Slam as A Religion and A Philosopy & Islamic Values Questions

Read the article and answer the following questions:

1. The Author states that “Islam is a religion, but it is also a philosophy” (p.483). What does that mean?

2. What Islamic values play an important role in governing journalists in Muslim societies’ approach to their reporting? Mention five.

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JOU15410.1177/1464884913490269JournalismPintak
Article
Islam, identity and professional
values: A study of journalists in
three Muslim-majority regions
Journalism
2014, Vol. 15(4) 482­–503
© The Author(s) 2013
Reprints and permissions:
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DOI: 10.1177/1464884913490269
jou.sagepub.com
Lawrence Pintak
Washington State University, USA
Abstract
Islam is a religion, but it is also a philosophy. An analysis of surveys in the Arab world,
Indonesia and Pakistan reveals that the mission and values of journalists in those
Muslim-majority regions closely track Islamic obligations to tell the truth, seek justice
and work toward the public interest. This article provides empirical data to bolster
the argument that the values of Islam are the prism through which journalists in
Muslim-majority countries approach their profession. Those findings add to the body
of research supporting the theory that journalistic norms are contextual, shaped by a
hierarchy of influences that include global standards and local values such as culture,
political climate and religion. But the findings also indicate that in regions where a
professional journalistic culture is in the process of emerging, the influence of personal
versus professional values is in reverse proportion to those found in more mature
journalistic markets.
Keywords
Arab, identity, Indonesia, Islam, journalism, Pakistan, religion, values
Introduction
Pakistan’s Urdu language newspaper Nawa-e-Waqt carries on its editorial page a quote
from the Prophet Muhammad that epitomizes its original raison d’être: ‘The best form of
jihad is to say a word of truth in the face of an oppressive ruler.’
The term jihad is inextricably linked in western minds with the radical Islamist terrorism that has dominated newspaper front pages for several decades. But violent jihad is
just one manifestation of the ‘struggle’ or ‘exertion’ that is the true essence of the term
Corresponding author:
Lawrence Pintak, CADD 101G, Murrow College of Communication, Washington State University , Pullman,
WA 99164-2520, USA.
Email: lpintak@wsu.edu
Pintak
483
(Mohammad, 1985: 385). As Bonner observed, ‘Jihad, for the historian, is thus not only
about clashes between religions, civilizations, and states but also about clashes among
groups within Islamic societies’ (2006: 4). Those clashes can take many forms.
Scholars of Islam outline four ways through which a Muslim may carry out jihad: by
heart, by tongue, by the mind and by the sword (Mohammad, 1985: 389). As Qur’anic
scholar Yusuf Ali has noted: ‘Mere brutal fighting is opposed to the whole spirit of Jihad,
while the sincere scholar’s pen or preacher’s voice or wealthy man’s contribution may be
the most valuable form of Jihad’ (Ali, 2005: Note 1270).
Based on an analysis of surveys involving 1596 journalists in the Arab world, Pakistan
and Indonesia (Pintak and Ginges, 2008; Pintak and Nazir, 2013; Pintak and Setiyono,
2011), this article argues that, while a variety of political, economic and social factors
shape the unique worldviews of reporters and editors in three of the largest regions of the
Muslim world, a common thread that binds them is the degree to which – consciously or
not – Islamic values shape their approach to the mission of journalism as they struggle
to: (1) report the truth in societies where information has long been suppressed; (2)
achieve social justice and political rights; and (3) balance international professional
standards with the values of their religion and culture.
This is not to suggest that Muslim journalists in those regions, or in general, are on a
religious crusade with journalism serving as their ideological sword. Rather, just as US
newsrooms are pervaded by a ‘belief in the morality and righteousness of journalism’
and ‘an almost sacred commitment’ to the watchdog functions of the press (Brennan,
2000), journalists in the three major Muslim-majority regions studied likewise see themselves as engaged in a cause, but theirs also involves balancing the western journalistic
aspiration to ‘comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable’ (Astor, 2006) with a more
culturally sensitive desire to report ‘truth with restraint’ (Rao and Lee, 2005).
Inherent in that dichotomy, I argue, is the fact that among these Muslim journalists,
whether or not the journalists themselves are consciously aware of it, professional aspirations closely track a parallel set of obligations intrinsic to Islam. This argument builds on
the qualitative work of Steele, who found that journalists in Indonesia and Malaysia
‘express the universal values of journalism, but do so within an Islamic idiom and, more
generally, see and understand the significance of their work through the prism of Islam’
(2011: 534).
The survey results support her conclusion that that justice (‘adl) is ‘the overarching
ideology of journalism in Islam’ (Steele, 2011: 533) and that other journalistic values
mirrored in Islam include the quest for truth (haqq), independence (nasihah), and balance (l’tidal). These findings expand those values to include the promotion of good and
the prevention of evil (hisbah), and working for the public interest (maslahah), and indicate that the Islamic value of moderation (wasatiyyah) plays an important role in governing how journalists in Muslim societies approach their reporting.
