Media savages Lebanese-Australian Youth

Coverage of the Melbourne gangland killings - and statements by Victoria Police spokespersons - has shied away from inflammatory speculation. This is as it should be. But this is strikingly different from the treatment of Sydney’s much tamer so-called “Lebanese crime war”.

One cannot but speculate that it was the involvement of young men of Lebanese-Australian ethnicity that might have been what determined the radically different style of coverage in Sydney.

Media treatment of Lebanese-Australian youth in Sydney has clearly been marred by ethnic and religious (Muslim) stereotyping, which links these elements inextricably to criminal and socially deviant behaviour. Worse, Sydney’s Lebanese Muslim community has been held collectively responsible by the media, acting often in conjunction with the State Government and the police, and ordered to “resolve” these problems. Despite a mountain of evidence that Sydney’s spate of criminal shootings and abductions since September 2003 are simply part of a gangland phenomenon that has been raging in Melbourne for far longer and with much bloodier results, the media insists that this is all some exotic ethnic “ vendetta”. One press report put it explicitly: there is a Lebanese “way of crime”.

Starting with the NSW State Government and a few senior Police spokespersons, the responsible authorities have at times been happy to play along with the media’s portrayal of Lebanese-Australian youth, if not to feed this portrayal so as to further their own political and operational goals. The readiness of the tabloid media especially (but not exclusively) to portray small gatherings of young Lebanese-Australians as “Middle Eastern youth gangs” is an extremely selective - and one-sided - method of addressing complex social problems.

As the Anti-Discrimination Board of NSW has noted, such news stories have received coverage because they “tapped into an environment of anti-Arabic and anti-Muslim sentiment”. Undoubtedly this is accurate, yet this very observation raises the further problem of the media’s role in arguably contributing to the creation of such an unhealthy environment in the first place. And, as the comments by youth interviewed for the research project indicate, this approach only tends to exacerbate the social divisions and disharmony that it claims to be addressing.

There was a deep cynicism and distrust of the media by the majority of interviewees. Despite the diversity of responses from them, almost all interviewees could identify at least one negative aspect concerning the media. Some quoted individual articles in newspapers, individual writers and editors and various incidents to support their claims of media bias. One 16 year-old stated, “The media is a big weapon against us. Whatever they want to show to others they can do with the click of a button”. A young university student stressed that the “media plays a major role in how Arabs are perceived”. She added, “Media creates fear and it’s very hard to break away from that image”. A schoolgirl noted that the media’s “new scapegoat” was the Arabs, while before it had been Asians.

The effect that the media’s approach has had on the self-esteem of these youth is probably incalculable - as is the tension that it generates with other Australians. The consequences are nonetheless severe.

Young Lebanese-Australians we interviewed displayed a high level of agreement - despite being of varying life opportunities. Responses typically stressed the need for mutual tolerance and understanding. The need for mutual respect was a common catch-cry. One youth pleaded: “Treat us all as Australians”.

The majority of young people interviewed were optimistic - but many were pessimistic: some to the point of nihilism. One 16 year-old schoolboy declared that such conflict could not be avoided in the future: “It’s hard. You can’t. It’s too hard”.

Media magnates and Government policy-makers take heed.