Noted Qatari media expert and researcher, Dr Ahmed Abdul Malik (third left) along with media personalities and experts, during the session.

DOHA: A media expert yesterday blamed the Arab press for not putting into perspective, why a tolerant society like Denmark allowed cartoons blaspheming the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) to be published.

Ramez Maluf, Professor of Communication Arts at the Lebanese-American University, Beirut, in a speech at the roundtable on media and press, held as part of the 6th Doha Forum on Democracy, Development and Free Trade, said, the Arab media failed to convey to its audiences about the reasons that caused such cartoons to be published by the Danish daily. "Nobody went and asked why it happened," he added. He said that a lot of the controversy that occurred as a result of these caricatures could have been better explained had the Arab media or at least, some sections of it, taken time to put the issue in some perspective.

He lamented that most often, media in the Arab world focused on distant and large issues which had no solutions such as answering the question of whether there exists water on Mars. The media, he said, had some freedom of expression but this was severely restricted when it came to dealing with local, sensitive issues. "Freedom of expression is significant only when they deal with such sensitive issues," he emphasised.

He said, the Arab media lacked credibility among its own viewers who rely upon a foreign channel to confirm any news, expecting it to be uncensored or unembellished. He cited the example of the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak who, in early 1990s, had endorsed a CNN commercial stating he depended upon the US-based network for accurate news coverage about Iraq, following the occupation of Kuwait. "Such an endorsement speaks much about the Egyptian intelligence, considering that Egypt had 30,000 troops on ground in Iraq," he noted.

The session was chaired by noted Qatari media expert and researcher, Dr Ahmed Abdul Malik and moderated by Riad Kahwaji, Chief Executive, Near East and Gulf Military Analysis. Panelists included Brian Hanrahan from the BBC, Robin Wright, Diplomatic Correspondent, Washington Post, Dan Rather, Anchor, CBS, Lee Smith, media expert from the US, among others.