-Yes. Although it seems paradoxical. But with one nuance. Just to report what has nothing to do with the country itself.
So there really isn’t.
Most of the constitutions of Arab countries guarantee freedom of the press as long as it is not against the law. Such sheep seem to exist. But if we look at other cases like the United States, what the Constitution forbids is the enactment of any law that restricts freedom of the press. It’s not the same.
-Do governments only censor journalists?
– In my NGO, we support the press, as well as the local, authentic voices of women and other minorities. Voices that are often silenced by other actors, such as the culture itself.
Does culture act as censorship?
-Yes. There are issues that are controversial for some cultures and this separates them from the media focus. LGTBI community, for example, although the government allows the discussion of the issue, the society does not accept it and the issue is not discussed. Or women’s rights. More and more efforts are being made to overcome these barriers, but it is not enough. To have a free press, there must be a strong civil society.
– What is the role of governments in this opening process?
They must provide an environment that will allow these debates to flourish and the press to do its job.
-Is censorship applied in the same way in left-wing governments as it is in right-wing governments?
-On the left, there are those who violate human rights, on the right, there are those who protect them. Much depends on the importance the press attaches to their work.
Was the media always under such pressure?
-There are different levels. There are countries where journalists have disappeared, imprisoned or assassinated, and there are countries where repression forces them to censor themselves. And this is no less dangerous. The fact that there are journalists who see how difficult life is for them, such as being suddenly detained at the airport, not renewing their passports, not sending an inspection from the Treasury for bringing up the subject, makes them not even think about doing it. again . No matter how journalists people are, they have to eat and feed their families.
Can governments paralyze these debates?
-Certainly. For example, last month HRW published a report on Human Rights in Jordan, and absolutely no one in the country did anything about it. In another example, the strike of the airlines in Tunisia was not even covered by the media, but suddenly there were news that the strike was over. What strike? Many people wondered. On the other hand, the more it tries to ban access to certain types of information, the more there is a desire in society to know what and why. So it kind of backfires.
-What role do social networks play at this point?
They can do many good and many evils at the same time. They allow voices to rise that we would not otherwise listen to, but on the other hand, they are a powerful spreader of false news, which unfortunately many people still believe. There is still a strong media ignorance in many cultures.
Shouldn’t it be otherwise at the historic moment when there is greater access to information?
-To be careful. We have a lot of access to information, but it’s still in the hands of only a dozen media owners who control what is said and thought. They control the public.