International Crisis Group
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Arab Media Coverage of the Darfur Crisis

لللغة العربية اضغط هنا

Arab media analysts, editors and reporters attended a full-day workshop on 19 April 2007 in Cairo, organised by the International Crisis Group and the American University in Cairo. The seminar was aimed at discussing coverage of the Darfur crisis in Arab media. In attendance were members of the pan-Arab media and journalists from Sudan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Lebanon and Egypt.

Included among the speakers were Nabil Kassem (Al Arabiya), Khaled Mansour (World Food Program, United Nations), Hassan Satti (Asharq Alawsat), El Taher El Mardi (Al Jazeera), Fayez El Sheikh Saleik (Correspondent for Al-Hayat in Khartoum).

The workshop concluded that while political aspects of the Darfur crisis were given significant attention in the Arab media, there was much less reporting on humanitarian aspects of the crisis. Reasons for this included: the difficulties involved in getting to the story, a lack of funding, self-censorship in government-owned Arab media, lack of interest in the subject and racism.

Click here to read an article on the news coverage of the conflict in Darfur by Lawrence Pintak, Director of the Center for Electronic Journalism at the American University in Cairo.

A series of articles published after the Cairo Conference:

Perception of the Darfur conflict in the Arab world

With more than 200,000 dead and 2.5 million displaced from their homes, momentum has gained steadily throughout the international community to bring an end to the ongoing crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan. As international awareness and activism has increased, however, so too has the myth that the populations of the Arab and Muslim world are indifferent to the suffering of the people of Darfur. The results of a poll commissioned by the Arab American Institute (AAI) and conducted by Zogby International (ZI) shatters that myth and, in fact, shows broad support for the proactive engagement of Arab and Muslim countries to help end the conflict. The poll, which measured public opinion in Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and Malaysia, revealed that majorities in five of the six countries reported concern about the ongoing crisis. In all six nations, significant majorities believe their country should do more to help in Darfur, including 94 percent in Morocco, and 91 percent in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. Even in Egypt, the only country in which a majority of respondents did not register concern, 83 percent would like their country to do more.

Click here to access the Zogby International poll on the Arab and Muslim public opinions on the Darfur Crisis, May 2007.

Jihad on Horseback

Two years on, Nabil Kassem is still profoundly affected by his experiences in Sudan. Back in 2005, the documentary film maker was given the job of producing a $50,000 film for Al Arabiya about the crisis in Darfur. What he witnessed there, and recorded in his film, were scenes of unspeakable brutality and untold suffering, scenes he thought would surely wake up an Arab public all too willing to let Darfur pass by. But such was the indictment his film made on the Sudanese government and Arab Janjaweed militias, the final cut of Jihad on Horseback (Jihad ala Al Jiyad) never made it across the airwaves.


Jihad on Horseback Producer, Nabil Kassem, talks about his experience producing the film in Darfur.

In an interview with Lawrence Pintak, Nabil Kassem speaks of how with the help of a telephone Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir prevented the broadcast of perhaps the most provocative documentary film ever made by an Arab TV station.

The full documentary can be seen here.

To order a DVD copy of the documentary send us an e-mail with your name and address. Please let us know if you want the Arabic version or the one subtitled in English.

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