The Journalist and Islam Conference

Parliament House Sydney

Friday December 8 2006   

Following is the speech delivered by the Chairperson of the CRC, Stepan Kerkyasharian AM, to the conference The Journalist and Islam – Competing Agendas, Political Correctness and the War on Terror on Friday 8th December 2006, organized by the Centre for Middle East and North African Studies, the Centre for Language in Social Life, the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (UTS) and Innovative Universities European Union (IUEU) Centre at Parliament House Sydney.

I have two questions which I believe this conference should be addressing and seeking answers to. Firstly, how do we move from a situation where Islam is seen as exotic, threatening, disruptive, exclusive even un-Australian? Then second, how does Islam move to acceptance as one of the religions of Australians?

The recent example of media hysteria about the discovery that chocolate bars including Kit Kats and a host of other products carry a halal-safe sticker sadly demonstrates that anything anti-Muslim is still a good news story.

Media and consequently journalists have a key role to play in effecting a positive response and outcome to the questions I posed. At the very least, the Australian media must report on, must reflect on the reality of Islam within our society as the faith of a large number of fellow Australians. It cannot continue to ignore the positive aspects of a major section of our society. In this, an important distinction needs to be made. The distinction between Islam – a religion; and Muslims – people who are adherents of the Islamic faith.

Many significant positive development flow from this. What is necessary sanctioned or supported by Islam is not necessarily the behavioural norm of Muslim Australians. Therefore pronouncements such as Sheikh Alhilali’s reprehensible justification of rape would not be interpreted as the accepted norm for Australian Muslims and the “debate’ for want of a better word, and as inexcusable as it is; would be confined to a religious context.

The failure of the Australian media to make this distinction and to directly talk to the Muslim community as a community in its own right and not one that is driven by fundamentalist religious norms has created a huge vacuum in our communication infrastructure.

Television is the mass communicator at present and it does shape national attitudes. It is closely followed by radio and the print media.

The vacuum created by our mainstream media has seen the proliferation of foreign television programmes available by satellite, giving a very a large group of Australians a different perspective on world news from that presented in Australia .

I am amazed at the level of ignorance at the depth of penetration of this medium and its function as a strong communication medium of influence – of the mainstream media and within the Australian society at large.

There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that the Lebanese community in Australia formed a very different view of the war between Israel and Hezbollah this year because they were watching coverage from Arabic language channels originating in the Middle East or Lebanon itself.

This is what I call the ‘Virtual Isolation Zones” which have been exacerbated by new technology. To give a comprehensive construct of this Virtual Isolation Zone would be the subject of a full paper so I will not elaborate here. However let us take a birds eye view of what is available

Two days ago I checked to see just what was currently available to audiences in Sydney :

And let me remind you that these are successful commercial operations, meaning that consumers like them and pay for them.

UBI World TV

Available by subscription and satellite. $59.95 a month almost half the platinum pack of Foxtel. 71 subscription channels in 9 languages covering over fifteen countries plus a number of free channels.

It has 28 Arabic channels from a variety of Middle Eastern sources including Al Jazeera and Teleliban.

MySat TV

Has Seven Arabic satellite TV services from various parts of the Middle east including Al Jazeera, Future TV, Noursat and other programmes from Lebanon.

World Media

Has Arabic Channels – ArtVariety, LBC International from Lebanon and Al Jazeera Arabic from Qatar . I believe the English language AL Jazeera service will available shortly from the same company

Globecast Australia has 11 Channels from the Middle East including Turkish, Iranian, Kurdish channels and Arabic programmes from Abu Dhabi , Oman , Assyira and Qatar .

Dial-A-Dish - A company which actually supplies and installs dishes and other equipment for viewing satellite programmes from aboard. It also claims to be a primary agent from a wide selection of service providers around the world through Lyngsat.

It promises access to free-to-air programming in most parts of the world. From the Middle East they list Bahrain , Iraq , Jordan , Lebanon , Palestine Territory , Audi Arabic , Iran , Kuwaait, Qata , Syria and the United Arab Emirates.

And don’t forget there is always the opportunity to view television programmes on personal computers via internet.

Television programmes of almost every description are available for viewing on PCs. One easily accessible website offers access to 2000 television channels.

In a talk given to the Security in Government Conference in May this year I said, Much of the blame for the success and influence of this avalanche of foreign TV falls on our Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) whose charter requires it to "provide multilingual and multicultural radio and television services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians and, in doing so, reflect Australia 's multicultural society".

The SBS Website claims that: “SBS Television is watched by more than seven million Australians each week. What they see is a unique mix of Australian-produced and international programs drawn from over 400 national and international sources. Programs in languages other than English - which comprise more than half the SBS Television schedule - are accessible to all viewers through SBS-produced English language subtitles .”

Yes but what about Australian-produced programmes in community languages that educate, that draw newcomers in and make them feel welcomed, accepted and included? Why do we need to keep telling people the news in their own language coming from foreign sources which may not have any of the constraints and professional standards of journalism demanded in SBS’s own news bulletins and current affairs programmes. Taking news bulletins from countries where different professional standards and different concepts of journalistic independence may apply, is not conducive to the integration of people from any part of the world.

The SBS budget has been something like two billion dollars since the first Gulf.

Is it seen by the Muslim community as the vehicle for the promotion of better understanding of Islam? Is the SBS TV seen by the rest of the community as the medium for assisting Muslims to effectively participate in the Australian Society? I would venture to say; No.