The influence of these Islamic values can be detected even among journalists who do
not consider themselves overtly religious. Islam is a religion, but it is also a philosophy,
described by Islamic revivalist Maulana Maududi (1903–1979) as a ‘revolutionary concept and ideology which seeks to change and revolutionize the world social order and
reshape it according to its own concept and ideals’ (Esposito, 2002: 55). On a cultural
level, Islam is syncretic, absorbing the cultural mores of the milieu into which it has been
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Journalism 15(4)
introduced, whether the cultural conservatism of the Arabian Peninsula, the ethno-political
complexities of Pakistan or the consensus culture of the Indonesian archipelago.
Using Shoemaker and Reese’s (1996) notion of a hierarchy of influences affecting the
news, this study examines the relationship between tenets of Islamic faith, the political,
economic, and historical contexts of Islamic-majority regions, and journalists’ conceptions of professional values.
In contrast to the erroneous headline a New York Times editor appended to an article
about the Pakistan survey results, ‘Inside the (Muslim) Journalist’s Mind’, (Pintak and
Nazir, 2011), the results demonstrate that there is no such thing as a ‘Muslim’ journalist
any more than there is a single worldview uniting all Christian, Jewish or Buddhist journalists, but that, while a variety of regional influences create significant variations among
them, Islamic values form an underpinning that affects how journalists perceive their
role in each of these societies surveyed.
The chimera of universal values
Journalism has been defined as a set of ‘cultural practices’ (Breen, 1998) built on the
conviction that ‘[j]ournalism’s first obligation is to the truth’ (Kovach and Rosenstiel,
2003: 37). Some scholars have argued that these shared values can be found in newsrooms around the world, proposing a ‘universal’ code of ethics (Callahan, 2003;
Herrscher, 2002) as a ‘bulwark’ against other influences (Ward, 2005: 5).
However, a growing body of research argues that such a borderless journalistic worldview remains elusive. A plethora of studies of journalists from Europe to Southeast Asia
have identified a rich tapestry of perspectives shaped by culture, religion, politics, ethnicity, economic pressures and a host of other factors (Gross, 2002; Hallin and Giles,
2005; Hanitzsch, 2005; Jakubowski, 1991; Kaposi and Vajda, 2002; McMane, 1993;
Steyn and De Beer, 2004; Van Dalen et al., 2011).
Journalists in many countries may aspire to certain values, such as objectivity, but
their ability or willingness to actually abide by them is determined by the practicalities
of their unique socio-political situation. Examples are the persistent ‘gap between perceived importance and actual practice for most functions’ found in Bangladesh
(Ramaprasad and Rahman, 2006: 148), the way that ‘both objective and subjective factors influence professional freedom’ among Chilean journalists (Mellado and Humanes,
2012: 999), or journalism in Pakistan, which is ‘context-dependent’ with the ‘universal’
values of journalism shaped by factors ‘that are historically, culturally, and socially situated’ (Dickinson and Memon, 2011: 13–14).
Religion and culture mean that many journalists, particularly in the developing world,
modify western ideal-types to fit their own values. While journalists may, in some but
not all cases, share certain objectives (Hanitzsch et al., 2010), or aspire to a ‘global ideology of journalism’, they each interpret its values and mores through their own cultural
prism, creating a ‘liquid modern state of affairs’ (Deuze, 2005: 445). Southeast Asia’s
‘development journalism’ model, in which journalists don a ‘steering mantle’ to guide
societal development (Yin and Payne, 2004: 387–388) has spawned a variety of theoretical children, each adopting and translating the broad themes of responsibility and social
justice to fit their own specific cultures and political systems, such as the Singapore
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485
model in which the media is a partner of government in building the nation and instilling
‘Asian’ or Confucian values, and Indonesia’s ‘Pancasila’ press, dedicated to upholding
the unity of the nation’s far-flung archipelago (Romano, 2003).
In his benchmark study of international journalists, Weaver found ‘[t]here are strong
national differences that override any universal professional norms or values of journalism around the world’ (2004: 145–146). Paraphrasing a leading Indonesian editor, Steele
concluded that ‘just as Islam was understood and accepted in a local idiom in Southeast
Asia, so too are the values of journalism’ (2011: 545). Ultimately, journalistic conduct is
closely tied to the ‘culture of a nation, its economic stage of development, its political
regime’ (Bertrand, 2003: 44).
None of this should be a surprise; in the 1950s, the fundamental framework through
which western scholars view the media, The Four Theories of the Press, concluded, ‘The
press always takes on the form and coloration of the social and political structures within
which it operates’ (Siebert et al., 1956: 1–2). After interviewing journalists in Asia and
the Middle East, Wasserman and Rao concluded that ‘the epistemology and practice of
journalism ethics needs to be understood as an incendiary mix of technology, culture, and
morality [that] … resists exclusive and linear western notions of ideology and identity
politics’ (2006: 10).
Theoretical framework
The growing body of literature examining journalistic values and mores outside the borders of the US and Western Europe has led to an evolving set of theories that move
beyond the ‘arrogant and ethnocentric’ efforts by some US communications scholars to
force-feed American ethics on other journalistic cultures (Merrill, 2002: 18).
