Dr. Hala Sarhan is a well-known Arab TV presenter. She was part of different TV networks, starting from ART, Dream, and one of the most important figures in Rotana Cinema, which is part of Rotana network. She has a semi-talk show called Hala show, in which she introduce a number of panelists talking about various issues mainly social. She has a reputation of opening up sensitive and hot stories and topic for the general discussion. In one of her recent episodes she was reported to introduce prostitutes talking about their experiences in the Egyptian society. They reported having been protected by the Egyptian police.
Hala show "has been caught up in a scandal" on the same episode "over the use of actors to play dysfunctional guests who lied about their backgrounds claiming on air that they were professional Egyptian prostitutes. Al Mehwar Sat channel revealed on the 12th of Feb. (continued on the 13th and 14th Feb.), had told an emotional story of their prostitution. The girls" were reported to "have revealed that they had been given a script and their story was completely fabricated. The matter is currently under investigation from authorities and the tapes of the first 4 episodes were subpoenaed by the prosecutor and the two remaining episodes were canceled after a complaint was filed by the four girls against Hala Sarhan and the producers of the show. The basis of the filed complaint by the girls states that they where unaware of the resulting trauma and the potential risks involved in telling that they were prostitutes on television which resulted in the endangerment of their safety adding they have been intimidated by production staff with promises to protect their anonymity using necessary means silhouette screens, disguises, electronic voice alteration, pixel and fog screening, etc.) . Rotana's representatives have declined to comment."
what is important for us here is to talk about the professional dimension of the story. How ethical it is "fabricate story" or ask your guests as a TV presenter not to tell the truth even if you have a very good message?You have to take into consideration the competition between the various media outlets (entertainment) in this case for advertisers and therefore for audiences. Do you think that this case has just highlighted the need for the development of none governmental-professionally administered bodies and committees to supervise the performance of the flourishing Arab entertainment industry?Don’t you think that this would a more civilized and developed mean of management of the industry than having to deal with police and governments?You know there are more other dimensions to this story. Just make sure we don’t write about the story in a factual format. We always mention that the allegations were not confirmed yet. So we are talking about accusations and not about FACTS.
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11 comments:
According to me it is not very ethical to fabricate stories, no matter how good their “message” may be. It is pretty much equivalent to cheating the audience, luring into making them believe that something that is completely false is in fact real.
I took MCM 102 last semester (media literacy) that mostly concentrated on the fact how our current generation of people tends to believe in anything that they see on television, and how news reporters are almost always biased in one way or another (largely due to their personal reasons), how they tend to fabricate stories or make up certain details in addition to the true story, in order to make them more appealing to audiences, or simply because they haven’t done enough research on a certain topic and deadlines are approaching. This course also taught us how to be careful and skeptical whenever watching or listening to any media production, and enabled us to make our own judgments.
The case of Hala Sarhan is pretty evident in my opinion, and to me just means that she has lost her credibility as a TV presenter. By presenting a false story (and a touchy one at that) she manipulated the audience into sympathizing with these girls, and maybe even relating to them on some level. At the same time, she may have also put the girls in danger. She went against what is the common belief of what TV presenters should do – tell the truth in order to inform their watchers, so that they can arrive at their own conclusions. However this case could be a good lesson for those who blindly believe in everything that is shown to them on TV.
Putting aside the obvious controversial gains such a topic would stir in the middle east, I think it is unethical and immoral to decieve any audience with fabricated scripts and lies just to have high ratings. Even if it's for the financial benefits behind it. After all,a journalist has a responsibility of exposing the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth to the people.
No matter how controversial and important a topic might be, it is not an excuse to decieve your audience.
Such cases like the Hala Show really puts a spotlight on the Arab media arena. After all, most of our media is devoted to either music and video clips, or dramatic conflicts between guests of political show. I believe that it lacks both substance and professional integrity. However, I do believe that some of those involved in the Arab media are trying to change it. I'm not gonna specify any names, but I believe that they are the hope for the Arab media to flourish as it is supposed to.
I think its quite unethical to fabricate witnisses and put them on TV as real life examples.. Why can't you talk about the effects and causes of a case without bringing the examples?? The whole reason behind the fabrication would then be to create or in this case fabricate a media event!
If Hala did intend to fabricate her story then I regard it as highly unethical and unprofissional at the same time..
Although it is ethically incorrect.. it did however help many to present a case especially when witnisses are difficult to get..
in the end, whether the message was beneficial or not.. its still wrong and unethical.
Regardless of whether the message was important or not, how can you base a case on a fabricated script ? Also, how do you expect the audience to trust you anymore after this scandal (If true) leaked out ?
I think you either keep investigating the subject further more until you find enough witnesses or guests that are involved in the case (And in this example, you're bound to find some) or simply discuss it from a general point of view as you mentioned.
I agree, you should not just fabricate stories, and use "actors" in order to present them and make them seem more real.
If she really wanted to do something good, she could have actually gone out to look for REAL people (and the case of prostitution always exists everywhere so you can't just say that it would be impossible to find real girls to share their story).
Instead, according to me she chose the easy way out.
Maybe she actually intended to do something good and actually wanted make a change, but it all just lacked effort.
Hi Everybody,
Although Hala Sarhan has not yet been officially accused of fabricating the episodes, the scandal raised many questions related to the credibility of media, and what is ethical and what is not. I believe that fabricating lies and scenarios and displaying them as true stories to the audience is not acceptable no matter what the intentions behind this is. If actors are needed to portray a role in order to relay a certain message to the society then the audience should be informed that this is only a prepared scenario, and this happens in many documentaries in Western media. The audience trusts the show host and channel and this trust should be met with respect on their side, not fabrication. The case also showed us that the audience clapping in the background are hired through agencies and paid to clap for Hala (now that explains a lot)! In talking about the Hala show incident in specific, I think that all the staff working in the program made another unethical mistake when they promised the girls to cover their picture and change their voices completely but they didn't keep the promise which caused their family to identify them and thus created huge problems in their lives.
Even though I, personally am not a Hala Sarhan fan and I'm not very fond of the way she runs her program, I still think that if the allegations are true then she should only suffer the consequences of fabricating the show and should not be accused of huge allegations such as "intending to harm the reputation of Egypt" and certainly not cut off her hand and leg as a famous lawyer has requested recently!
I truly believe that Hala Sarhan lost quite a number of her audience if not even all of them. There is always a relationship between the TV presenter and a journalist and between an audience. That relationship is based on trust, reliability and credibility. For it seems to me Hala broke those ties of such relationship and based it on nothing but fabrications and lies and due to that she lost her integrity and status within the community. Unethical, that was Her act and it could not be described in any other words. No matter how hard or even impossible to deliver a message and awareness about an important issue, a true journalist will always find a trustworthy, respectful and honest solution or method to get his point of view across to the people where in this case Hala Sarhan failed to do so.
I was wondering what the current status of the story is? Has anything been confirmed? It would be interesting to know...
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