In 7 pages this paper examines Arab press censorship and the impact of the Internet in terms of increasing news access. Ten sources are cited in the bibliography.
Name of Research Paper File: JL5_JLarabmedia.rtf
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In general, the amount of press freedom which is extant in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt has been dictated in the past by economic constraints,
and by the level of religious freedom in the country concerned. As Essoulami (2002) points out, prior to the global political changes which took place in the 1980s, journalism was
subject to economic pressures: those who were resident in Arab countries tended to take advantage of the material rewards which were on offer if their publications conformed to the constraints
set out by the ruling regime, and even those in Europe were subject to the dictates of an oil-based economy.
However, there were some significant changes in press freedom at the end of the 1980s,
especially in terms of the increased democratisation of such countries as Algeria and Morocco. Al-Saqqaf (2002) also makes the point the media in Arab countries has always been under the
control of the state, and notes that the first signs of change were in the 1990s when more and more independent presses were set up. However, these were not well
received by the ruling regimes, and journalists were intimidated, threatened and even killed.
Al-Saqqaf asserts that the situation has improved considerably from that of previous decades, but also notes that there are still many
flaws in the freedom of the Arab media. For example, in countries where a large percentage of the population is illiterate, there might be a lack of censorship in the