RapidTVNews reports that old draft guidelines created by Arab ministers to force Middle East broadcasters to obtain formal transmission licences will be replaced with a new charter. The problem is that there is little coordination between Arab governments on TV transmission.

This means satellite operators themselves judge any dispute as to content or fair and accurate broadcasting. Last February a joint ministerial communiqué backed the Satellite Broadcast Charter, drawn up by a committee of experts in order to provide a framework for national licensing. However, at last week’s meeting some ministers declined to endorse the charter, in particular Qatar (home to Al Jazeera) and the UAE (now home to dozens of TV channels including MBC’s Al Arabia 24-hour news channel). The charter was drafted by Egyptian and Saudi Arabian interests, although it took as its benchmark the broadcasting regulatory guidelines used in the UK, Europe and elsewhere.

With this lack of agreement the meeting last week decided to abandon the original February charter and instead set up a “high commission for Arab media” that will reflect a new agreement that all can abide by.

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Delegates to the Arab Media Transmission Forum in Abu Dhabi have criticised the Arab League’s new transmission charter, which calls for tough new measures to licence all TV channels and curb broadcasting excesses. 

Rapid TV News reports that under the new charter broadcasters could lose their licences should they be found responsible for criticising religious or political leaders.

The Arab League’s secretary general Amro Moosa, in his pre-recorded speech, asked the 300 delegates to discuss the Charter’s proposals, saying it was the right of every Arab citizen to live in an era of openness. This somewhat contradictory statement certainly generated plenty of debate, with a wall of negative comment: “a device to shut the Arab mouth” said one delegate, and “censorial”, “harshly restrictive” and a “sword hanging over Arab TV” argued others.

Kuwait's former Minister of Information Sa'd Bin-Tafla al-Ajami called for freedom for the Arab media regardless of any considerations. The Arab media must be free from all fetters whatever the justifications might be, he asserted.

Egypt, which proposed the Charter, is on record as saying the plan was not to restrict freedom but to organise media and curb some channels which were “spreading ignorant messages and illegitimate religious edicts,” as reported by local press.

Work on the Charter started last June and was enthusiastically endorsed by the Arab world’s broadcasting and information ministers early in February.

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Following up on a previous report regarding the intention of the Arab League to institute regulatory measures on satellite TV, RapidTV News now reports that the 22-member Arab League voted in favour of the document at a meeting in Cairo, which stipulates that satellite channels "should not damage social harmony, national unity, public order or traditional values."

Programming should also "conform with the religious and ethical values of Arab society and take account of its family structure." Channels should "refrain from broadcasting anything which calls into question God, the monotheistic religions, the prophets, sects or symbols of the various religious communities."

Broadcasters should avoid "erotic or obscene material" or programmes that "encourage smoking or the consumption of alcohol," the latter prohibited by Islam. They should also "protect Arab identity from the harmful effects of globalisation."

Read more at RapidTVNews.