Challenges ahead for media in the Arab world

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In contrast, superficiality was very dominant, he stated, as most journalists would report events, data, and narrate stories that have just happened at that moment, leaving the context out of the picture.

He also reminded journalists of the forgotten ‘reasons' behind waging the war on Iraq in the first place: weapons of mass destruction and links with Al Qaeda.

"When the war started all of us got very busy reporting about movements of regiments, casualties of the war, about certain information that we have been fed directly by spin doctors and press conferences by the American forces," he said.

This then led to listing four major challanges that journalists in the industry face when reporting news, as seen through the eyes of Khanfar. First there is immediacy, and the obsession of breaking immediate stories that appear on the screen and fade away in a matter of hours. Khanfar argued for the need for slow journalism; journalism that digs deep into the foundations of the story, and understands the context.

The second issue is superficiality, which results in journalists turning a blind eye on the social and historical context of their stories. Khanfar stressed: "Without understanding the collective mind and without understanding how to deal with social complexities, politicians and journalists will fail to understand and analyse."

The third problem is that although journalists refer to themselves as ‘mass media', they have "betrayed the masses".

"I think we are much closer to being elite. And they [the masses] think that as well. They think that we have become this elite that has its own interest and tries to work on that interest, rather than work for the interest of the masses," he said.

He added: "I often argue that credibility must be of the type that puts the human being at the centre of your editorial policy, rather than the interest of politicians or commercial sectors."

The last issue Khanfar touched on was the importance of diversity in the newsroom.

Today, Al Jazeera has over 41 nationalities from all over the Arab world and beyond working for the channel. "I found that the concept of diversity is one of the most important key secrets to success. We are not a group of journalists who represent a certain kind of interest, political or commercial, and we do not also represent some national interests of a certain country or nation."

Khanfar concluded his speech by elaborating on the great responsibility that journalists in this region have. He said that news in more democratic and stable societies is a medium that people rely on to know about what's happening, but "in [this] region it is a matter of life and death for our audience. We should not underestimate the responsibility of being a journalist. Because of the lack of democracy in parts of this region and lack of freedom of expression... we play a much more important role than our colleagues in the West.

"Therefore we need to stand by this profession, to stand by the integrity of this profession, to believe deep down in our hearts that we are not only there for gain, personal or financial, but we are there because we also love this profession and we wish to protect it."

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