Ahmet Davutoğlu, Turkish Foreign Minister and Mahmood Jibril, one of the most prominent names in the Libyan opposition and Wadah Khanfar, Direct General of the Al-Jazeera Network shared the podium at the last Doha meeting.
Waddah Khanfar’s presence highlights that Al-Jazeera is not only the instigator of the transformation in the Arab World; it also charts its course. Al-Jazeera gets its name from the gulf region which consists of Qatar; Amir Sheikh Hammad finances the network. However, in the Arab world, this TV network’s influence is singlehandedly equal to all countries in the regional geography. Yes, it is true that Qatar dispatched its fighter aircraft to participate to the implementation of the UN sanctions on Libya. However, no fighter aircraft can exercise more devastating effect on Qaddafi administration than done by the Al-Jazeera. It is also inevitable that the rulers and administrators who cannot perceive this transformative effect of media will go wrong in their prevision about the rest of the 21st century.
Moreover, Al-Jazeera, which utilizes the universal tongue of visuality, benefits from the fact of Arabic as the common language of a geography spanning from Iraq to Mauritania. The channel smashes dogmas by a talk show, renders topics which were once thought not to be discussable into discussable. Indeed, if you ask Wadah Khanfar and his team, they do not pursue any other aim beyond doing ‘good journalism’. Al-Jazeera’s transformative power somewhat springs right from there: in a world where power of sovereignty is misused by despotic powers, existential truth is bent by oligarchic minorities and embellished with anti-Israel and packed off to ‘foist’ their citizens, ‘good journalism’ assists manifestation of trust as it is. In short, Al-Jazeera cries out loud: ‘The king is naked!’
The other day, Alexander Machkevitch told the press after a meeting with Jewish leaders that he, along with a group of partners whose names he did not reveal, was prepared to launch a news channel to rival Al-Jazeera. The Jewish billionaire of Kazakh origin said the new channel “will not serve to any country’s interests and will be independent of editorial manipulations." Being one of the top 300 rich men in the world, Machkevitch added that the channel would be ‘profit-based’. We have a discreetly lying miner who explored the transformative power of media!
In Palestine and Jordan, I had the opportunity to observe on the Arab world, the transformative effect of Israeli channels broadcasting in Arabic, for broadcasting on the basis of hedonism and exploitation of lust, these channels were bent on disintegrating the Arabic family structure in the long run.
Al-Jazeera is different... It appeals to the faculty of mind and most recently to the faculty of anger. Arabic streets do not get lost, but find themselves in its programs. It makes them think, get angry, move into action. While doing so, it gets benefit from the fact that a considerable strength of its staff has Palestinian-roots. The oppressed naturally side with the oppressed and the marginalized. Qatar’s economic freedom from any other Arabic country guarantees their editorial freedom. They touch, but cannot be touched.
A TV channel can only do this much. From then on, determiners will be those who dominate the alternative media. Further than the social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, our world perceptions will be shaped by the blogs which instigate thinking and nurture minds, the web sites producing interactive content, and mobile platforms utilizing the language of visuals. Those who can prepare themselves for this glorious world will be the great powers of the second half of the 21st century.
Here’s for you a statement uttered for the future’s world: "If you are not everywhere, you are nowhere." In everywhere, you can only exist if you are in mobile channels accessible from everywhere. Turkey’s place in the future world will not be established by its geopolitical position, but by the position of the Turkish media among the global media and the productivity of Turkish citizens in the internet media.
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