DUBAI - Dubai's Arab Media Summit opened Tuesday to a call from UAE Information Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan for the Arab media to wake up and tell the truth after misleading the region on Iraq.
"Talk frankly even if it is sometimes painful," Abdullah told the cream of Arab media at a plush Dubai hotel.
"Before the war our Arab media did not reveal the reality of the Iraqi regime," the minister said accusing them of failing to portray "the repression and terrorism" of Saddam Hussein's Baath regime which declared war on Iran and invaded Kuwait.
"Arab media ignored this reality and ... even dealt with the regime as if it was on the right path and presented the crisis and a conflict opposing western forces against an Arab regime ready to fight in the name of Arab dignity and sovereignty."
He won applause for admitting that even his own Abu Dhabi satellite television had joined in what he saw as a general failure to paint a real picture from Iraq before the US-led war.
Abdullah urged Arab media "not to inflame emotions but to enlighten the audience" and stressed the need for a "qualitative leap".
"The Arab public deserves the truth," he said.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder opened the forum attended by scores of leading Arab and Western journalists by noting the challenges facing Arab leaders as well as the media.
He hailed the importance of competition among the new Arabic television channels, but also "the challenge to the political leaders who have to accept and deal with criticism that is sometimes not objective."
"There is a challenge to the media itself. They have to make responsible use of the freedom" they enjoy, Schroeder said.
Credibility was the major media issue, said Chris Cramer, managing director of CNN International.
He paid tribute to the efforts of the new Arab television stations which he said "brought a collective voice which is critical to this region and those of us outside this region."
The third annual two-day forum aims at "opening channels of dialogue between the Arab and Western media" and this year focuses on coverage of the Iraq war.
A series of roundtable discussions will look at topics such as "Media: the ultimate weapon of mass destruction", "Complicity? Responsibility? Liability? The role of media in modern war".
Speakers include Hanan Ashrawi of the Palestinian legislative council; Hisham Sharabi, professor emeritus, Georgetown Univeristy; George Samman, editor in chief of Al-Hayat and the BBC's Tim Sebastien.
Dubai, one of the seven members of the United Arab Emirates federation, has in the past three years turned into a regional media hub, attracting hundreds of news and technology organizations, including world media giants, to a free-zone "city".
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