International Journalists Discuss U.S. Foreign Policy and the 2008 Presidential Elections
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| From left to right: Basil Okoor, Christopher Gumunyu, Evangelina Hernandez, Malkhas Gagua, Joseph Raj and Joyce Barnathan. |
By Michelle Mathew
October 11, 2007, marked a year since the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) first presented an event to discuss newsworthy events at the National Press Club in downtown Washington. ICFJ celebrated that anniversary with the latest in what has since become a series of events at the Press Club, offering a panel discussion titled “Perceptions of America: Just How Bad?”
The panelists were all international journalists – five of the participants in ICFJ’s longest-running program, the International Journalism Exchange (IJE). They were Malkhaz Gagua of Georgia, Christopher Gumunyu of Zimbabwe, Evangelina Hernandez Duarte of Mexico, Basil Okoor of Jordan, and Joseph Raj of Malaysia. Raj and Ramy Mansour of Syria are Daniel Pearl Fellows.
The five IJE participants were asked to offer their views on the way that people in their respective countries perceive the United States through the prism of several current issues.
ICFJ President Joyce Barnathan launched the event, offering the audience of more than 90 guests some background on ICFJ and the IJE program, now in its 23rd year.
The seven other particpants in this year’s IJE program were in the audience, and Barnathan introduced them as well as this year’s two Douglas Tweedale Memorial Fellows. The Tweedale Fellowship, also administered by ICFJ, honors the memory of Douglas Tweedale, a UPI Latin American correspondent during the 1980s.
Barnathan cited some dismal results from a recent BBC World Service poll on the perceptions that people around the world hold about the United States today – indicating that the view of the United States is generally a poor one and has declined in the past year.
Barnathan opened the panel discussion, asking the journalists why the United States should care about how the world perceives it. Okoor, the Jordanian journalist, said the United States is viewed as a bigger problem in the Middle East than it is in other parts of the world.
“Jordan was established upon unity among Arab countries,” Okoor said. “The relationship between the U.S. and Israel affects Jordan’s perception of the U.S.”
Other topics the panelists covered included the U.S.-led war on terrorism, U.S. immigration policies, and the U.S. presidential election set for 2008.
The Zimbabwean panelist, Gumunyu, commenting on his country’s interest in the U.S. election, said: “People are more concerned about getting their next meal rather than the American election.” He also noted the spiraling rate of inflation in his country.
Barnathan invited the audience to ask questions of the panelists. One audience member asked what the journalists think would happen if the United States were to leave Iraq.
Okoor responded that the United States is not presenting any positive results in Iraq and that the “solution should be internal without U.S. intervention.”
In response to a question about whether Iran could play a constructive role in Iraq’s future, Okoor noted that Iraq had been the front line for the Arab world in checking an expansion of Iranian influence. Iraq today is unable to do this, and the idea of a greater Iranian role makes many people in Arab countries uneasy, he said.
Other audience questions included the political future of Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe; the recent vote of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, declaring that the World War I-era killings of Armenians by Turkey was a genocide; and whether the ways in which people around the world view the United States might change after President Bush leaves office in January 2009.
The evening concluded with a cocktail reception. |
