The director general of Arabic broadcaster al-Jazeera has said western news organisations are not covering the Middle East properly as they don't fully understand the region.
Wadah Khanfar, giving the Worldview address, said the demands of 24 hour news meant reporters were often parachuted into the region with little local knowledge and put straight on air.
He said broadcasters should use journalists who have knowledge of the region and an understanding of local customs.
"Less and less field work is being done," he said. "More official sources are being taken as uncollaborated fact.
"Less and less resources are being spent as is time talking to the margins of society."
Khanfar said western organisations needed to resist the pressures of commercialisation.
"Protect your institutions from commercialisation," he said. "Let us protect our newsrooms and encourage more and more journalists to become experts in the areas they are reporting from and give them more time to understand the cultures they are reporting from."
Khanfar, a former correspondent himself, said he had covered the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and had met reporters who didn't know what they were talking about.
"I have come across great figures in journalism but also a lot of people who have landed there and rushed to the screen and didn't have the opportunity to understand," he said.
Khanfar also rejected the suggestion that news was part of the television showbiz mix.
"We are not in showbiz," he said. "Our reporting is about life and death. Our reporters sometimes pay with their life for the truth.
"We are journalists and we should always hold the values of journalism before any other consideration."
Khanfar said his broadcaster had been reporting from Darfur for two years before western news organisations became interested as well as in regional hot spots such as Somalia.
He said he saw his broadcaster's purpose as being to "bridge the gap" between rich northern and poorer southern societies.
Speaking in response to Khanfar, Adrian Wells, head of foreign news at Sky News, said it was tough for western broadcasters to cover conflicts such as Somalia.
"I do think hard about sending news crews to Somalia because the risks are extraordinary," he said. "It does fall into the category of is this a war worth dying for?"
