Interviews 103
Mishal Kanoo launched a scathing attack on the region's journalists, claiming in a blistering speech that they lacked the courage to properly investigate controversial stories.
In the speech entitled ‘Is Journalism in The Gulf Just PR Fluff?' Kanoo, who is deputy chairman of the Kanoo Group, told delegates of the Arabian Business Media and Marketing Conference 2007 that he believed journalists in the region preferred to cut and paste news agency copy than to uncover the real stories in the region.
Journalists should tell us the truth about these things, rather than just taking cut and paste as per what is given to them by the PR companies.
He highlighted several stories which went reported in the region, including the case of a prominent Kuwait-based company which was investigated for fraud - a story which was covered by the Wall Street Journal but not by any Middle East-based publications. Areas which he believed journalists have not properly investigated include the conduct of local banks and the claims of local property developers at the recent Cityscape event.
Giving one example he said: "I saw two companies make the statement that they are the largest private developers in the Middle East.
"One has 12 to 16 buildings on paper but only four of them have been built. The other one put out an advert saying they were spending AED450bn in the Middle East. Yet no one investigated this and asked ‘really where is that money coming from? How did you come up with this figure?' The journalists should have investigated this and should have been telling us the truth about these things rather than just taking cut and paste as per what is given to them by the PR companies."
Describing Dubai as "one of the best rumour mills in the whole of the Middle East," he said journalists preferred to skirt around controversial topics rather than drilling down to find the truth behind them. "There are some newspapers and magazines that do that but you reach a point where you stop," he said. "We don't want to get inside the onion. We will peel a few layers but we don't want to get inside."
The lack of proper investigative journalism is, he said, leading to a situation where UAE-based publications lack credibility and where readers seek verification from international publications to back up their claims. "The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Financial Times. When they say something, when they make a statement you listen. When the magazines in this part of the world make a statement, you want to verify it."
Kanoo claimed that there are two main reasons why media companies in the region steer clear of publishing controversial stories about companies and individuals in the Middle East - fear of legal action and advertising revenue. Kanoo said he believed the UAE was one of the few parts of the world where a journalist would face legal proceedings in a criminal court for writing a story, which was later claimed to be untrue. "In other parts of the world if someone raises a suit against you for stating something which they think is untrue, it will go to a civil court. Here it goes to the criminal court. How many people are there that want to test that world?"
However, he said the most significant reason why in his words "our journalism ends up being more like PR," was the need for advertising revenue - particularly from the real estate sector.
"There is no other significant reason - it's money," he concluded.