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According to the presenters, most Muslim countries have a two- or three-tiered system of control over the media. Broadcast media remain government monopolies. The government controls some newspapers, while others are independent or identified with a political party. However, according to Zia, the government does what it can to control even the independent papers. Newspapers must apply for licenses before they can begin to publish, and the government can reject applicants as unqualified for a variety of reasons. Moreover, she said, the government is "to some extent afraid of journalists," so it allows them the freedom to write what they want, but disallows them the access to databases and adequate research facilities. In Pakistan, she noted, publishing anything perceived as counter to national security or the national interest is not allowed, but these strictures are left vague. The government can also issue press notes or advice that the papers must take into account.

Zorba described much the same situation in Jordan. The Jordanian government in 1989 relaxed its control of the media, she noted, and ruled that no more than 30% of papers can be government operated. Unfortunately, she said, the government has not been consistent in upholding this recent commitment to press freedom. Instead, the Press Freedoms Law is altered every few years, and the restrictions increase. As a result of the changing regulations, she said, journalists don't know what they can write, and end up censoring themselves. Ali noted that, in Yemen, the boundary lines are similarly unclear, creating tremendous frustration among journalists.

Zorba said that, in Jordan, independent newspapers are free from governmental controls. However, the government hires informants among the journalists to report to the government offensive articles, and on occasion before an article goes to press, the government steps in and blocks its circulation.

Yemen's Mohamed Ali noted that the printed media influence only a very small proportion of the population, while government-controlled broadcast media are the main source of information for most people. Over 50 percent of the populations in some of the Arab world are illiterate, he noted. Using the broadcast media, he said, the government successfully shapes people's thinking.

All the visiting journalists mentioned that government pressure and regulation is not the only source of censorship. They decried the lack of quality education and the spreading influence of fundamentalist interpretations of Islam, which create intolerance among the public for views that are labeled anti-Islamic. As a result, Dina Zorba noted, journalists fear attack by members of the public as much or more as they fear arrest. Defaming Islam, Zorba confirmed, is a religious crime punishable by death in Jordan. She noted that such a sentence would be imposed and carried out by the public, not by a government office. Also, Zorba said that she feared she would lose her readership if she tried to write any article in favor of peace with Israel. Although a peace treaty exists between Israel and Jordan, she noted, the journalists' union was fiercely opposed to normalization with Israel and sanctioned members who wrote positive articles about Israel.

Nadya Mehdid of Ash-Sharq al-Awsat focused her attention on the educational deficiencies of Algerian society and the resulting narrowness of public debate and press freedom. The lack of educational opportunities gives rise to militant groups such as the GIA who claim they fight in the name of Islam, but don't even know the basics of the Koran, she said. The government pays the worst Arabic teachers to come to Algeria to teach the language and religion, and the society continues to radicalize. All three of the women journalists present agreed that out of this radicalization of Muslim education was emerging a society that promoted the poor treatment of women and the formation of extremist organizations. Zia illustrated the situation. She explained that some people cannot understand the Koran, so they ask their local Imam, who is likely also not educated and thus interprets the Koran incorrectly, to explain the meaning. The uneducated religious leaders spread inaccurate interpretations and cause society to, for example, place severe restrictions on women.

The journalists agreed that the media in the Muslim world has an important role to play in providing a forum for alternative interpretations of Islam to the fundamentalist varieties now occupying the public stage. However, they said that it was easy to be labeled "anti-Islamic" for writing anything that opposed the orthodoxy, and that they proceeded in such projects with great care.