A foundation for several of these theories is Shoemaker and Reese’s ‘hierarchy of
influences’ model, which posits that mass media content – and the journalists who produce it – are shaped by a multitude of internal and external forces (1996). The theory
provides a framework for examining journalism on the international stage (Donsbach
and Klett, 1993; McQuail, 2005) and led to proposals for a ‘universal theory’ of journalism culture, which attempted to explain why various journalistic values ‘seem to play out
differently around the globe’ (Hanitzsch, 2007; Hanitzsch et al., 2010) and the concept of
‘glocalization’ – a ‘global-to-local’ theoretical matrix that its authors say explains the
‘two-way relationship between global and local epistemologies and practices’
(Wasserman and Rao, 2008: 164).
These approaches take into account ‘country contexts’ (Reese, 2001: 185) and ‘contextual objectivity’, in which ‘the media reflect all sides of any particular story but still retain
the values, beliefs, and sentiments of their target audience’ (El-Nawawy and Iskandar, 2002:
1–2), often seeking to balance ‘truth with restraint’ as journalists seek to report ‘responsibly’
in the context of local political and cultural realities (Rao and Lee, 2005: 115).
The Islamic approach to news
Any study of journalism in Muslim-majority countries must acknowledge the role of
information (i’lam) and news (khabar) in Islam. As scholar Ali Mohamed noted, ‘Islamic
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Journalism 15(4)
religious ethics have more of an influence on Muslim journalists around the world than
the codes of ethics formulated by professional organizations’ (2010: 144). Those who
compiled the hadith, the collections of words and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad and
other prophets recognized in Islam, are considered to have been the first reporters, and,
in establishing the truth (haqq) of the tales passed down through the ages, they were
advised to consider the veracity of each Rasool (messenger) or Nabiy (news giver)
(Al-Seini, 1986: 288), providing a template for modern journalists in the effort to confirm the facts of news accounts (Hassan, 1994).
Truth and objectivity occupy pride of place in the Islamic approach to communication. Islamic information means ‘clearly expressing the truth (haqq) in a way that attracts
people’ while objectivity is defined as ‘wisdom’ (hikma), known in Islam as the ‘divine
principle’ (Glass, 2001: 226). Islamic theorist Abd al-Latif Hamza explains i’lam (information) as: ‘[p]roviding the people with proper news, correct pieces of information and
firm truths, which help the people to form a correct opinion of an event or problem’
(Glass, 2001: 223–224).
To its advocates, this ‘Islamic’ approach to information, in its purest form, is primarily
focused on the spread of religion, giving precedence to da’wa, the teachings of Islam,
thus making the news industry a channel for the spread of religion, transforming journalists into ‘champions of justice and God’s witness’ and recognizing their ‘social responsibility role’ (Pasha, 1993: 73–74).
To its critics, this theory is both simplistic and Orientalist. The Islamic world is wide
and varied, these scholars argue, and a reductionist approach that positions Islam as the
driving force ignores the role of race, ethnicity, nationality and other factors in shaping
the worldview of Muslim journalists (Khiabany, 2003). Likewise, in the modern world,
Muslim journalists do not necessarily accept the idea that they are supposed to use their
craft to proselytize.
Still, the advice that Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406), the renowned philosopher and historian, provided to scribes six centuries ago could easily have come from a 21st-century
editor: avoid ‘partisanship’ and ‘bias’, ‘over-confidence in one’s sources’, and ‘failure to
understand’ the information about which they write, ensure information is presented ‘in
its real context’, eschew ‘exaggeration’ and be on guard against the ‘very common desire
to gain the favour of those of high rank’ (Khaldun, 1992: 27–29).
The surveys
This study analyzes the results of three surveys involving a total of 1596 journalists in 14
Arab countries (n = 601), Indonesia (n = 600) and Pakistan (n = 395) carried out between
2006 and 2010 (Pintak and Ginges, 2008; Pintak and Nazir, 2013; Pintak and Setiyono,
2011). The same basic survey was administered in each region, with adaptations to
account for international and domestic developments (e.g. the election of Barack Obama)
and local variations.1 The original survey instrument was based in part on studies by
Weaver et al. (Weaver and Wilhoit, 1986; Weaver and Wu, 1998; Weaver et al., 2007),
and was influenced by other surveys of journalists in emerging media markets
(Ramaprasad, 2001; Ramaprasad and Kelly, 2003). Like the earlier surveys, it examined
journalist demographics, working conditions and the perceived role of the journalist, but
Pintak
487
also included attitudes toward a range of international issues drawn from broader surveys
of the regions involved (Inglehart, 2005; Newport, 2002). This study only examines a
portion of the results.
The initial goal of the surveys was to create a portrait of journalists in the three
regions, which represent 43 percent of the world’s Muslim population (Grim and Karim,
2011), in order to better understand their sense of identity, to gauge the degree to which
they ascribe to what some consider to be ‘universal’ values of journalism, to measure
their attitudes toward a range of ‘domestic’ and international issues, and, generally, to
assess the influences that shape their journalistic worldview. Those findings are detailed
in the individual articles on each survey.
The common thread between the three regions surveyed is that the population in each
is overwhelmingly Muslim. But there are also major differences in each of the societies.
Since the overthrow of President Suharto in 1998, Indonesia has been a vibrant democracy with a flourishing media sector. Pakistan has been in constant political turmoil for
decades, as the military, politicians and judiciary vie for power, and it was only in 2002
that the government deregulated the media. When the survey in the Arab world was conducted in 2006–2007, the so-called Arab Spring had not yet arrived. Most countries still
labored under dictators or royal families and, while the pan-Arab media had emerged as
a vibrant force in the region, most domestic news organizations were tightly controlled.
