Western media flaws only highlight our own

The attacks perpetrated by Anders Behring Breivik in Norway on July 22 had the unintended effect of unveiling bias and prejudice in the Western media, and sparked worldwide debates about the role and responsibility of the press. The incident also raises important questions about the lessons that we can extract in our bid to harness our regional media’s power as an agent of positive change and a reflection of the aspirations and values of the people. In the hours immediately following the massacre, the false assumptions and speculation as to the perpetrator revealed a significant lack of rigor and objectivity by some major news outlets. When the truth was out — that the massacres were not carried out by Islamic terrorists but in fact by an anti-Islamic Norwegian one — Middle Eastern journalists were quick to pour scorn on the mistakes made by the foreign media, seizing the opportunity to