So what other sources are there for particularly, Arabic-speaking Muslims to learn about their own Australian environment?

The Arabic print media in New South Wales does provide a reasonable amount of information about local events. However they are a small drop in the ocean when compared with the foreign TV, twenty four hours a day. In other words, many Australian Muslims do get their slant and their view on international events from abroad. This is not a healthy state of affairs.

In radio, this is being addressed to some extent through SBS Radio which presents news in a similar fashion to that of other Australian news services like the ABC. They also provide talk-back opportunities for people to argue issues in the Australian context and for Australian government agencies to promote messages to listeners in their first language.

Community radio also provides some of this type of broadcasting and offers good opportunities for promoting Australian issues and Australian values in an objective and impartial manner. However views from abroad can be sought out and broadcast on these stations and these can be attitudes which may not reinforce Australian views. There is also some direct re-laying of radio programme from abroad which propagate foreign viewpoints. On top of all of that, radio programmes from almost anywhere can also be accessed on the internet. All of this adds up to a lot of influence.

However, television is probably still, the most powerful communication medium SBS Television was created in the 1980s to promote mutual respect, understanding and acceptance. I accept SBS is a unique channel providing entertainment of high artistic and intellectual value, as well as sports. It deals with issues regarding the settlement of migrants from an intellectually high almost academic level. Its message is directed at mainstream Australia.

But who is providing the alternative to the overseas Television programming which is winning the hearts and minds of ordinary Australians of non-English speaking background away from Australia ?

Let us not forget, that we are now into the second and third generation of immigrants who adhere to the Islamic faith. These are predominantly English speaking. They would normally turn to the mainstream media and TV for their information needs. But again they are probably being let down much more by our mainstream media than the generation who are fluent in their home language and catered very well by non Australian media right in their living rooms in suburban Australia .

How can then one not conclude that the Australian media in general has been creating two separate states of living in this country. Local media’s response to the fact that many Muslims seem to be living a non-Australian life is to attack multiculturalism and say the Muslims don’t want to integrate.

In the 80’s when I worked in SBS we researched data that there was a significant following for commercial television news programs by ethnic communities. But many of those viewers have now been lured away by the operators of television services from abroad. In other words much of the Australian media has not capitalised on its opportunities and has now lost hundreds of thousands of viewers, readers and listeners. This is a disaster for commercial media and for the cohesiveness of our nation.

Ok then, what should the media’s role be? It has to take Islam and the hundreds of thousands of Muslim Australians seriously. They are not just a news story featuring rapes, riots and intolerance. They are not only about the ravings of a few eccentric, if not dangerous, imams. They are about a solid chunk of Australian society who do have different backgrounds, do have different practices and different rituals of worship. So what? There are many groups who can lay claim to those attributes.

Australian Muslims are also interested in sport and fashion and education and science and entertainment like everyone else. They even have much to offer in some of those fields but what do we know of their knowledge or views? What ideas do they have, especially ideas that spring from their life experiences possibly in a very different social and political system. We don’t know the answers to those questions. What I want is to see and hear Muslims talking about all these things, not in the news pages, but in the features pages and the opinion pages and in those seemingly endless people-and-personality-profile pages and the weekend magazines.

Instead what do we have? We have an information vacuum about what Muslim Australians do, other than take part in terrorism and massive religious rallies. This stuff just reinforces anti-Muslim views and attitudes which, in turn, strengthen the sense of alienation felt by Muslim Australians when they consume the Australian media.

It’s easy to get Muslims on the front page, like this week’s story about the school boys in Melbourne allegedly urinating on the bible. But the stuff on the front pages is never good and its always about extreme words or actions of some sort. Not that those stories shouldn’t be published, not that they shouldn’t be on the front page. But where is the other journalism reporting Muslims in Australia ? Even the Daily Telegraph’s attempt at a good news story this week about the New South Wales nominee for Young Australian of the Year, Iktimal Ha ge Ali, was neutralised by quotes from an Islamic website criticising her for not wearing the veil, dressing like a western woman and sipping champagne. How about an in depth interview with Miss Hage Ali about her achievements and visions? Maybe we have to wait to see if she is chosen Young Australian of the Year next month. Can her thoughts be ignored then?

It seems to me that before the broad community begins to see Muslims as equal fellow-Australians, the media must create the necessary environment. Stop linking those Australians who profess themselves as Muslims to horrendous events abroad, because there is no link. Just as there is no automatic link between Australians from the Basque region of Spain and the regular shocking acts of terrorism committed by ETA, the Basque separatist movement.

I have spoken of several important media issues which seem different but are linked. Firstly the representation of Islam in the main stream media, the failure of television and SBS in particular to engage with the Muslim community with messages that make them feel included, and the consequent ballooning of foreign television programmes which bring both political and religious messages to young Australians doing nothing to draw them into the Australian way of life and creating an ongoing cyber ghetto within our society.

This is not just media and journalism. As the import of this conference implies, it is a vital issue of Australia ’s national security. If our youth feel that they are not part of this society as reported by the media, and additionally get their ideas and goals from abroad; the rest of that scenario that can lead to horrific acts of terrorism is already well known in England , in France and in Spain - three countries with whom we may easily compare ourselves.

I believe all the issues I have raised are urgent, serious and important and must be faced and neutralised before we can further advance this wonderful, harmonious and unique nation.

Stepan Kerkyasharian AM