There are also significant differences in the socio-economic characteristics of those
societies. Indonesia is a vast archipelago made up of some 300 ethnic groups; when the
survey was conducted in 2009, the internecine conflicts of the late 1990s and the Islamist
terrorism of more recent years had largely been quashed, though there were still isolated
acts of violence, and the economy was booming. Pakistan, when the survey was carried
out in 2010, was a nation mired in violence and political instability, with a virtual civil
war between the government and Islamist militants, conflict between various ethnic and
religious groups, spill-over from the war in Afghanistan, and a vicious struggle for political power. The Arab countries surveyed represented an array of vastly different nations,
from war-wracked failing states like Sudan and Yemen to the feudal economic powerhouses of the Gulf. Arabic may – at some level – be the shared language but the differences among those countries were as plentiful as their similarities.
The detailed analysis below demonstrates that there are major differences among the
journalists surveyed regarding issues of identity, worldview and the specifics of their
perceived role. However, when examining the commonalities and differences among the
three sets of results, it becomes clear that both the underlying sense of mission of journalists in all three regions and the way they carry out their functions reflect the societal goals
and values of Islam.
The findings
Journalists and identity
How individuals see themselves shapes how they see the world. Thus, understanding
perceived identity is an important step toward understanding how journalists in any
given region approach their profession. The elements that combine to determine identity
are complex.
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Journalism 15(4)
60%
50%
40%
Pakistan
30%
Indonesia
20%
Arab
10%
0%
Naonality*
Muslim
Journalist
Figure 1. Primary identity.
Note: *For Arabs, combines responses for ‘Arab’ and nationality, e.g. Egyptian, Saudi, etc., which were
roughly equal.
In the case of Pakistan, for example, its citizens’ ‘multiple identities can be categorized on the basis of religion and state … there is much interplay between and among the
“cultural,” “homeland,” “Islamic state,” and “Islamic vanguard” identities’ (Cohen,
2004: 163).
When studying journalists, an added element is professional identification. The
degree to which reporters and editors identify with their profession is one benchmark
scholars use for measuring the maturity of the media sector in regions emerging from
long periods of government control (Splichal and Sparks, 1994).
Journalists in the surveys were asked how they viewed themselves: did they identify first with nation, religion, ethnicity, region or profession? As noted above, more
than 90 percent of the journalists in all three surveys were Muslim. But when asked
their primary identity (‘Above all, I am a …’), half the Arabs said they saw themselves first as a journalist while more than half the Pakistanis saw themselves as
Muslims first.2 In Indonesia, the balance between religion and nationalism was
roughly even, with 40 percent of respondents identifying first as an Indonesian, the
same percentage declaring him/herself Muslim first, with only about 12 percent
responding ‘journalist’ (Figure 1).
When journalistic identity was taken out of the equation and the groups were asked,
‘To which geographic group do you most belong?’, it became clear that the Pakistanis
had the greatest sense of identification with nation, while, for Arab journalists, identity
transcended borders. Sixty percent of Pakistanis said they identified primarily with the
Pakistani nation, 26 percent with the Muslim world and fewer than 10 percent identified
with their tribal or ethnic region. In stark contrast, just 15 percent of Arabs identified first
with the nation of their citizenship, more than 30 percent said they identified first with
the Arab world, and a quarter said the Muslim world (Figure 2). The question was not
asked on the Indonesian survey.
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70%
60%
50%
40%
Pakistan
30%
Arab
20%
10%
0%
Locality or
town
Na on
Arab world
Muslim world
Figure 2. Geographic identity.
Islam and journalistic values
Truth (haqq)
There is no value more fundamental to western-style journalism than truth. It is equally
central to Islam. ‘Cover not Truth (haqq) with falsehood (baatil), nor conceal the Truth
when you know (what it is)’, says the Qur’an (2:42).
Truth is an ideal to which journalists in the study aspired, but, like objectivity itself, it
was seen as contextual. ‘Truth is the most important thing, but it depends on the media
that you are working for’, according to Al-Arabiya reporter Haitham Hussein. ‘If you are
working with BBC, Al-Arabiya, or Al-Jazeera, the truth is not the same. Maybe you can
share the same information, but not the same truth’ (Pintak, 2011: 6). The comment
reflects the fact that journalists in all three regions aspire to western journalistic values
of independence and freedom of expression, but they do this within the constructs of
emerging ownership patterns, political pressures, the complexion of their audience, and
their own religio-cultural values.
The Qur’an counsels Muslims to both verify and consider the implications of their
work, ‘lest you harm people unwittingly, and afterwards become full of repentance’
(49:6). This is where the Islamic ideas of moderation (wasatiyyah) and balance (l’tidal)
meet western-style journalistic values. The overwhelming majority of journalists in all
three regions agreed that ‘a journalist must always be objective’. But that aspiration was
tempered by the fact that more than half also said ‘a journalist must balance the need to
inform with the need to show respect’ toward those about whom s/he is writing (Figure 3).
