In yet another instance of the ongoing low-level war between Arab states and the independent Arab media, the Saudi authorites have arrested a lawyer for speaking to al Jazeera about the recent detentions of several reform activists: "Lawyer Abdul Rahman Al-Lahem was arrested on Wednesday for speaking by telephone with the pan-Arab satellite TV station Al-Jazeera about the arrests, according to a human rights activist." Wednesday's edition of the pan Arab daily newspaper al Hayat was also prevented from circulating in Saudi Arabia because of its coverage of the arrests.
The Saudi regime - like most Arab regimes - finds criticism from the Arab media far more dangerous and troubling than it does criticism from the Bush administration. Arab regimes have no trouble spinning American criticism as unwarranted interference in their affairs, and can play off the high levels of resentment of American policy which permeates virtually all Arab public opinion. That's old hat - Mubarak's recent tirades about the Greater Middle East Initiative, backed by a lot of public figures otherwise critical of Mubarak, are a textbook example. American criticism has no credibility with Arab publics, and the Arab regimes know perfectly well that no real sanction is attached to the American criticism. For all the occasional Bush speeches about democracy, nothing has really been done to punish repression or encourage democracy in the region. Despite Bush administration claims to the contrary, very few Arabs consider the Iraq invasion to have had anything to do with democracy, and thus few see it as having any lessons for their own situations one way or the other.
The Arab media such as al Jazeera and al Arabiya, on the other hand, enjoy both popularity and credibility. Their criticism stings, because it can actually reach domestic public opinion, convey information that these dictatorships would rather conceal, and have real political impact. The authoritarian Arab regimes know very well how to handle American criticism, but they still haven't really figured out how to deal with the Arab media. What a shame that the Bush administration aids and abets their hostile campaigns against that media, playing right into the hands of the dictators and working against a poweful voice of reform.
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