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The Emergent Supranational Arab Media Policy Sphere
Introduction
On February 12, 2008, Arab information ministers adopted what became known as the Arab Satellite Television Charter (ASTC) during an emergency meeting in Cairo dedicated to reining in the burgeoning satellite television industry. As the first Arab League-sponsored policy document addressing transnational television, the Charter reflects the concerns and anxieties of Arab governments over their dwindling control over television. Since the 1990s, the advent of a vibrant transnational commercial television industry has posed difficult challenges to Arab states. In the early 1990s, “offshore” London-based Arab satellite channels hosted various Arab dissidents on their programs. Since 1996, guests on Al Jazeera talk-shows have skewered leaders of the Arab status quo for corruption, authoritarianism, and dependence on the United States (US), while the Lebanese channels LBC and Future TV have regaled the public and spawned controversies with bold social talk-, variety and reality shows. In 2003, the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq compelled Saudi interests to launch Al-Arabiya, a pro-Saudi, pro-US, direct rival to Al Jazeera, while unleashing the unbridled growth of an anarchic Iraqi television scene. The pan-Arab satellite television industry has grown to include approximately 500 channels dedicated to women, youth, music, religion, finance, and real estate, most of which lie beyond the direct control ...