It is a conviction vividly illustrated in the controversy over the 2005 publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad by a Dutch newspaper. Many western journalists said
publication was an issue of freedom of expression; many Muslim journalists saw it as a
failure of the western media to show respect to the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims. ‘From
an Islamic viewpoint, freedom of speech is not an absolute right without limitations;
rather it is modified by certain limits realized within the framework of the concept of
justice’ (Mohamed, 2010: 154).
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100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Pakistan
Indonesia
Pan-Arab
A journalist must always be
objecve
A journalist must balance
need to inform with need to
show respect
Figure 3. Truth vs. restraint.
Less controversially, more than half the respondents said journalists should interpret events and just a handful argued that they should include their own opinion,
though a quick survey of media in all three regions will find the reality far
different.
The activism of the Arab media was clearly reflected in the fact that about 70 percent
said it was acceptable for a journalist to take part in political activities and protests; significantly fewer Pakistani and Indonesian journalists agreed. Still, there were apparent
contradictions: while only about a quarter of Indonesian and Pakistani journalists said
reporters should take part in political activities, about twice as many said journalists
should be allowed to participate in protests, though the line between the two can be indistinct (Figure 4).
Independence (nasihah)
The Qur’anic concepts of nasihah (independence or sincere advice) and hisbah (promotion of good and prevention of evil) take for granted ‘the basic freedom of the individual’
to speak out, advise, and even criticize government leaders. They are based on a variety
of Qur’anic affirmations of freedom of expression and the public interest (maslahah),
which includes ‘freedom to work, freedom of speech and freedom of travel’ (Kamali,
2011: 203–204, 32, 34).
The fight for free expression and media independence is an important theme among
journalists in all three regions examined. Closely tied to that struggle is the quest for
professionalism. Journalists in the Arab world, Pakistan and Indonesia face a variety of
pressures: from governments, from business interests and from Islamist militants. These
reporters and editors daily risk their freedom and their lives. It is thus striking that in all
three regions they said the greatest threat to journalistic independence was their own lack
of professionalism. All groups also cited poor ethics and corruption among journalists as
major problems. These are significant statements about the aspirations they hold for their
profession.
491
Pintak
80%
70%
60%
50%
Pakistan
40%
Indonesia
30%
Arab
20%
10%
0%
May engage in poli cal
ac vi es
May take part in protests
Figure 4. Journalists and political activism.
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Arab
Pakistan
Indonesia
Figure 5. Threats to journalism.
The other perceived threats to journalism were closely tied to the particular environment in each region, but ultimately they were all roadblocks to the ability of journalists
to operate independently. For the Arabs, government control came in a close second to
the lack of professionalism, but the next two threats also displayed journalists’ willingness to criticize themselves, with more than two-thirds of the respondents saying a lack
of ethics and corruption among journalists were major threats to the industry. The
Indonesians agreed, identifying the lack of ethics and journalistic corruption, along with
media ownership patterns, as the greatest threats, while Pakistani journalists listed business pressures, media ownership patterns and threats of physical violence among their
top four threats (Figure 5).
Yet the gap between professional aspiration and economic reality was seen in the
responses to questions about specific journalistic practices involving money, with sizable
percentages from all three groups – particularly the Pakistanis – seeing it as acceptable
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Journalism 15(4)
60%
50%
40%
Pakistan
30%
Indonesia
20%
Arab
10%
0%
Payment for
favorable stories
Travel money from
news subjects
Adver
sing in
exchange for
favorable coverage
Figure 6. Journalism ethics: ‘It is permissable to accept …’.
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Pakistani
Arab
Figure 7. Rating western journalism.
to receive travel money from news subjects and exchange advertising for favorable coverage (Figure 6). A clear explanation for those responses, and the self-criticism regarding
the lack of professionalism, poor journalistic ethics and corruption among journalists,
lies in the fact that in all three regions journalists are overwhelmingly young, with about
80 percent under age 40, have minimal formal professional training and are very poorly
paid. Eighty-four percent of the Pakistani journalists and 77 percent of the Indonesians
reported salaries below $500 a month, with about half earning less than $250. Only the
Arabs reported better salaries, but even among them, only about one-third earned more
than $1,000 a month.
On the issue of professionalism, it is also significant that Pakistani and Arab journalists gave high ratings to the professionalism of the US media (Pakistanis 76%, Arabs
62%), even though they rated the Americans much lower on fairness (43/20%) and gave
them mixed reviews for independence (52/36%). The European media received much
higher marks for fairness (47/47%) than the Americans and was also seen as highly professional (76/74%), while their view of European media independence was also mixed
(55/58%) (Figure 7). Indonesian journalists were not asked this set of questions.
493
Pintak
(Somewhat
/completely
agree)
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Media is becoming freer
in my country/region
As a journalist, I
personally feel freer to do
my job
Pakistan
Indonesia
Arab
Figure 8. Journalistic freedom.
