profession, professionalism, reporter, responsibility, revolutions, spring, training, trust, uprising,

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