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1.9. Independent media in Iraq in the age of disinformation with Aida Al-Kaisy
43 Plays5 years ago
On this episode of Instant Coffee, Sandra Sfeir, Projects Manager at the LSE Middle East Centre, talks to Aida Al-Kaisy about the growth of independent media in Iraq in the age of disinformation. Aida Al-Kaisy is a media development consultant and researcher who focuses on supporting ethical practices in the media industry.
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Transcript
Shifting Power Dynamics in the Middle East
00:00:00
Speaker
There has been a trend in some countries in the Middle East whereby power no longer comes from one source and we are seeing different sub-states, militias emerge in many contexts that are also again impacting on freedom of expression because the threat is less known.
00:00:24
Speaker
I should say, however, that within that we are also seeing a number of very exciting innovative platforms emerging within that.
Introduction to 'Instant Coffee' Podcast
00:00:34
Speaker
This is Instant Coffee, a new podcast brought to you by the LSE Middle East Centre and produced by me Nadine Almanaspi and me Rubel Sleiman Haydar. On this episode, Sondra's Fair talks to Eid al-Khaisi about the growth of independent media in Iraq in the age of disinformation.
Independent Media Growth in Iraq with Sandra Fair and Aida Khaisi
00:00:54
Speaker
Sandra is projects manager at the LHC Middle East Center. One of the many projects she coordinates is Iraq and Mina research for the conflict research program. Aida is a media development consultant and researcher who focuses on supporting ethical practices in the media industry, especially in the Middle East and Iraq. Over to you, Sandra.
00:01:15
Speaker
Hi Aida, so nice of you to join me for an instant coffee, how are you? Hi Sandra, and very well, how are you? Yeah, I'm doing well thanks. Now, you're a woman of so many hats, I thought we could start by talking a bit about your work as a media reform advisor. You've worked on projects in Jordan, Palestine, Iraq and other places. Tell us about some of the projects you've been involved with.
00:01:37
Speaker
So I began working as a media development advisor about 10 years ago on a project in Jordan which looked at reforming the state broadcaster into some form of public service.
00:01:53
Speaker
I did a big feasibility study looking at governance in the sort of institutional protocols and structures, editorial journalism, the relationship between the broadcaster and the state.
00:02:10
Speaker
really enjoyed that type of work and decided that that was an avenue I wanted to pursue. I then went to work for BBC Media Action, which is the international development charity of the BBC.
Media Reform and Representation in Iraq
00:02:22
Speaker
They work globally on projects to support independent and free media.
00:02:29
Speaker
I worked for five years on a project in Iraq, which began in 2013, ten years after the invasion of Iraq by the Coalition Provision Authority, which looked at the media structures that were created by the CPA in 2003, and looked at the processes, the legislation, again, governance structures of the public broadcaster that was created.
00:02:55
Speaker
looked at what wasn't working and where the challenges were arising and we spent five years working on a number of different aspects of those institutions to really understand how those media institutions could be relevant to the nuances of Iraq and represent the diversity and nuance of the Iraqi nation.
00:03:17
Speaker
Since then, I've worked on a number of media development projects, some of which explore supporting better, more independent content and editorial practices. In Palestine, we did some work looking at introducing youth programming to the public service broadcaster in Syria. I've done some work with some of the professional organizations that have been set up outside of
00:03:42
Speaker
Syria to support the exiled and diaspora media that are working on Syria. I've worked on a number of projects in Iraq, again, obviously in Mosul, looking at how the media can play a better role in rebuilding Mosul and looking at some of the issues around transitional justice and how the media are covering that. I've done a lot of work on gender.
00:04:09
Speaker
in the media in Iraq and I did a big again piece of research looking at gender representation both in content in the Iraqi media but also in Iraqi newsrooms.
00:04:20
Speaker
So the sort of media reform, media development world is very diverse, but it is very much about supporting independent free media through developing better, stronger independent structures, but also seeing how that translates into more accurate and impartial content.
Challenges to Independent Media Post-2011
00:04:42
Speaker
Building on the conversation about independent and free media, I wanted to get you to touch on freedom of expression and the media in the MENA region.
00:04:52
Speaker
So much has been said about how the 2011 uprisings were a catalyst for new media initiatives in the region and how that led to the democratization of the public sphere. But at the same time, we've also seen a push in the opposite direction with constant crackdowns on freedom of expression that have gotten worse over the years. In a post 2011 MENA region,
00:05:19
Speaker
Can you talk about some of the challenges affecting freedom of expression and independent media? Since 2011, we have seen a huge crackdown across the MENA region on independent media and freedom of expression. I think that's actually part of a sort of global trend, if you like, where we're seeing
00:05:42
Speaker
The media under attack in Western democracies or alleged Western democracies, countries such as the US, even the UK, Eastern Europe, who have also gone through a similar transition in terms of their media over the last 20 to 30 years to the one that we've seen in the MENA region.
