Wednesday, December 28, 2005

US halts Arabic magazine meant to boost US image

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has suspended publishing a lifestyle magazine aimed at improving America's image abroad among young Arabs, in a further sign of troubled U.S. public diplomacy efforts.

The State Department, which sponsors the $4.5 million annual publication and distribution throughout the Arab world of the Arabic-language magazine "Hi," said on Thursday it stopped the presses because it was unclear how widely it was read.
A series of studies in the United States have criticized U.S.-funded Arabic-langauge media, such as Radio Sawa and the satellite TV station Alhurra, for failing to attract a large audience.
U.S. officials made a push to boost America's image among Arabs and Muslims after the September 11, 2001 attacks. But the efforts have been hampered because many Arabs strenuously object to U.S. foreign policies, particularly over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the
Iraq' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> Iraq war.
But Hi, which was launched in 2003 and had a monthly distribution of 55,000 copies in around 18 countries, aimed to overcome that obstacle and reach an audience directly by tapping into a growing phenomenon of young Arabs indulging in escapism through U.S. pop culture.
A December edition of the online version of Hi, which will continue despite the halt to print copies, combines features on cooking, soccer and family life in the Arab world with a focus on life in Texas.
But following recommendations from an independent advisory panel, the State Department said in a statement that it needed to collect data to see who was actually reading a magazine that competes with popular, glossy fashion publications.
"The review is part of a broader effort to develop a 'culture of measurement' and to evaluate regularly the effectiveness of the Department's public-diplomacy programs," the statement said.
An earlier campaign to promote a video highlighting Muslims in the United States was widely derided as ineffectual.
The magazine suspension comes after Karen Hughes, the new U.S. goodwill envoy, has struggled to improve America's image in the Middle East.
Hughes, who had been one of
President George W. Bush' name President George W. Bush's closest aides before taking the senior State Department job, traveled throughout the Arab world in September.
But the fast-talking, confident Texan, who had no previous experience in foreign diplomacy, found the U.S. image a tough sell as some audiences balked at what they perceived as her cultural insensitivity.

أميركا تعيد تقييم "الحرة" و"سوا"

أميركا تعيد تقييم "الحرة" و"سوا"
عادل عيدان: خبر آخر نقرأه في صحيفة البيان يسير في نفس الاتجاه, حيث أظهرت نتائج استطلاع في أوائل هذا الشهر أن الحرة أقل الفضائيات الناطقة بالعربية مشاهدة, الخبر بعنوان:الفضائية الأقل مشاهدة في المنطقة: أميركا تعيد تقييم "الحرة" و"سوا"التعليق الصوتي: "استبعد مصدر في الخارجية الأميركية في حديث إلى البيان أن تلقى قناة الحرة الفضائية أو إذاعة سوا اللتان تمولهما الحكومة الأميركية مصير مجلة هاي الشهرية باللغة العربية التي قررت الخارجية إيقافها عن الصدور, وأكد المصدر أن عملية مراجعة وتقويم شاملة تُجرى حالياً لتقدير أدائهما والنتائج التي تحققت, سيتم على ضوئها اتخاذ الخطوات اللازمة لجعلهما أكثر فعالية وقدرة على جذب المشاهدين والمستمعين".

Thursday, December 22, 2005

صورة أميركا في العالمين العربي والإسلامي



حافظ المرازي: مرحبا بكم معنا في هذه الحلقة من برنامج من واشنطن، في حلقة الأسبوع الماضي تحدثنا عن صورة العرب والمسلمين في السينما الأميركية، هذا الأسبوع نتحول إلى صورة أميركا في العالم العربي والإسلامي. هذا الموضوع صورة أميركا أصبح الشغل الشاغل هنا في واشنطن منذ أحداث الحادي عشر من سبتمبر وتردد معها أيضا التساؤل لماذا يكرهوننا؟ واشنطن أيضا تساءلت هل هناك تقصير في نقل صورة أميركا الواقعية إلى العالم العربي والإسلامي وإلى العالم بشكل أجمع أم أن هناك تشويه لتلك الصورة؟ ما المطلوب عمله؟ هل هناك سياسات هناك مواقف ضدها؟ أم أن هذه السياسات لن تتزحزح عنها واشنطن لأنها تعبر عن رؤيتها لقيمها ورؤيتها لمصالحها القومية؟

أسلاف هيوز.. مكاسب وإخفاقات

على أي حال الدبلوماسية العامة أو الدبلوماسية الشعبية أصبحت من ضمن أولويات وأجندات العمل

