Brian Pellot写到,中东地区的媒体不报道男同性恋问题,就像他们同样地对待其他新闻一样。
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同性恋是主流阿拉伯新闻媒介通常要回避的一个禁忌的主题。如果全文报道,文章就要称其为外来现象,或说成是只有西方国家才有的令人憎恶的病态。记者Brian Whitaker在他2006年出版的著作《难以启齿的爱情:中东同性恋男女的生活写照》中探索了中东媒体对同性恋是如何自我审查的。
据Whitaker称,区域性政府只对同性恋的正面描述做例行审查。当主流媒体讨论这个话题时,阿拉伯话叫“shadh”,带有负面涵义,相当于英语的pervert,通常就是用来指同性恋者。对同性恋问题缺少适当训练的记者也责怪说缺少准确的报道,对这一少数群体的报道都是些极不准确的模式化的见解,并允许他们通过审查成为事实。在编辑部以外,由于害怕引起司法和文化方面的强烈反应,也完全妨碍了同性恋问题成为文化探索的话题。
为验证这一点,《难以启齿的爱情》一书在许多中东国家被禁止。
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I believe that while all have an opinion, a story is a story no matter who the subject is. If the event is important it shouldn’t matter the sexuality of the people involved. It is a personal choice to simply omit this lifestyle, but it is 2012 and the world deserves to hear everything going on and recognize that gay people simply aren’t going to ‘disappear’ .
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Fated by oppressive regimes,religious leaders and their descendents,gay men stay out of view in the Middle East.In the Arabian World,most of places,homosexual sex remains illegal.Being homosexual is hard everywhere,but seems that in the Middle East or the homosexual is transparent or the men will be undergo to extreme punishments,where death is the only output.As Hussein Ibrahim pointed once , “Respect of human rights is now a concern for all peoples.”.Gay men shall no longer be afraid.Even though the Middle East tries to oppress their gay issue,it cannot be hidden forever.
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I was currently reading some interesting articles about homosexuality in the Gulf, which seems to have its own unique issues with sexual orientation. Particularly, this 2007 story from The Atlantic regarding homosexuality in Saudi Arabia – http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/05/the-kingdom-in-the-closet/5774/ – seemed interesting. While some of the Saudis quoted in the article claimed that it was easier to be homosexual in a place where you virtually cannot have any contact with those of the opposite sex, it seems so much more complicated than that. I just can’t imagine living a life in fear of persecution from family, friends AND the government… especially when the punishment for displaying affection can be the end of one’s life.