"The reorganisation of radio broadcasting in the five Arab countries we have looked at is a slow, unequal, up-and-down and unfinished process. It is unfinished in that some states (Egypt and Syria), still have not published the conditions for awarding broadcasting licenses, even though some independent stations have received authorisation. The beneficiary stations thus have no real legal status, but are private businesses broadcasting music, and refraining from broadcasting news. The stations seem to be of most benefit to businessmen close to the authorities, and are more a part of the process of State privatisation than media democratisation. There is a general lack of transparency, and very little information is available about these radio stations. Journalists know little about the shareholders, working conditions in the stations and how they are organised. The legal vacuum will no doubt eventually be filled in these two countries. But, for the time being, radio broadcasting in Egypt and Syria remains totally under the control of the authorities. Lebanon is a special case. By allowing radio and television stations to be privately owned, Lebanon has essentially brought an existing state of affairs within the law, since these independent stations did not wait for the 1996 law to be passed before going on the air. Nevertheless, the various attempts to prevent religious interests from controlling the media have so far failed, and the political stations are a direct mirror of the country’s religious polarities. Every political/religious party has its own radio station (and television channel), which it uses to support its political choices. And the only non-religious station, Sawt Al-Shab, is close to the Lebanese Communist Party. Despite their vulnerability, the Palestinian and Jordanian experiments are without doubt the most promising. The legal framework is restrictive, in these two countries, but the privatelyowned stations are pushing back the boundaries of news broadcasting, are helping to render the media more autonomous, and introducing a relative degree of democracy in the field of information. But these experiments remain dependent on the unstable political context and resulting legal restrictions. The new legislation is more favourable to entertainment stations and benefits businessmen close to the authorities, leaving little space for civil society radio projects to develop." (Conclusion, page 42)