العالم الإسلامي يسعى لتفعيل قرارات مؤتمر مكة بتجريم العداء للإسلام


كشفت مصادر ديبلوماسية مصرية عن إجراء اتصالات لتفعيل قرارات قمة "مكة" الإسلامية بالعمل على تجريم ظاهرة كراهية الإسلام وقيمه، وكذلك التشويه المتعمد له، وتدنيس المقدسات الأسلامية.
وتجري الاتصالات، حسبما كشفت صحيفة الخليج الإماراتية الخميس 22-12-2205، بين حكومات ماليزيا، بوصفها الرئيس الحالي لمنظمة المؤتمر الإسلامي، والسعودية (رئيس القمة الاستثنائية)، والجزائر، الرئيس الحالي للقمة العربية ومصر.
وتدرس هذه المشاورات مشاريع قرارات، تمهيداً لطرحها على مؤتمرات المنظمات الدولية والإقليمية ومتعددة الأطراف، التي تشارك فيها دول إسلامية، ومنها الأمم المتحدة وحركة عدم الانحياز والاتحاد الإفريقي وجامعة الدول العربية والحوار الأطلسي المتوسطي، ومنظمة التعاون والأمن الأوروبي، من أجل تبني هذا الطرح.
من جهة أخرى، هددت المنظمة الإسلامية للتربية والعلوم والثقافة (ايسيسكو) بتصعيد الموقف ضد الدانمارك اذا أصرت حكومتها على عدم الاعتذار رسميا عن الرسومات الكاريكاتيرية التي أساءت إلى الرسول محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم في إحدى صحفها بحجة حرية التعبير.
وقال المدير العام للمنظمة الدكتور عبدالعزيز التويجري في تصريح صحفي إن الدانمارك اذا استمرت في تجاهلها لمشاعر الملايين من المسلمين فان المنظمة ستحث الدول الإسلامية الأعضاء بها على ضرورة قطع علاقتها الاقتصادية والسياسية مع الدانمارك. وكشف عن أنه سيتم رفع دعوى ضد الصحيفة الدانماركية التي نشرت الكاريكاتير المسيء واذا لم يتم إصدار حكم عادل ستلجأ المنظمة إلى محكمة العدل الدولية.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Iraq's PR Battle Continues in U.S., Abroad

By Terry M. Neal
Washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Thursday, December 8, 2005; 11:27 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/08/AR2005120800900_pf.html

President Bush on Wednesday compared the task at hand in the Middle East to the lofty objectives the United States faced during World War II, saying that the attempt to build a stable democracy in Iraq is essential to the future security of America.

Yet, during War World II, Americans and Europeans saw their intervention in clear, altruistic terms. Today, the Bush administration is losing the public relations battle in the Middle East, Europe, and, increasingly, at home. The president seems to realize this and is giving a series of speeches aimed at swinging public opinion back to his side of the ledger.

"In places like Mosul and Najaf, residents are seeing tangible progress in their lives," Bush said Wednesday in a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations. "They're gaining a personal stake in a peaceful future and their confidence in Iraq's democracy is growing. The progress in these cities is being replicated across much of Iraq. And more of Iraq's people are seeing the real benefits that a democratic society can bring."

Democrats were quick to respond, with Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), a longtime hawk on military issues who has turned against the Iraq war, saying that the administration is "unrealistic" about the situation in Iraq.

"When I said we can't win a military victory, it's because the Iraqis have turned against us," he said.

Meanwhile, a new joint poll conducted in six Middle Eastern countries (Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Kuwait and Morocco) by Zogby International and Shibley Telhami, the University of Maryland's Anwar Sadat chair for peace and development, demonstrates the extent of the perception problem facing the United States.

* More than two-thirds of respondents disagreed with the statement that the spread of democracy is the goal of the U.S. in the Middle East.

* More than four-fifths believe the war in Iraq has brought less peace to the Middle East.

* Nearly four-fifths believe the war in Iraq has increased terrorism.

* Just fewer than 60 percent believe the war in Iraq has brought less democracy to the region.

* Seventy-seven percent believe Iraqis are worse off since the war.

* Majorities of the public ascribe to the U.S. negative motivations, such as securing oil resources, protecting Israel and weakening the Muslim world, while fewer than 30 percent ascribe positive motivations, such as preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, promoting human rights and spreading democracy.

