Media told to avoid becoming weapon for conflicting countries

The media should avoid becoming weapons of war for conflicting countries and provide balanced news coverage amid the polarization represented by the interests of the West and Muslims, a peace forum here heard Wednesday.

Lawrence Pintak, director of Kamal Adham Center for Journalism at American University in Cairo, told the second World Peace Forum the media have become polarizing as the result of single-perspective reports, a situation that worsened to a large extent after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

In the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, some critics say, many in the media took sides with the West. Condemnation of terrorists generalized the whole Arab world as the "axis of evil".

Pintak said while the media held a huge responsibility to promote peace, they had become trapped inside a circle of demonizing certain figures.

"All at the expense of misleading readers ... creating a tragic rift between the Muslim world and the West," he said.

He said imbalance and recklessness in presenting facts had also dragged reporters into the wars they covered.

"A brutal backlash against the journalists is to be found in the Arab world. Journalists are the victims of both the government and the insurgent groups there," Pintak said.

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