Arab Countries

Defining what countries constitute the Arab Middle East can be a tricky and politically charged exercise. The term Middle East defines a geographical area in Asia, but it lacks predefined borders. Although Egypt is largely located in North Africa, it is often included as a Middle Eastern nation due to the Sinai Peninsula's location in Asia and the country's Arab-speaking population and political influence in the Middle East. Iran is also counted as a Middle Eastern nation due to its political influence in the region and its location in Asia. Here, the Arab Middle Eastern borders include Egypt, the countries that make up the Mediterranean Sea's eastern border to Turkey (Syria, Lebanon, and the Palestinian Territories), the Red Sea's eastern coast (Jordan and Saudi Arabia), the Gulf of Aden's northern coast (Yemen and Oman), and the countries that abut the Persian Gulf (Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates).

Summarizing journalism in the Arab Middle East is equally difficult considering the varying political and social nuances that exist in the countries that comprise this dynamic region of the world. Journalists in some of these countries enjoy relative freedom while others operate under strict controls. As a region, however, Western watchdog organizations like Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders annually rank Middle Eastern nations among the worst in the world for press freedom.

In its 2008 annual ranking of global press freedom, Freedom House lists only three Arab countries—Kuwait, Lebanon, and Egypt—as even “partly free” while the rest are considered “not free.” Media experts in the Middle East question the validity of Western watchdog organizations' assessments of complex foreign political systems, claiming Middle Eastern evaluators could better understand subtle social nuances and their impact on media. However, when Arab organizations like the Amman Centre for Human Rights Studies (ACHRS) rank Arab media, their rankings are fairly consistent with those of the Western groups.

In general, the primary role of media in Middle Eastern countries is to support national development. Historically, a country's political system determines the type of journalism practiced. In the case of the Middle East, the country's political leaders play a direct role in how journalists are able to ply their trade. Journalists work amid a panoply of restrictive laws that punish reporters and their editors with criminal charges if they should violate these laws and punish the media organizations with fines or closures. The result is that the free-flow of information to consumers is hindered by overt government censorship, willing self-censorship by journalists, and collusion by political players and media operators.

Traditionally, the Western press has been considered the enemy of closed-press systems. With the recent rise of Pan-Arab media properties (media organizations that can be seen, heard, or read throughout the Middle East and often around the world) and various Internet channels, however, a new dimension to the Middle Eastern journalistic landscape has been created. These Pan-Arab channels—like the Qatar-based Al Jazeera television channels and the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper—break the mold by aggressively criticizing Middle Eastern leaders and their governments.

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