If perception is reality in the Middle East, then America has a big problem. Even if the United States wins the ground war, Iraq cannot be a success without winning the PR war as well. Complicating these efforts are revelations about secret CIA prisons in Europe, and prisoner abuse in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. These stories have fanned distrust throughout the Middle East and created an environment in which many people automatically believe the worst about the Bush administration's intentions.

The "consequences of Iraq," said Telhami, are perceptions in the Middle East of "less peace, less democracy, less human rights, less democracy{lcub}hellip{rcub}People there talk about Guantanamo Bay, reports of abuses in Afghanistan, the pictures coming out of Fallujah. People here see it as a tough battle against an insurgency. They see it as an attack on a city where there were a lot of civilian casualties."

Bush administration officials place the blame on what they see as an overtly biased Arab media, feeding off a negative American press corps.

"We've arrived at a strange time in this country where the worst about America and our military seems to so quickly be taken as truth by the press, and reported and spread around the world, often with little context and little scrutiny, let alone correction or accountability after the fact," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in a speech this week.

Rumsfeld's argument is a classic "attack the messenger" tactic that government officials in most administrations use to attempt to deflect attention from their own failures and mistakes. Yet it is becoming increasingly clear that the White House's problems are of its own making. An administration previously known for a strong, united voice is now failing to send clear, unambiguous messages about the high standards of American-style democracy.

The net result has undermined the lofty goals Bush set for himself after in his second inaugural address in which he vowed to work aggressively to spread democracy around the globe. Instead, the ambassador for his message, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice , has been distracted from this lofty mission by having to explain over and over again in her foreign travels whether America tortures people.

During World War II, the United States and its allies united the globe in the fight against fascism. So when the president makes the analogy, it begs the question whether we are winning the important battle for the hearts and minds of the people of the Middle East and around the world.

Increasingly, it looks like the answer is no.

Monday, December 12, 2005

US image in Arab countries deteriorates: poll

US image in Arab countries deteriorates: poll

Published: 12/7/2005
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=84830








WASHINGTON - The image of the United States took a beating this year in six Arab countries due to the war in Iraq and "American treatment of Arabs and Muslims," according a poll released Wednesday.

The poll by US-based Zogby International showed that the attitude toward the United States had particularly hardened in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, where 84 percent and 82 percent, respectively, said their opinion of the superpower had worsened in the past year.

Negative sentiment was less severe in Lebanon, with 21 percent saying their opinion had improved and 49 percent saying it worsened, according to Zogby.

In Jordan, a key US ally in the war on terror, 62 percent said their attitude toward the United States had worsened, while 72 percent said so in Morocco and 58 percent in the United Arab Emirates.

China wins the popularity contest against the United States, Russia and India in five of six Arab countries.

The Asian giant is seen favorably by 70 percent in Egypt, 68 percent in Jordan, 46 percent in Lebanon, 52 percent in Morocco and 40 percent in Saudi Arabia. India leads in UAE with 58 percent.

To burnish the US image in Arab countries, President George W. Bush picked his close confidante Karen Hughes this year to become the US imagemaker abroad as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy.

Hughes traveled to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey in her first tour in October.

In each of the six Arab countries, Zogby interviewed between 500 and 800 people in October. The margin of error is between 3.5 and 4.5 percentage points, except in UAE where it is 10 percentage points.

12/07/2005 18:34 GMT

THE GREAT ALHURRA DEBATE

THE GREAT ALHURRA DEBATE
DEC 7, 2005, by Alvin Snyder

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee conceded that its recent call for a debate on Alhurra's effectiveness should have happened before America’s Arabic television channel went on the air. But the oversight committee is too late. The dispute rages daily in Washington and the Middle East, and battle lines have been drawn on two major issues.

One is who is watching Alhurra, and the other is what they see there.

Audience ratings are important because the message means nothing if no one is there to receive it, as noted by Norman Pattiz, who founded Alhurra and Radio Sawa, the United States government-owned Arabic radio station.

How many people are watching the channel might seem like a point everyone could agree on, but there are no neutral zones in the great Alhurra debate. The numbers released by the station paint a much more optimistic picture of its viewership than do those calculated by outside sources.

Recently, Worldcasting cited that Alhurra had a 14 percent viewership in Iraq, according to one independent survey. However, a survey released by the network showed 44 percent viewership in the country. Both surveys had about the same number of respondents in their samples for national representation of actual viewing, both did face-to-face interviews throughout Iraq, which is considered more reliable than telephone polling. Each defended to Worldcasting its sample model - the locations of respondents within Iraq - as the most representative of the entire country.

