Press reporting of human rights issues : case study of the Queen Boat affair

Abstract

In recent years there has been much debate over whether Islam is compatible with internationally agreed norms of human rights. Indeed, there are many who would insist that Islam is actually inimical to these values and is therefore an obstacle to their acceptance as an international phenomenon. As the debate between the proponents of cultural relativism and universalism continues, nowhere has this become more perceptible than in the media. While the main responsibility of any free media lies in its ability to provide truthful, unfettered and balanced reporting on any issue, this test is unfortunately seldom passed, with the result being - more often than not - a foggy, lopsided picture of the actual situation. Disregarding its role as a vehicle for and conveyor of enlightenment, tolerance and harmony, especially with regard to convoluted human rights issues, the national press systems often end up being simply 'press agents' for the state or the majority, thus exacerbating irritation and suspicion among governments and various other groups by distorted coverage. The press coverage of the arrest and subsequent sentencing of 52 alleged homosexual men in May 2001 in Cairo exemplified this dilemma and showed the difficulties inherent in objectively reporting human rights incidents. While in theory covering the same case, the Western and Egyptian press systems in practice covered this incident - known as the Queen Boat Affair - from their individual viewpoints and followed their own agenda. Not surprisingly, the Western media and the Egyptian media each tended to portray the affair from their own cultural point of view. Instead of carrying out their role as an impartial objective observer and reporter of facts, both press systems undertook an active role in promoting their beliefs and philosophies - though falling on the two opposite side of the spectrum. The rhetoric of Manichean dualism was employed: the Western became the virtuous promoter of internationally recognised human rights while the Egyptian press trumpeted its role as the upholder of the societal virtues and morality of Egyptian/Muslim culture. Each tended to view the other as promoting a vicious doctrine it was their duty to criticise. Therefore, the main aim of this study on human rights media reporting is first to construct the events and violations that occurred in the Queen Boat affair, a case which attracted international attention for being riddled with flagrant human rights abuses; second to demonstrate how the medias of two different cultures covered the Queen Boat Affair, including the main premises on which their reporting was based; third to examine to what degree the medias' approaches were coloured by a cultural sub-text, being restricted by the expectations of their respective audiences; and fourth to show how the two medias contributed to the escalation of the incident as well as to the cultivation of mutual suspicion and intolerance. This study will finally seek to define the role of the press, whether it is possible to find some common criteria for reporting such incidents as the Queen Boat, that take into account the need for truth and the need to protect a society's perceived moral standards. The chronological construction of the Queen Boat affair is based on factual data documented in the 2001, 2002 and 2003 Annual Reports of Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the US State Department Report on Human Rights and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Committee, as well as on periodic press releases by the above-mentioned human rights organisations. The files of the case will also be consulted, in addition to international and regional human rights instruments to which Egypt is a State Party. Analysis of the Egyptian media will be based on selected articles from the quasi-state owned; opposition and independent written press, covering the period from 11th May 2001 till mid-June 2003. Examination of the Western media will be built on selected articles from European and North American press, covering the same above-mentioned period.