Speaking truth to power

Investigative journalism in the Arab World has an oxymoronic quality, unless the subject of investigation is who married whom and, even more importantly, what they wore and where they then honeymooned. In a region where media is shackled, information restricted and editors more concerned with retaining their jobs than serving their readers, holding rulers, presidents, ministers and any number of officials accountable is all but impossible. But that is exactly the point; accountability is the last thing Middle Eastern governments want.

Indeed, as media control shows certain signs of easing, many of the region’s journalists are poorly placed to take advantage, so used are they to the limited scope of their work. Asking the tough question, pursuing the real angle and speaking truth to power simply isn’t a professional instinct in the Arab World, or something taught on the job in the local papers; it is an aptitude that has to be acquired. Only five Arab countries ranked in the top 100 in the 2008 Press Freedom Index, while Egyptian journalist Yousri Fouda estimated that it would take the Middle East at least ten years to reach Western levels of investigative journalism.

One man they could all do with watching in action is Tim Sebastian, the award-winning BBC journalist whose relentless interrogations of the powers that be made Hardtalk compelling, if occasionally deeply uncomfortable, viewing. He now chairs The Doha Debates, a political round-table show that offers Arabs in a live studio audience a similar opportunity. 

In Amman recently to participate in the fourth week-long seminar for Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ), a foundation created by Jordanian journalist Rana Sabbagh, Tim’s passion for freedom of speech was to the fore in each of the workshops he conducted. And when we met him in the foyer of the Landmark Hotel just after a session in which he demonstrated how to get around the evasions of a government spokesman – based almost entirely it seems on Israel’s unctuous Mark Regev – he was still animated. The famous drooping moustache and slightly hunched disposition was in evidence, and a lot of his observations were punctuated with a garrulous laugh – and a good deal of optimism that times might just be changing. 

NOX: You’re taking part in this seminar on investigative journalism here in Amman with journalists from across the whole region. Why do you think this is so important in the Arab World in 2009?

Tim Sebastian: Well, digging is good! But there are so many obstructions in the way of Arab journalists, so many things in the way, so many people warning them off, or penalties hanging over their heads like a sword of Damacles – it is very, very hard for them. I have enormous respect for those who do push boundaries here because they take enormous risks. If I annoy someone here from my office in London, I just don’t get a Christmas card that year, but journalists in the Middle East can actually go to jail or face huge, huge fines. 

NOX: You did a roleplay in this seminar on interviewing government spokespersons. What did you want to get across to the journalists?

TS: Mainly the use of facts in an interview, because to me you’re cross-examining on the basis of the facts. Without that, you just have emotions and hypothetical positions like “But surely…!” and “Why not?”, which are easy to bat away. They think you have to argue, but you don’t – you confront them with facts. If you stray from the facts, you have no credibility. And don’t be frightened to use your notes; a lawyer never enters court without them, and a good journalist is really doing the same job – the case for the prosecution.

NOX: In The Doha Debates, your role is really allowing the general public to grill the speakers directly, which is a different emphasis.

TS: Well, I have a go at each of the speakers in turn, and that is to set the tone – and to show the audience that it’s really okay to ask tough questions. It’s all about accountability and this is one way the public can hold their leaders accountable. 

NOX: And there is nothing in the Arab World which would allow people to challenge politicians so directly. Have there been any specific questions that left you really stunned?

TS: Oh, there have been many. The one for me, though, was when Mahmoud al-Zahar, the Hamas leader, was being questioned by Palestinian students. At one point, a woman stood up and said, “It’s un-Islamic to kill women and children.” And he begins to respond with, “But the Israelis are killing us…” But she simply cut him off by saying, “I don’t expect any better from the Israelis, but I expect better from you.” His jaw just dropped! It was one of those extraordinary moments where he’d never been spoken to before like that – not least by a Palestinian woman. He probably never will be again. And we gave her the opportunity to do that, and that is some kind of contribution. It’s only a step, but it’s 
a step in the right direction.