Why the differing results? The survey showing 44 percent recorded the percentage of the adult population in the Iraq sample that said they viewed Alhurra in the past week, while the lower figure, 14 percent, represented viewers who watched the channel the day before. Previous day numbers are "the currency of the market, most of the agencies, media and advertisers are relying on such data," according to a spokesperson for IPSOS-STAT, a leading independent marketing company in the Middle East. I also know from my personal experience at CBS in New York, that the overnight ratings delivered to my desk first thing each morning were grabbed before coffee.

A representative from the U.S. government’s International Broadcasting Bureau spoke to Worldcasting and granted that “weekly audiences are normally greater than daily audiences for all channels, since more people watch any given channel at least once over the course of a week than watch on any given day." The spokesperson defended the network's research by saying that "Weekly viewing and/or listening is the standard audience measure used for all" - the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and others - and that it is also the standard measure by other international broadcasters including “the BBC, Radio France International, Deutsche Welle, Radio Canada...We use the weekly measure to maintain consistency…”

And this has yet to get to the heart of the controversy. According to one critic, Alhurra is known as “Al Jazeera lite in the Middle East." Salameh Nematt, Washington Bureau Chief of the international Arab daily Al-Hayat and the Lebanon-based Arab satellite television channel LBC claimed that Arab audiences are disappointed that Alhurra does not have a harder edge in its reporting, “to expose torture and massacres" that are taking place in repressive Arab countries, and “rulers in the Gulf who pocket one-third of the country’s income.”

Nematt said that “Middle East viewers were hoping that Alhurra would do the kind of reporting about repressive governments as the U.S. had done with Radio Free Europe and the Voice of America Arabic service,” the latter of which was replaced by the music and news channel, Radio Sawa.

Deirdre Kline, communications director of the U.S. government’s Middle East Broadcasting Networks, countered by citing a list of 17 reports on issues carried regularly on Alhurra’s news broadcasts. Those include several stories from Saudi Arabia on such topics as human rights violations and the problem of domestic violence, plus the Kifaya movement’s demonstrations in Cairo before the general elections, and anti-war demonstrations in Washington, DC, and London.

Alhurra gets its lightweight reputation in part because it “outsources” Middle East coverage, said Nematt, who was fired as an Alhurra talk show participant after he criticized the station’s management. He said it uses reporters from its mammoth contractor, Associated Press Television News (ATPN), instead of having its own full-time, staffed news bureaus in the region, as Al Jazeera does. APTN touts on its website that “We are now the primary source of foreign news and technical support for the growing number of satellite stations in the Middle East as well as Alhurra…” Farmed out reporting might work for now, but the new BBC Arabic channel launches in 2007; the British broadcaster said it "will draw upon the BBC's un-matched newsgathering resources," which have the potential to dwarf Alhurra's efforts to compete.

This sentiment was echoed at a November congressional hearing of a subcommittee of the House International Relations Committee. Chairman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) criticized Alhurra for not having bureaus in locations such as Jordan, where network reporters arrived late to cover the hotel bombing in Amman. The congressman nevertheless gave "high marks" to station representatives for their forthcoming testimony.

Nematt leveled more serious charges when he questioned the ethics of Alhurra's relationships with Middle Eastern countries that permit Radio Sawa to transmit programs from their territories on their radio frequencies. “Radio Sawa had to be on good terms with those countries, especially the security sections, to get the deals, and now Alhurra must try to please those countries as well, not to take the hard line and upset Radio Sawa’s transmitter agreements,” said Nematt. Radio Sawa lists 24 FM and AM radio stations that carry the channel throughout the Middle East.

Deirdre Kline retorted, “The allegation that Alhurra shows favoritism to any country is unequivocally false. Alhurra’s mission, by law, is to broadcast accurate and objective news and information without bias or favoritism. Alhurra frequently broadcasts news reports, talk shows, magazine programs and town hall meetings on issues such as human rights, the rights of women, freedom and democracy.”

A debate on Alhurra and Radio Sawa might happen on the Hill some day, but the shouting match has already begun.

Saudi Gives $20 Million to Georgetown

Saudi Gives $20 Million to Georgetown
Prince Says He Wants to Promote Understanding of Islam

By Caryle Murphy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 13, 2005; B01

A prominent Saudi businessman said yesterday that he is donating $20 million each to Georgetown and Harvard universities for the study of Islam and the Muslim world as part of his philanthropic efforts to promote interfaith understanding.

Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, a member of the Saudi royal family, said in a telephone interview from the Saudi capital of Riyadh that he also has donated $15 million to establish the Middle East's first two centers for American studies, at universities in Beirut and Cairo.

