Educational Media Reviews Online

Live: From Bethlehem traces the inner workings of the Ma'an News Agency (MNA) over the course of several years. As the only independent Palestinian news organization, the success of MNA rests equally on the passions of its staff and the commitment of its donor base. At the start of the documentary, MNA appears to have no shortage of dedication. Two Ma’an are closely profiled: a conflict photographer who doesn’t hesitate to put himself in harm’s way and a reporter who struggles to balance her family life with the demands of the news organization in which she so strongly believes. Fiercely maintaining their independence, MNA staff proudly assert that they “speak against Hamas… Fatah… Condoleezza Rice… Al Qaeda.” Many of the reporters have sacrificed their freedom and bodily safety to maintain the independence they feel is integral to the station’s mission, and which they hope will lead to a freer and more informed Palestinian citizenry. This integrity is especially apparent in how the network treats its youngest citizens. Children’s programming produced by Ma’an is compared to that of a rival Hamas networks’: Ma’an produces Sesame Street programming which “maintains the notion that they are children,” whereas Hamas utilizes a Mickey Mouse-type puppet to parrot violent religious rhetoric.

The MNA is not without its critics, however; Israeli academics accuse Ma’an of embracing a “limited framework representing mainstream Fatah views.” When the MNA faces criticism for its use of the word “Shaheed” (a Muslim honorific for a person who dies fighting occupation forces, whose use is interpreted by some as a glorification of terrorism), the station finds itself losing donor support more quickly than it can pay its workers. A year later, the intrepid photographer is working as a salesman, and the reporter is working for an international news organization. The U.S. State Department has since approved grant funding for MNA, however the implications this may have for the continued independence of the station are not addressed. The film presents a concise snapshot of the struggles faced by a news organization struggling to survive and maintain integrity in an atmosphere of extreme political tension and economic uncertainty, and as such would provide an additional dimension to a collection supporting Journalism and Middle Eastern studies curricula.