NOX: Have you then noticed a change in public courage in the five years you have been hosting The Doha Debates?

TS: I remember the first time I went to Qatar, and this was long before we’d started The Doha Debates, and I was grilled a lot about Western double standards and hypocrisy and all this. I got a hard time. At the end of it, I said that was great, but I’m easy target; I can get on a plane and go home. I challenged them to put those same questions to their leaders, and not one hand went up. I think if I asked a Doha audience, that might change – there just might be one or two hands.

NOX: Isn’t the first battle, then, to convince the next generation of journalists that these risks are worth taking…?

TS: Well, these people know better than I do that unless they get a free press, it’s going to blight everything else that occurs in their countries, because censorship kills everything. It kills creativity, it kills free spirit, it kills entrepreneurship, it kills education, because with censorship education is simply propaganda. What on earth is the point of this deadening censorship that covers everything in this region? It has to change, and these journalists are spearheading the change – and that is the point of the seminar, because if they realise that the world is interested, then it might encourage and help them.

NOX: Where do you think the inspiration can come from? Is it the likes of the BBC interrogating Syrian foreign ministers, for example? Is it The Doha Debates? Or is it from examples within the region…?

TS: I think it’s the latter group that we have to really focus on. I have been particularly impressed by the Egyptian bloggers, who run the gauntlet of the state apparatus, who get sacked from their jobs, whose families get harassed – but still they continue putting out the information. They are tremendously well connected, they are well networked and they know what is going on in the region.

NOX: Is blogging the real forefront of this charge in this region?

TS: Yeah, definitely. Newspapers might be dying, magazines might be going through tough times, but real journalism is going through a revival because of the internet. The people are taking it into their own hands. As long as you have a mobile phone and a computer, and the means of getting the images out there, you’re a journalist. The story may not have the polish of an experienced writer, but it’s getting the information out there. And it’s the dissemination of information to people who want to read it. I take my hat off to the guys that do this, because they run enormous risks.

NOX: It’s 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and we’re really looking at another, virtual Berlin Wall – and again the citizens are at the forefront of jumping over them.

TS: Well, no one else is going to do it. The thing about the Berlin Wall, and I was there, was that a crowd of thousands had turned up at a checkpoint wanting to get across, and the soldiers were frantically dialling their superiors to ask what to do. Then, one border guard simply took the decision to open it all up, and that was effectively the end of the Cold War. And that’s the lesson: mass action from the people can do it. That’s the greatness of the Berlin Wall – that people can do it.

NOX: How important is a BBC-like organisation in this whole process? By that I mean a public-financed body that is almost entirely free of commercial influence from advertisers, many of whom will have political affiliations and viewpoints.

TS: Well, the BBC is pretty rare in that regard – and it’s very hard to get this kind of objective, commercial-free news outlet in the West, let alone in the state-dominated Arab World. There’s nothing in the States to match the BBC, and even their state-run channel, PBS, carries BBC news. That says everything! So I don’t see how you can do it. The best way, perhaps, is for the bloggers to organise in some way and form their own public channel, one that serves their own interest and not those of the advertisers. If they come as representatives of themselves, they can be the best hope for this region – they’re young, they’re talented and very bright.

NOX: How can we harness that, then? How can progressive, pro-democracy advocates or movements help them to organise?

TS: I would love to play a part in trying to harness that, to reach out to them and try to develop as professional a set of journalistic skills as possible. They want guidance and support, whether editorial or financial, because investigations take a long time and if you’re getting thrown out of your job as well, you need help. And we should try to give it to them. The best of what they do needs to reach as wide a possible audience, but it is not only compelling stuff in a lot of cases, it’s circumventing the boundaries their governments put up around them. 

NOX: Where did you find the worst barriers to the ability to do your job as a reporter in the Middle East?