"As you know, since the 9/11 events, the image of Islam has been tarnished in the West," said Alwaleed, who is chairman of the Riyadh-based Kingdom Holding Co. and has extensive business holdings in Europe and the United States.

He said his gifts to Georgetown and Harvard will be used "to teach about the Islamic world to the United States," and the new programs at American University in Beirut and American University in Cairo will "teach the Arab world about the American situation."

The $20 million gift to Georgetown is the second-largest ever received by the Jesuit-run university, school officials said. It will be used to expand the activities of the university's 12-year-old Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.

"We are deeply honored by Prince Alwaleed's generosity," said a statement from Georgetown President John J. DeGioia, who met Alwaleed Nov. 7 in a Paris hotel to sign documents formalizing the donation.

Alwaleed, a grandson of the Saudi kingdom's founder, King Abdel Aziz, tried to give $10 million to the Twin Towers Fund shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 2001. But then-New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani rejected the donation after the prince said in a news release that the United States needed to "re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stance towards the Palestinian cause."

Asked about the controversy over his New York gift, Alwaleed replied that "this is behind us and now we are working for the present and the future. . . . My love and admiration to the United States was never diminished."

The Georgetown center, part of the university's School of Foreign Service, will be renamed the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. The $20 million will endow three faculty chairs, expand programs and academic outreach, provide scholarships for students and expand library facilities, Alwaleed said.

Center director John L. Esposito said in an interview that "a significant part of the money will be used to beef up the think tank part of what the center does."

Up to now, he said, the center has not had enough resources "to respond to the tremendous demand that is out there, from the government, church and religious groups, the media and corporations to address and answer issues like, 'What is the actual relationship between the West and the Muslim world? Is Islam compatible with modernization?' Now we can run workshops and conferences [on these subjects] both here and overseas."

When asked about the comments that caused the rejection of Alwaleed's gift to New York, Esposito said: "There is nothing wrong with his expressing his opinion on American foreign policy. Clearly, it was done in a constructive way. He was expressing his enormous sympathy with the United States but also trying to give people the context in which this [terrorist attack] occurred."

Alwaleed said his $20 million donation to Harvard will fund its Islamic studies program, which crosses many disciplines.

Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers expressed gratitude to Alwaleed, saying in a statement yesterday that his gift "will enable us to recruit additional faculty of the highest caliber, adding to our strong team of professors . . . [in] this important area of scholarship."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/12/AR2005121200591_pf.html

بوش يتهم محطات تلفزة عربية بتشويه صورة أميركا



اتهم الرئيس الأميركي جورج بوش محطات تلفزة عربية -لم يسمها- بمحاولة تشويه صورة الولايات المتحدة من خلال تقديمها كعدو للإسلام.
وأقر بوش في معرض جوابه عن سؤال لأحد الصحفيين أعقب كلمته بمجلس الشؤون الخارجية في مدينة فيلادلفيا بأن واشنطن تواجه صعوبة في تحسين هذه الصورة بسبب ما وصفها بالآلة الدعائية الشديدة لهذه المحطات.
وأشار بوش إلى أن تلك المحطات التلفزيونية تصور الولايات المتحدة على أنها تحارب الإسلام وأن "الأميركيين لا يطيقون المسلمين" وأن "هذه حرب ضد الدين".
وفي هذا السياق أكد بوش أنه يذكر الناس بأن الأمة الأميركية لا ترفض الدين وأنها تقبل بجميع الأديان، مشيرا إلى أن "قوة أميركا تكمن في استيعابها للناس وممارسة عباداتهم بحرية"، موضحا أن واشنطن ترسل رسائل إلى الخارج وتحاول طمأنتهم في هذا الصدد.
وسبق أن هاجم مسؤولون من الإدارة الأميركية وبوش نفسه بشكل صريح قناة الجزيرة بالاسم على مدى السنوات القليلة الماضية وانتقدوا أسلوبها في نقل الأخبار.
وقد كشفت صحيفة الديلي ميرور البريطانية الشهر الماضي عن وثيقة سرية بريطانية تتحدث عن خطة لقصف مقر الجزيرة في قطر وبعض مكاتبها في الخارج كشف عنها الرئيس الأميركي جورج بوش أثناء لقاء جمعه ورئيس الوزراء البريطاني توني بلير في 16 أبريل/ نيسان 2004.



http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/6273A9A8-DE57-4455-87C9-94D0A177B4BF.htm
المصدر: الجزيرة