2024
The state and public media in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are subject to strict government oversight, with 95% of the surveyed media outlets lacking editorial independence. This represents a slight decline of 1 percentage point compared to the previous year but still a notable increase compared to three years ago, when 87% of the media were under government control.
The MENA region is also home to a significant number of media outlets that are subject to government influence. Our research indicates that 33% of media outlets in the region, whether public or private, are influenced by the government in some way.
The ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, which led to a war between Iran and Israel that began in the early days of October 2024, has prompted governments to further intensify their control over state and public media outlets in order to disseminate their own ideologies and advance their respective agendas. The conflict is likely to exacerbate the challenges facing the media, leading to further fragmentation, instrumentalization, and state influence in a region that is already home to several failed states, including Yemen, Syria, and Libya. In these contexts, media outlets face significant hurdles in operating independently.
The ongoing conflict and local factors, including repeated attempts to politicize the media, are likely to present a series of new challenges for the few editorially independent state media outlets in the region. One outlet facing such dangers is IPBC in Israel.
The MENA region continues to exhibit significant contrasts with regard to media developments. On the one hand, a number of state- and publicly-owned media outlets are facing severe financial challenges, which are posing significant hurdles to their operations (e.g., Télé-Liban). Conversely, the affluent Arab nations of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE have been increasing their media spending as a means of enhancing their regional and international influence.