00:06:00
Speaker
So I think there are a few different problems at play. There has been a global trend towards declining trust in the media and we've seen politicians jump on that and use that as a way to undermine
00:06:15
Speaker
the media that are calling them to account and exposing some of the corruption that we're seeing in the political class. If we look at the MENA region there are there are a number of other issues that are also impacting on the ability of independent media to perform
00:06:31
Speaker
their work and produce independent accurate fourth estate media if you like. The lack of funding and the lack of independent finances is also having an impact and that is seeing media therefore in some cases having to turn
00:06:47
Speaker
to funding from political parties, oligarchs, businessmen who were associated with political parties, and that therefore is creating a very politicised environment that also sees freedom of expression and the space for freedom of expression shrinking even further.
Emergence of New Media Platforms in MENA
00:07:03
Speaker
There has been a trend in some countries in the Middle East whereby power no longer comes from one source and we are seeing different sub-state militias emerge in many contexts that are also again.
00:07:22
Speaker
Impacting on freedom of expression because the threat is less less known it's less about governments cracking down on freedom of expression but a number of different sources cracking down on freedom of expression i should say however that within that we are also seeing a number of very exciting innovative platforms emerging within that i'm so while.
00:07:45
Speaker
We are seeing the space for freedom of expression shrink, and we are seeing a crackdown. We are also seeing some very interesting narratives and content emerge that are challenging the status quo, particularly around the Panama Papers, for example. There were journalists across the MENA region who worked very closely with the ICIJ, the International Centre for Investigative Journalists, to produce work that exposed corruption across the MENA region, and that's really exciting.
Disinformation and Fact-Checking in Iraqi Media
00:08:13
Speaker
On the topic of fake news and disinformation, now these are global problems that are clearly not unique to any specific region or country, but I wanted to zoom in slightly on Iraq and get you to talk about what this looks like in the Iraqi context, particularly in light of the ongoing COVID pandemic. So
00:08:38
Speaker
What is the history of disinformation in Iraqi media and how does it play out in the present reality?
00:08:47
Speaker
disinformation in the Iraqi media is a long history. You can go back 50, 60 years, even longer, and look at some of the propaganda campaigns and the way the media was used as a propaganda tool by former regimes, by the Ba'athists, by Saddam Hussein, to perpetuate false narratives in order to remain in power and really build images, if you like, of leaders in a certain way.
00:09:13
Speaker
So I think one of the issues that we see in Iraq is that even though there was this transition in 2003 where we did see the media landscape opened up for pluralism and we saw the growth of a number of different media platforms, television channels, newspapers etc for the first time in Iraq, there hasn't been any long-term project work done shifting the mindsets of the Iraqi media away from the sort of
00:09:41
Speaker
PR propaganda purpose if you like into a media or seeing the media's role as one which is producing content that's in the public interest rather than state interests and that's a huge issue and that's where i think some of the issues around disinformation have arisen.
00:09:59
Speaker
This has been very evident in the last few months during the COVID-19 crisis. When the pandemic first took root in Iraq, although Iraq was in a very different place then, very traditional attitudes
00:10:16
Speaker
were battling against state information and information that was coming from the Ministry of Health that was trying to underplay what was happening with COVID-19. So on the one hand, we were seeing government institutions
00:10:32
Speaker
not providing the right data or accurate information and data to the media and on the other hand we were seeing the rise of religious attitudes and traditional attitudes that were again ignoring the severity of the pandemic and the two sort of collided together to really create a sort of storm of disinformation if you like across the Iraqi media landscape. There is a brilliant organisation in Iraq called the Iraqi Media House who do a lot of research
00:11:01
Speaker
work and media monitoring of the Iraqi media and they produced a really interesting report that looked at disinformation in the media that had emerged as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and looked at how that was being used in a very political way. Again it was playing into this
00:11:20
Speaker
partisan media landscape that we see in Iraq and fueling that fire even further. So disinformation is a huge issue. There are very few fact checking organizations that work in Iraq. There are very few verification processes officially that take place in newsrooms in Iraq. There is a culture for opinion driven journalism.
00:11:45
Speaker
So outside of that, what we have is press releases and information and data that comes from the government, and we don't really see accurate fact-driven, fact-based reporting emerging across the mainstream media landscape. I should also say, though, however, that
00:12:07
Speaker
Some of the independent journalists and some of the independent media are trying to combat that by using WhatsApp groups, by sharing photography, information, data with their peers in order to verify whether or not that data and information is correct. I saw some really interesting examples in a particular WhatsApp group, for example,
00:12:32
Speaker
a few months ago, about two or three months into the COVID-19 crisis, where videos have been circulating of people denying COVID-19. And I saw these videos being shared across a WhatsApp group with a number of journalists asking for the phone numbers of those people, asking for the phone numbers of doctors, asking for the phone numbers of community and religious leaders in order to verify whether or not the content was actually correct.