Overall, journalists in the three regions felt there had been significant improvements
in media freedom. In Pakistan, which has seen the most recent loosening of media controls, journalists were particularly confident that their media is becoming more independent, with almost 90 percent saying the industry is freer (somewhat/completely
agree) than in the past and about 84 percent saying they were personally freer to do their
job. The Arabs were the least convinced; 74 percent said the media overall was freer and
just 54 percent said they were personally more free as a journalist (Figure 8).3
Justice (‘adl)
According to the Islamic jurist Ibn Qayyim (1292–1350), ‘Justice is the supreme goal
and objective of Islam’ (Kamali, 2011: 31). It is closely tied to the related concepts of
promotion of good (hisbah) and the public interest (maslahah). To many Muslim reporters and editors, justice – in the form of human and political rights – is also the supreme
goal and objective of journalism.
Abul Ala Maududi (1903–1979), Pakistan’s most influential Islamic thinker, echoed
the Prophet Muhammad when he spoke of the responsibility of journalists to use their
profession to seek social and political justice.
To change the views and mind of the people through spoken word as well as written word is
also a form of Jihad, and to bring down the old tyrannical social system and establish a new
order based on justice and fairplay [sic] by dint of power too is ‘Jihad’. (Maududi, 1939: 6)
In her study of Indonesian and Malaysian journalists, Steele concluded that justice is ‘the
overarching ideology of journalism in the majority Muslim countries of Southeast Asia’
(2011: 537).
In regions dominated by oppressive and/or corrupt regimes, justice is closely tied to political and social reform – another way of saying promotion of good (hisbah) and the public
interest (maslahah) – which is the top priority of journalists in all three regions surveyed.
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80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Polical reform Educate public News for social
good
Voice of the
poor
Civic
engagement
Figure 9. Arab journalists: Change agents.
Indeed, that quest for change is rooted deeply in the Islamic approach to information. From the primitive tools of the 14th-century warraqueen or ‘men of the pen’
(Sardar, 1993: 48) to today’s satellite television and digital media, all have one thing
in common, according to information scholar Dagmar Glass, ‘They are agents of social
and intellectual change and have far-reaching effects on society and communication’
(2001: 219).
This desire for social and political justice, so fundamental to Islamic society, manifests itself in different ways among the journalists surveyed, reflecting the other political
and socio-economic influences at work in each region.
Arab journalists: Change agents. The truth of Glass’s observation about agents of social and
intellectual change was readily evident in the Arab media’s seminal role in spreading the
seeds of the Arab Spring. The Arab survey was completed four years before the mediafostered revolt, yet it was clear then that Arab journalists intended to play a critical part
in reshaping the Middle East and North Africa.
Arab journalists are first and foremost change agents. Three-quarters of the Arab journalists surveyed said the primary mission of Arab journalism is to drive political change.
The other roles most frequently cited in the responses were all fundamental to creating a
just society: educating the public, using news for the social good, serving as a voice for
the poor, and encouraging civic engagement (Figure 9).
Almost 95 percent said Arab society must be changed, with one-third of those insisting that change must be radical. Roughly the same number of Pakistani journalists
wanted something similar to happen in their own society (Figure 10). Given that
Arab journalists have since played a key role in making that change a reality in some
Arab countries, the Pakistani response is noteworthy in a nation currently facing internal
political, military and social turmoil. The question was not asked in Indonesia.
Pakistani journalists: Serving society. While the perceived mission of Pakistani journalists is
less overtly focused on change than that of their Arab colleagues, Pakistani journalists
likewise see their role as working toward a just society.
495
Pintak
70%
60%
50%
40%
Pakistan
30%
Arab
20%
10%
0%
The way society is
Society must be Society is not in need
organized must be gradually improved
of change
radically changed
by reforms
Figure 10. Reform agenda.
More than 96 percent of respondents said the mission of Pakistani journalism is to
‘analyze complex issues’, and no issue is more complex than the multifarious relationship between elements within the Pakistani political establishment, military and intelligence agencies, the forces of Islamist militancy and the US government. That confluence
of pressures is directly responsible for the political, social and economic instability
wracking Pakistani society.
More than 90 percent of respondents also included in their mission ‘investigate government claims’, ‘defend Pakistani interests’ and ‘enhance national unity’, all roles that
ultimately foster a just society. Unlike its Arab counterpart, the Pakistani media’s relationship with the government is not primarily one of confrontation. The media certainly
play a highly political role, frequently lining up behind specific political parties, but it is
more in the context of the country’s complex democratic free-for-all than the confrontation with authoritarianism evident in the Arab world (Mufti, 2007).
Beyond day-to-day Pakistani politics, there is a strong echo of the ‘development
journalism’ of Southeast Asia, in which media see themselves as partnering with government for the good of the nation. That is apparent in the other most commonly cited
missions of Pakistani journalism: ‘educate the public’ and ‘serve as a voice for the
poor’, as well as those in the next tier: ‘enhance national unity’, ‘use news for the social
good’, ‘transform society’, ‘support national/regional development’ and ‘foster
Pakistani culture’ (Figure 11).
Indonesian journalists: Justice through consensus. More than a decade after the overthrow of
Suharto, Indonesian journalists are dedicated to a 21st-century variation of the ‘Pancasila journalism’ that prevailed in the New Order but has now been adapted to the new
democratic environment. Under that old model, it was the duty of the journalist to work
for the good of society, which usually equated with the good of the regime. The driving
principles were the values of the Pancasila philosophy: belief in one God; humanitarianism; the unity of Indonesia; consultative democracy; and social justice (Frederick and
Worden, 1993).
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Journalism 15(4)
97%
96%
95%
94%
93%
92%
Analyze
Educate public Serve as voice
complex issues
to the poor
Defend
Pakistani
Interests
Invesgate
gov’t claims
Figure 11. Pakistani journalism: Serving society.
100%
98%
96%
94%
92%
90%
Educate public Use news for Serve as voice
the social good to the poor
Support
Analyze
nat’l/reg complex issues
development
Figure 12. Indonesian journalism: Justice through consensus.
In the tumult that has marked Indonesian politics since 1998, journalists have found
their voice and mission. They no longer serve as a lapdog to the government, but the
survey found they remain true to the broader notion of serving the nation as a whole.
Today, they see themselves as pillars of a just society, evident in the fact that the top five
tasks of a journalist most frequently cited included educating the public, using news for
the social good, giving voice to the weak, supporting national and regional development,
and analyzing complex issues (Figure 12).
Consensus-building rather than confrontation is a hallmark of Indonesian society. It
should therefore not be surprising that Indonesian journalists see themselves as agents of
evolution not revolution. After the most frequently cited missions, the next five were
largely in line with facilitating the evolution of a just society: support for political change
(86%), encouraging civic engagement (86%), supporting religious values (86%), entertaining the public (83%) and transforming society (79%).
The priorities of the journalists in the three regions, and their underlying quest for
social and political justice, were also evident in what they saw as the most important
497
Pintak
70%
60%
50%
Religious Muslim
40%
Secular Muslim
30%
Other
20%
10%
0%
Pakistan
Indonesia
Arab
Figure 13. Religiosity: Self-identification.
stories to cover. For Arabs, it was political reform, human rights, poverty and education;
for Pakistanis, education, terrorism, the economy and political reform; and for
Indonesians, education, human rights, poverty and the environment. These variations
reflect less a difference in worldview among the three groups of journalists than the
societal context; the Arab world is dominated by autocrats, Pakistan is caught up in both
the Afghan war and vicious internal violence, and Indonesia is focused on societal institution-building more than a decade after its own political revolution. At the root of all
these priorities is the idea behind Maududi’s exhortation ‘to bring down the old tyrannical social system and establish a new order based on justice and fairplay [sic].’
Islam in the newsroom
While Islamic values may underpin their journalism, when it comes to the role of Islam
in society, the reporters and editors surveyed speak with many voices and their views are
far from uniform. As would be expected, more than 90 percent of journalists in each of
the regions reported that they were Muslim, but there were significant differences in their
religiosity. When asked to self-identify as a ‘religious’ or ‘secular’ Muslim, almost 60
percent of Pakistanis, 50 percent of Indonesians and just 30 percent of Arabs identified
themselves as ‘religious’ Muslims as opposed to ‘secular’ Muslims (Figure 13).4
The secular orientation of Arab journalists and the far more religiously conservative
view of the Indonesians were reflected in their attitudes toward the role of religion in
society (Figure 14). Only 40 percent of Arab journalists agreed that belief in God is necessary for good moral values, just 25 percent said politicians who do not believe in God
should be banned from office, 60 percent said governments should be allowed to pass
laws that contradict sharia (religious) law, and almost 80 percent indicated clergy should
not be allowed to influence how people vote. In contrast, about 90 percent of Indonesian
journalists equated belief in God with good moral values and opposed allowing nonbelievers to hold office, and the vast majority were against laws that contradict sharia,
though they also said clergy should not influence voting among their followers. Pakistani
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Journalism 15(4)
100%
80%
Pakistan
60%
Indonesia
40%
Arab
20%
0%
Belief in
God=moral
values
No office w/o Clergy should
Laws
belief God not influence contradicng
vong
sharia allowed
Figure 14. Religious issues: Mixed messages.
attitudes fell roughly mid-way between those of the Arabs and Indonesians on most
questions, but like the Indonesians, only about one-quarter of Pakistani journalists agreed
that secular laws contradicting sharia were acceptable.
The Indonesian journalists also exhibited a religiously conservative view on a range
of domestic issues, with more than 60 percent supporting a series of fatwas from a leading Islamist organization supporting an anti-pornography law and favoring banning both
the Indonesian edition of Playboy magazine and the Ahmadiyah, a sect considered heretical by some Muslims. About 40 percent of the Indonesian journalists also favored
requiring women to wear headscarfs and wanted sharia law enforced. However, it is
important to note that this does not mean Indonesian journalists are blindly supportive of
all things religious: 84 percent of the Indonesians said they are against clergy influencing
voting.
Indonesian journalists had the highest regard for the clergy, Arabs the lowest (Figure 15).
More than 60 percent of Indonesians said religious leaders effectively meet the moral
needs of the individual, 70 per cent said they help resolve family problems, almost 90
percent gave them high ratings for meeting spiritual needs and 60 percent for their counsel on social problems. In contrast, less than half of the Arab and Pakistani journalists
agreed clergy adequately address moral needs (Arab 29%, Pakistanis 44%), family problems (38/46%), spiritual needs (41/50%), and social problems (20/49%).
Conclusion
The survey results indicate that Islamic values play an important and unifying role within
the hierarchy of influences that shape worldview among journalists in the Muslim world.
Islam is by no means the only factor that influences the way these reporters and editors approach their profession. Differences in identity, attitudes toward journalistic priorities, threats to the industry, role of the clergy, and sense of mission can be explained
by an array of political, social and economic factors within the regions studied, such as
the form of government and level of political stability, the presence or absence of conflict, and the state of the economy. The purpose of this article is not to detail those
499
Pintak
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Pakistan
Indonesia
Arab
Moral needs
Family
problems
Spiritual needs
Social
problems
Figure 15. Regard for clergy.
differences or speculate how they might explain the varying responses, but rather to
examine the role of shared Islamic values.
The survey results indicate that in the three largest Muslim-majority regions, Islamic
values are the prism through which journalists view what are generally accepted in the
West as ‘universal’ values of journalism. Most fundamentally, the shared goal of improving society, whether through radical change or gradual social reform, mirrors the Qur’anic
quest for truth and justice; and the way these journalists approach their job is heavily
influenced by a variety of other Islamic values, such as the need for balance, moderation
and respect.
These findings, based on data from a wide and diverse geographic segment that contains more than 40 percent of the world’s Muslims, support Steele’s more limited study
in Malaysia and Indonesia, which concluded that Muslim journalists in those two countries approach the values of journalism ‘within an Islamic idiom’ and that ‘justice’ is the
overarching ideology of their journalism.
The findings also expand on Shoemaker and Reese’s hierarchy of influences theory.
Where they concluded ‘communicators’ professional roles and ethics have more of an
influence on content than do their personal attitudes, values and beliefs’ (1996: 98), this
study indicates that in regions where a professional journalistic culture is in the process
of emerging, that relationship may be reversed and that in Muslim-majority countries,
religion serves as a unifying factor mitigating other influences.
On a broader level, the study highlights the similarities and differences between
‘Western-style’ journalism and journalism in these Muslim-majority countries. A study
of Catholic and Evangelical journalists in the USA found that they used the ‘rhetoric of
objectivity’ to maintain a ‘boundary between professional and religious worlds’
(Schmalzbauer, 1999: 363). The results of these three surveys strongly indicate that the
boundary between the personal and the professional in the Muslim world is far more
porous and that objectivity itself is contextual, shaped by religion, culture and a variety
of other forces. While objectivity is a – or perhaps the – dominant influence on the
worldview of journalists in societies with a mature media sector and personal belief systems play a secondary role, the reverse appears to be the case in Muslim nations where
independent media is embryonic. The importance of understanding this perspective is
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embedded in scholar Ali Mohamed’s warning that the quest for a set of global media ethics ‘must adequately take into account the enduring religiosity of many non-Western
populations’ rather than ‘simply enforce secularism upon religious peoples’ (2010: 180).
There is, undoubtedly, an emerging culture of professionalism – and an aspiration for
even greater professionalism – among the journalists studied; however, that culture is
emphatically not ‘largely hostile’ to the inclusion of political judgments in news reporting, as Hallin found among US journalists, and the idea of ‘cynical detachment to
engagement in the public sphere’ (1994: 6) is anathema to the majority of journalists
surveyed.
These Arab, Pakistani and Indonesian journalists admire the professionalism of their
western counterparts, but they are shaping and adapting global journalistic ideal-types to
fit their own unique local realities and beliefs, in a clear example of Wasserman and
Rao’s global-to-local matrix.
The self-avowed secularists among these Muslim journalists may not be overtly seeking
to implement the commands of the Qur’an, but as they struggle to reveal truth in societies
where information has long been suppressed, to bring social and political justice to longoppressed peoples, and to balance western journalistic ideals with their own religious and
cultural values, they are – consciously or not – demonstrating the Qur’anic maxim that,
‘The best form of jihad is to say a word of truth in the face of an oppressive ruler.’
Funding
This research was made possible by a series of grants from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Notes
1.
2.
3.
4.
Details on the methodology of each survey can be found in the individual survey articles.
9.5 percent of Arabs identified first with their nation of citizenship and another 9.5 identified
as ‘Arab’ first.
The survey took place before the Arab Spring, but as of early summer 2012, Egyptian journalists were under renewed siege from the Supreme Military Council and, aside from Tunisia,
little had changed elsewhere in the region.
Asking survey respondents a series of questions to measure religiosity, such as mosque attendance or frequency of prayer, is the preferred method of determining religiosity. However,
when the survey instrument was initially tested among a small group of Arab journalists,
there was a strong negative reaction to such questions. Therefore, participants were asked to
self-declare their level of religiosity, which is an accepted practice in survey research.
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Author biography
Lawrence Pintak is the founding dean of the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at
Washington State University. A former CBS News Middle East correspondent, he has been called
the foremost chronicler of the interaction between the Arab and western media. His research
focuses on America’s relationship with the Muslim world, the role of the media in shaping global
perceptions and government policy, and the future of journalism in a digital/globalized world.
Pintak’s books include The New Arab Journalist (I.B. Tauris, 2011); Reflections in a Bloodshot
Lens: America, Islam and the War of Ideas (Pluto Press, 2006); Seeds of Hate: How America’s
Flawed Middle East Policy Ignited the Jihad (Pluto Press, 2003); and Beirut Outtakes (Lexington
Books; 1988). He holds a PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Wales.