Iraq, middle east and the western media

Iraq, middle east and the western media: expert westeners

2008-05-19T15:47:00.000-07:00

Iraq, middle east and the western media: expert westeners

expert westeners

2008-04-08T15:45:00.000-07:00

It always make me smile when i see western journalists on TV talking about their experience in Iraq or the middle east. They look very serious and they talk with great confidence which makes me wonder. where do they get it from?

They talk and talk , analysing the situation. They do not stop there but then they give their opinion on how to solve problems and telling us (arabs) why arent we solving our problems--without noticing it they act in a colonial way.

well it upsets me!

Most of these journalists do not speak arabic, the language of the country they are covering , their communcation with people is very much limited but they think they know it all. They are totally dependent on translators and what these translators tell them (so go figure).

They do not have real knowledge of the region, its people and its traditions.

The problem is that when they finally know (after spending some time in the place) they make fun of it and act in a superior way , maikng it clear for "locals" that these journalists come from a better place.

I really wish sometimes that they have stayed there!

2008-03-28T07:07:00.001-07:00

This is my first blog.
As a way of introduction i am a journalist and i have worked and still working in Iraq.
The reason I created my blog is because i wanted to discuss the western media coverage of Iraq as an insider.
Had lots of questions and many things annoyed me about the coverage, not the politics but how much the journalists knew about Iraq before and after they came into the country!
There were nights where i could not sleep just thinking how could I highlight this fairly. Until i decided to blog.
The objective is to be objective.
The objective is to just to highlight how journalists and mainly western journalists deal with the Iraq story.
Well, some of them are really great. They are clever, committed and most of all respectful but am afraid they are not many.
Am not trying to criticise other journalists. For me, who has been living in Iraq since after the 2003 war , i have lots of respect for all those journalists who are there. It is enough that they are there, risking their lives every day and every hour.
But, because this profession is such a sacred one and because we pay huge prices i should say that not many western journalists were ready for the iraq story.
I know that what am saying (and is going to say) will anger some organisations and many journalists but that is what journalism is about---we talk when we feel there is something wrong in order to create public awareness and therefore try to correct it--i hope.
I am happy to be criticised and therefore to be corrected when am mistaken.
Now, i guess its enough talk for first blog.
But for all those journalists out there and specially in Iraq be safe and please try to understand what is really going on in that country.
If you do not ask the right questions how are you going to explain to the people outside what is truly going on.