00:12:59
Speaker
So we are seeing a move and a push against the prevalence of disinformation and inaccurate information in the Iraqi media. That's really good to know that there are initiatives that are seeking to cut through some of the more opinion-driven journalism and move towards more fact-driven journalism, even if some of that work is being done through more unconventional means, i.e. WhatsApp.
Critique of Western Media's Approach to MENA
00:13:28
Speaker
But connected to this conversation about disinformation, I wonder what you think about writing about the Middle East in a Western context.
00:13:38
Speaker
Often it feels to me like we've been in the same place for years and years of breaking news and analysis, orientalist tropes about gender or ancient hatreds between sects. We know how simplistic Western media portrayals of the region have tended to be.
00:13:59
Speaker
But beyond Karl remarks, shaming all the Orientalists on Twitter, how can we actually move away from this way of looking at the Middle East and kind of turn the lens inwards and have serious conversations about disinformation and responsible journalism on the Middle East in a Western context?
00:14:23
Speaker
Yeah, you're absolutely right. The way the Western media are reporting on the MENA region and Iraq really also needs to be something that we consider in the context of ethical and independent reporting. The Western media are still using sectarian and, as you say, orientalist tropes to
00:14:44
Speaker
analyze what's happening in our region and that's a real issue. They're often turning to the same sources and those sources are official. There is an over-reliance on ministerial announcements or ministerial sources if you like and there's not enough focus on telling the story of the real people.
00:15:07
Speaker
There's issue with inaccurate disinformation in the Western media as much as there is in the Iraqi media, although we do have verification processes that are a bit more advanced. This also needs to be addressed. We need to see more diverse sources. We need to see data taken from a number of different places.
00:15:27
Speaker
We also, I think, we really need to see Western journalists starting to include Iraqi media or Mina media and Mina journalists in their conversation. We need to hear the voices of Iraqi journalists and sort of Mina journalists and find out what their concerns are and get them involved in producing and informing some of the content that we're seeing about the region. Because that's really important and that's not happening at the moment. I think that's something that's really integral.
00:15:54
Speaker
to ensuring that both sides of the conversation, the West End and MENA, are really represented and are giving representation in an accurate and fair way.
Recommended Media Outlets for Accurate Reporting
00:16:08
Speaker
So on the subject of where we as a Western audience get our information about Iraq, about the region,
00:16:15
Speaker
Where do we go if we want to move away from a reliance on official sources? Where can we go to find out what's happening on the ground in Iraq and in the wider region?
00:16:27
Speaker
If you wanted to find out news from Iraq and you spoke Arabic, there are a few good places to go. NAS News is a very robust website that really includes news, so current affairs news from Iraq and analysis, but also some human interest stories as well. They're very much, they come from a place of this idea of solutions driven journalism,
00:16:55
Speaker
and they try and address some of the issues and the challenges that Iraqis are facing through positive stories and through stories that show how people can overcome against all odds. There are a couple of local or regional radio stations that are also producing great content, so Radiol Milbeds. I would also recommend Radiol Had in Ninoin, Mosul,
00:17:20
Speaker
again local but covering news about Iraq in a very independent and again solutions driven way. Kirkuknow, a fantastic local website that's worth exploring and I believe they might actually have an English version of the website although I think again mostly in Arabic and Kurdish.
00:17:41
Speaker
So there are there are a number of websites that are that are that are producing some really interesting work covering news and current affairs. There is of course the infamous Al-Mashir show which is political satire and airs on Deutsche Vala Arabic channel but again
00:17:58
Speaker
His Twitter feed, social media and the show itself do deal and cover current affairs and news from Iraq in a very innovative and interesting way. There is Iraqi news on a number of regional websites as well that are also really interesting to explore, one based in Lebanon called Daraj.
00:18:21
Speaker
and they work closely with the Iraqi journalists to report on the ground from Iraq. Rassif 22, another website, regional website, 22 for the 22 countries of the Arab region. For those that don't speak Arabic, the best.
00:18:37
Speaker
website to go to which does produce Arabic and Kurdish content is Naqash, has very feature-based investigative pieces that address some of the challenges and issues that Iraqis are facing on a day-to-day basis.
Conclusion and Series Follow-up
00:18:52
Speaker
Well thanks so much for your time Ida, it's always great to talk and I don't know about you but I've come away from this feeling quite positive and hopeful having listened to you talk about the growth of independent media initiatives in the region and the push against the prevalence of disinformation in Iraq and elsewhere in the region so thank you. Thank you very much for having me Sandra.
00:19:18
Speaker
Thank you Sandra and Ida for taking the time to speak to us and thank you for listening to Instant Coffee, your quick fix of everything Middle East. To learn more about Ida's work, follow the links in the podcast description. Don't forget to find us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Until next time.