Publications

Palestinians and the Media: Usage, Trust and Effectiveness

• Preface
• Main Findings
• Full report in PDF format (859KB)

Preface

The media environment in the West Bank and Gaza is, at best, a confusing one. Three ministries control licensing, airwave rentals, and fees, and they were in conflict until late 2005. The media law is at odds with the basic law. The press and publications law is currently being reworked. Many say there are too many media outlets. Even Palestinian Authority (PA) officials admit that there are “many more channels than is the real need.” This is due to the absence of law and the PA’s decision early in the negotiations of the Oslo process to have as many de facto stations as possible. Now the government is trying to regulate the sector.

At last official count in April 2006, there were 31 television stations and 30 radio stations in the West Bank and eight radio and one television stations (Hamas-run) in Gaza. As of November 2006, there were 33 television stations and 32 radio stations in the West Bank and 12 radio stations in Gaza, plus three new satellite channels that serve both regions. Of these, only five are fully licensed, two are foreign owned, two are religious stations, and one is jointly owned by Israelis and Palestinians. Several are, as referred to locally, “cassette” stations (plug and play) and the majority pull down broadcasts from regional satellite stations for regional and international news, some with agreements and some through piracy. In addition, according to the current law, selling stations is prohibited without prior approval of the Ministry of Information, but many such sales have taken place in the past two years.

Although the media law requires 40% of the broadcast to be local news and production, stations are often hard pressed to provide it. There are many reasons for this, but the primary cause is financial or lack of proper equipment. A tiny number actually reach the percentage required by law. Today, many TV and radio stations have frozen even the daily news bulletin because of financial difficulties.

Very simply, there are too many news organizations in the small advertising market – the local economy can barely sustain a handful of radio and television stations, certainly not the many that exist today. This resulting fragmentation of the advertising market further exacerbates an already troubling financial picture for most media enterprises. Observers say that because of the flooded media market, advertisers do not know where to go and instead turn to agencies that place ads in certain markets. This, in effect, creates a marketing monopoly that is removed from the local media outlets and thus, does not benefit the local stations in any meaningful way. These agencies choose certain outlets while ignoring others completely. This has caused frustration among the stations and has led to accusations of favoritism based on personal connections.

In order to better understand the role and perception of the local media beyond the owners and managers themselves, Internews Network contracted Near East Consulting (NEC) in Ramallah to conduct a phone survey to garner a sense of the communities’ opinions on, perceptions of, and desires for local media.

It must be stated here that this survey was conducted in the midst of escalating violence in West Bank and Gaza (July 2-7, 2006). This may have affected some of the answers given by the public, especially as it concerns programming, with politics being the first and second most popular viewers’ choices in programming. It is also important to note that 20% of viewers do not have satellite receivers and are watching local terrestrial TV stations that are pulling down and rebroadcasting the Arab satellite channels for free. This is especially true for Al-Jazeera. The satellite channels cover the hostilities better than the local stations because they can move more freely. Additionally, the Israeli authorities do not consider reporters who work for local media to be professional journalists and restrict their access.

However, because the political situation affects their daily lives so directly, the majority of Palestinians (88%) follow the news on a daily basis, from various television (61%) and radio (21%) stations. In general, for all types of information about which respondents were queried, they trust television most. Throughout the West Bank and Gaza, television is the primary source of information. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), 69% of the population owned satellite dishes in 2005, and this percentage has increased. Of those surveyed, 65% said that Al-Jazeera was the most credible satellite news station and 57% said it was the most trustworthy.

It is interesting to note that on social issues, after information obtained from television, respondents most trust friends and relatives as sources of information. The same is the case for trust in sources of information concerning issues of family, health, and culture. Audience trust and choice in both programs and medium vary in small degrees according to circumstance, location, and age. This is the case with less educated and refugee camp respondents who trusted radio more than television.

What does this say about the local media? Interestingly, the second medium that was trusted most when it concerned local and municipal issues, Palestinian politics, or international politics was the radio. Although radio does suffer credibility issues, it does have a broader audience than local television. Perhaps this is because of the daily life cycles that take people out of the home, when listening to the radio increases for both news and entertainment.

However, most participants in the study (51%) said that the local media do not cover local news or social issues well. The same was true for economic issues, where respondents said they trusted the newspaper (13%) more than radio even though some of the local broadcast media began coverage of the stock market in 2005. Their perception is that the journalists lack experience or that the stations have a political bias. A small number (14%) say that this is due to self-censorship in dealing with certain issues. In a nutshell, local media, especially television, have a difficult time competing with Al-Jazeera both in trust and credibility, but also in production quality and coverage. That television comes in second to radio where local issues are concerned should be noted, not only by the media outlets themselves, but also by anyone working with local television.

Internews Network harbors no preconceived notions of what may or may not work, but activities for the media must be carefully designed to bolster interest and buy-in from independent journalists and media executives, as well as the community it claims to serve. There is no doubt that the media’s image within the community must be improved. Perhaps it would serve the media outlets to be more in touch with their community in order to provide more credible local news and programming that is of interest.

Main Findings