by Ahmed E. Souaiaia*
Intrigued by a fake photograph used by the BBC in its coverage of the war in Syria ten years ago, our interest in qualifying and quantifying the media bias while covering events in Southwest Asia and North Africa took a life of its own. Over the span of ten years, we build a database consisting of 135,763 files depicting coverage (or lack thereof) of media outlets from around the world of these events and other critical events since. The facts and trends are stunningly informative.
Granted that the war in Syria was one of the ripple effects of the 2010-11 uprising in Tunisia, our initial focus was on the so-called Arab Spring and the way it was covered by regional media outlets. Aljazeera coverage stood out: the Qatari royal family funded media conglomerate even took credit for helping the Tunisian people achieve their freedom. However, when the wave of protest spread to most of the Arab countries, including the Gulf States, Aljazeera biases became obvious, pushing many of Aljazeera journalists and news anchors to leave the network in protest. The credibility of Aljazeera took a hit. The problems for Aljazeera became even more challenging with the start of the war on Yemen and when Saudi Arabia and three of its Arab allies (Bahrain, UAE, and Egypt) imposed crippling sanctions against Qatar, broke diplomatic relations, and issued a list of 13 demands, which included the closure of Aljazeera, for the sanctions to be lifted and for the diplomatic relations to be restored.
Unfazed by the Saudi measures, but unable to fully recover from the erosion of credibility with Arab masses, the funders of Aljazeera developed a supplemental stream of instruments focused on news and commentaries: New digital assets designed to track with the Qatari foreign policy priorities strategically located in key countries and regions. These assets are often masked by hiring local journalists in key countries where these assets are to exert influence. One of these assets is the London-based Middle East Eye.
Although the managers and editors of the Middle East Eye claim that it “is an independently funded digital news organisation covering stories from the Middle East and North Africa,” the organization does not disclose the identity of its funders and/or its connections to political entities. However, its coverage of the recent (July 25, 2021) events in Tunisia tracks with that of Aljazeera in 2011. On the flip side, media outlets with Saudi connections are also reverting to their editorial bias of the 2011 as well. The sample screen captures below should illustrate the points being made here. Qatar-affiliated media frames the presidential emergency declaration as a coup; while the Saudi-funded media continues to connect Qatar to the Muslim Brotherhood and Ennahda.
In the last decade, Tunisia’s political crises have exposed deliberately concealed connections between media outlets and political entities (or agents thereof). Although Saudi Arabia and Qatar ended the diplomatic rift after the meeting between the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, in the city of al-Ula on January 5, 2011, their ongoing political differences are on full display in the way their media assets are covering the events in Tunisia.
Tunisians, on the other hand, seem to hope that the Gulf States’ influence remains limited to their media’s editorial preferences and not escalate to financially and politically support one side against the other during such a fragile moment. This hope is made explicit on July 14 when a judicial investigation was launched to probe whether three of Tunisia’s political parties took money from foreign sources.
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* Prof. SOUAIAIA is a member of the faculty at the University of Iowa with joint appointment in International Studies, Religious Studies, and College of Law. Opinions are the author’s, speaking on matters of public interest; not speaking for the university or any other organization with which he might be affiliated.
