­­­­January 2012

A seasoned foreign correspondent says that journalists rely too heavily on official sources, resulting in a tainted picture of events happening in the Middle East.

Robert Fisk, award-winning journalist, author and Middle East correspondent based in Beirut, provided his accounts of what is really happening in the Middle East compared to what the public sees through the eyes of the media, at the University of Calgary on Jan 30.

He is currently on a speaking tour from Quebec to B.C.

“I think we, journalists, have a very heavy burden of responsibility for the bland, malevolent almost, misinformation that the world gets on the Middle East,” said Fisk.

Fisk spoke to a crowd of approximately 420 people including volunteers at the event entitled “Arab Awakening, but are we hearing the truth?”

One of the things that can be noticed now is the constant reliance upon government sources, said Fisk.  An investigation will always come back to a journalist’s sources.

“The osmotic, parasitic relationship between journalism and power is quite remarkable,” he said.

Fisk shared an article written by a Washington journalist that depicted the timeline of efforts to save the diplomats, which was provided by officials.

He noted regular references to statements made by U.S. officials.

“If that is journalism ladies and gentleman, I don’t have a job anymore,” said Fisk.

Journalism has largely become an echo chamber for power, he said.

Fisk recounted a conversation he had with Amira Hass, whom he describes as the fine and brave Israeli journalist for the newspaper Harretz, when he posed the question about what the role of a foreign correspondent is.

She said “our job is to monitor the centres of power, especially when they go to war and especially when they use lies to do it,” he said.

Fisk said that “we” (journalists) do not use words as they are and “we” smudge even the basic semantics.

He said there is a major problem and he believes it also comes from the fact that journalists are not censored.

“You don’t need to censor them,” he said.

He concluded his lecture with his perception about what democracy means to Arabs.

Democracy by many Arabs is associated with those powers, “our powers,” which went on for decades supporting their dictators, said Fisk.

“We do not understand that for the Arabs, the word democracy is a very dangerous one,” he said.

Fisk said he doesn’t think democracy is high on the agenda.

Not because Arabs do not want freedom or do not understand it, but because they have had quite enough experience with it already, when “we” (the West) used it to betray democracy, he said.

Faye Ghandou, an audience member, said the presentation was amazing and that Fisk is not afraid to say what is actually happening in the Middle East.

“He gives an unfiltered voice to the other side,” said Ghandou.

Audience member Sumaira Ahmed said she enjoyed the presentation and that Fisk pulled all of his experiences with different parts of the world into a cohesive narrative.

“He pulled together a picture of the world,” said Ahmed.

The event was presented by Canadians for Justice & Peace in the Middle East with the Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre, Justice for Palestinians and Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights.