2023-06-19 17:45:13
The night is well advanced on December 18, 2022, but the Lusail stadium in Qatar, where the World Cup final was played, is still in turmoil. At the end of a match of high intensity, Argentina won during the penalty shootouts, the final of the 22nd football world cup “Qatar 2022” against France (4-2) after a score of 3-3.
Side by side, the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamil bin Hamal al-Thani and the President of the International Federation of Football Association (FIFA), Gianni Infantino, present the trophy to the Argentine captain under the cameras , Lionel Messi brandishing it in a shower of golden confetti.
According to FIFA, the final attracted 1.5 billion viewers, to the delight of the Emir who has just won his bet: to put his country in the spotlight of the whole world and thus ensure his leadership in the region. Better than its neighbours, this small country of some 2.7 million inhabitants, of whom only 300,000 are nationals, has understood how the media could ensure its existence and respectability on the international scene. Apart from its oil and gas reserves, objects of all desires, Qatar has above all asserted itself for ten years at the international level by relying on the media, in this case, Al Jazeera “the Island” in Arabic, created in 1996 in Saudi Arabia, and BeIN Sports which he launched in 2012, specially dedicated to sport.
Thanks to its programs available in Arabic, English, Turkish and Serbo-Croatian, Al Jazeera very quickly conquered a large audience to the point of competing with American and British channels, in particular CNN and BBC. While CNN established itself as the only international channel in the coverage of the first Gulf War in 1991, its supremacy was however undermined during the war against Iraq in 2003, especially in Arab countries where opinions were more receptive to Al Jazeera content.
The Qatari channel also played a fundamental role in the political upheavals during what was called the Arab Spring, these citizen revolts which carried off many Arab leaders. For days, the channel pointed its cameras, for example, at Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the revolt until the fall of President Hosni Mubarak. Also in Libya, Al Jazeera supported the protests that led to the arrest and assassination of Colonel Gaddafi.
Like other Western countries, Qatar has made the media instruments of its foreign policy, not only to extend its influence on the international scene, but also to orient public opinion in foreign countries.
Yesterday, under the Cold War, as today in the era of liberal democracy and the market economy, States always show a desire to influence media content if not to control it. Subsidies granted directly to the media or press trips offered to “influential” journalists are only procedures subtly set in motion to gain the favor of the latter.
Of course, we must be careful not to grant the media a power that they do not have, but according to the theory of “Agenda setting”
, there are tragedies in the world which receive more media coverage than others and which appear as international priorities. There are good victims and bad victims! “Burkina is experiencing “the most neglected crisis in the world”, regretted the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in a press release published on June 1, 2023. A declaration made on the basis of three criteria: the lack of political will of the international community, media coverage and humanitarian funding. The NGO adds that this “negligence is a choice”, and recommends “providing humanitarian assistance according to the needs of the affected populations and not according to geopolitical interests or the degree of attention given by the media to certain crises”.
Obviously, it has become difficult, if not impossible, to conduct a foreign policy while ignoring the media. In this sense, the media have become objective allies of States and should no longer be perceived as threats. This is even truer for States in conflict or going through an endemic crisis. In times of war, media management becomes an element of military strategy and information must be associated with the defense policy implemented.
Having perceived the interest of such an association, the Burkinabè Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regional Cooperation and Burkinabè Abroad organized on May 22 and 23 a meeting for exchanges between the Ministry and journalists called ” Diplomacy Press Days”. The objective is to strengthen the knowledge of men and women of the media on diplomacy, foreign policy and the department in charge of Foreign Affairs.
While our country has been hit by terrorist attacks since 2015, causing a humanitarian crisis with more than 2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), when the authorities of the Patriotic Movement for Safeguarding and Restoration (MPSR2) carried out strategic and diplomatic choices, how can the media “serve as a shield in the presentation of the political positions taken? asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Cooperation and Burkinabe Abroad, Olivia Rouamba.
“Who better than you, she adds, can bring contradiction to the analyzes sometimes carried out by international media in the pay of certain powers for predefined objectives”.
First, the nature of the crisis in Burkina. What is it ? How to name what is happening in our country? A civil war, as the former French ambassador to Burkina Luc Hallade had estimated, or are we dealing with a foreign invasion aimed at occupying our country and changing the model of society there?
The answer to this question involves radically opposed postures. In the first case, a holistic internal response is needed that takes into account the political, economic and social dimensions. In the second case, the international community has a duty to assist countries in danger whose sovereignty as a member state of the UN is seriously violated.
With the Internet, the alliance between media and diplomacy becomes a bit more of a political imperative since the network puts millions of users in contact who communicate by voice, sound and images without restrictions. And the traditional media such as radio and television have quickly found their place in this tool which alone creates global public opinion. In this context, Minister Rouamba believes that the convergence between diplomacy and the media is becoming delicate, especially since at the same time attacks are being carried out against journalists.
The “Press-Diplomacy Days” allowed paper-pushers to better understand the organization and functioning of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to understand the meaning and the interest of the diplomatic immunity granted to diplomats that the citizen can perceive as a reward for impunity. As a representative of a country in another country, the diplomat risks at most expulsion by the host country or recall by his country of origin in the event of the commission of an offence. Never a trial.
The participants in these two days of exchanges and reflection agree: in the face of the security crisis of unprecedented magnitude affecting our country, collaboration, even the press-diplomacy alliance, is becoming a categorical political imperative. They agreed to set up a diplomatic press club in order to provide national opinion with the keys to understanding a world that is complex to say the least.
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