TS: Pretty much everywhere to be honest. It took me two years to get a visa to Saudi Arabia, and I know that Iran isn’t an Arab country, but it took years to get a visa to go there as well. So it is an extraordinary achievement to have an Arab investigative journalism conference. Just having it, just to focus people’s minds on the need to get around this deadening censorship and impart knowledge and information to the people out there who want it. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a huge amount of people who are doing it – but delivering information is a public service, whether you’re a government-backed agency or a commercial enterprise. And if you start with the premise that the public has a right to know, then you’re in a position to try to give it to them. That’s your job.

NOX: Do you miss the day-to-day journalism of shows like Hardtalk?

TS: I miss it when there’s a big story from the Middle East, and I especially miss it when I see a government minister getting away with telling lies. 
So I miss putting the boot in…!

NOX: How much of a problem is the growth of the rolling news networks now, the reliance on the two minute interview in which you simply don’t have the scope for follow-ups? Soundbite journalism, basically.

TS: Well, if it’s a two-minute interview you know you’re not going to get anything out of him. Actually, in a set-piece interview, the first two minutes are the most important as it sets the tone for the remainder of the interview. In fact, the most important battles are fought in the first minute. The real dynamics of the whole thing are decided then; if you let it go, and allow the guy to reel off his talking points or his spin unchallenged, then he’s won. People complained that I jump in before the guy has had the chance to say anything, but you have to, otherwise it’s a party political broadcast for half an hour. 

NOX: Is it something like a game, where after a barrage you ease back, allowing him to get comfortable, and then get tougher again?

TS: You only ease back as a tactic, allow him to gather himself before you put the boot in again. I think the whole thing is a process by which you lead the interviewee down the path you want. Doesn’t always work, of course.

NOX: We’ve seen a massive segmentation of the media around the world, with news consumption more than ever coming from an ideological viewpoint – you watch the show that gives the news as you already perhaps see it. Fox News, for instance. Is there a danger in this trend?

TS: They already do this, they already choose their media this way. And unfortunately, this is particularly true of the Arab World. You know if you’re a fan of Hezbollah, you’re going to watch al-Manar TV because that carries the party line. In fact, that has been the problem with the BBC working in the Arab World because we are not seen to be representing any side – people always say things to me like, “Well, you were nice to the government yesterday, and now you’re being hostile. I don’t know where I am with you… who do you speak for?” They don’t understand that we don’t speak for anyone, that we always try to be objective. They think that truth has a point of view.

NOX: To what extent are editors or media owners to blame for this situation, though? A journalist might have the will, but if the editor won’t print it because he’s scared 
for his job, it’s meaningless. It’s not the information, it’s the control of the information.

TS: Exactly. But what we have to realise is that free speech is a battle everywhere. There’s no destination you reach where you can say “we’ve got free speech, we’re fine”. It’s a fight in Britain, it’s a fight in the States. It’s not easy anywhere. Here in the Middle East, it’s a huge fight – a slightly different fight, but it’s all part of the same war.  

NOX: The key issue is to make a start, to get people to understand that speaking truth to power can have profound results – when put together.

TS: And unless they do, more importantly, they will never have their interests represented. Democracy, as we loosely define it, is a participatory sport. It’s not a spectator sport. If you want to have a say in how your affairs are run, you have got to stand up there and say it out loud, in public and be heard. If you’re content to have other people make your decisions for you, then sit there, stay silent. But our message is that if you are a young, educated, well-travelled Arab, and someone who knows much more than your parents do, unless you want to go on living in the same world as your parents, do something. Use your knowledge, use your skills and use your confidence to make your voice heard – and have your questions about your life, your future, your country, answered by the people in power. 

NOX: Journalism still provides the best scope for this, do you think?

TS: Well, none of us are in journalism to keep the world as it is. Most journalists enter the profession out of a desire to change something; it could be the desire to improve human rights, eliminate war, or whatever area we want to see change. But none of these things will change unless we speak out. The powers that be don’t want to hear those voices, they want us to remain silent. It’s up to people in the Arab World to stand up and make their voices heard.