On October 17, 2019, protests began in Lebanon with angry and largely disenfranchised citizens calling for a complete overhaul of the country’s unique political system. In the year that has followed, Lebanon has suffered through one disaster after another, with seemingly unending political shifting. On October 22, 2020, former Prime …
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INTERVIEW | Past, Present, and Future Violence in Lebanese Comics
During a lecture entitled “‘I Think We Will be Calm During the Next War’: Past, Present, and Future Violence in Lebanese Comics,” Ghenwa Hayek, assistant professor of Modern Arabic Literature at the University of Chicago, discussed Lebanese comics as a means of reflecting war and conflict. After her presentation she …
Read More »AMS Feature Interview: Nart Bouran, General Manager and Head of News, Sky News Arabiar
A month after the launch of Sky News Arabia, Arab Media and Society editorial board member S. Abdallah Schleifer talked to general manager Nart Bouran about his vision for the new channel, its ownership, the saturated field of pan-Arab television and the future of local television channels.
Read More »BBC Arabic TV: A “unique experience” says Hosam El Sokkari
Hosam El Sokkari, the man behind the BBC's move into Arabic-language television, insists the new channel will not be the British Alhurra. So why would the British public want to spend Foreign Office money on a channel in the Arab world? Co-Editor Lawrence Pintak finds out.
Read More »Interview: Sue Phillips on Al Jazeera International’s First Year
October 2007. Speaking to Arab Media & Society’s George Weyman in July 2007, Sue Phillips, London bureau chief for Al Jazeera International, reflects on the network’s first year and the changes and challenges that lie ahead.
Read More »The BBC’s Sebastian Usher discusses the Alan Johnston kidnapping
October, 2007. In a segment by George Weyman, the BBC’s World’s media correspondent Sebastian Usher discusses the Alan Johnston kidnapping in Gaza and the dynamics of journalist kidnappings in the world today.
Read More »Al Arabiya Producer Nabil Kassem: Arab media are “living in denial” over Darfur
Two years on, Nabil Kassem is still profoundly affected by his experiences in Sudan. What he witnessed there, and recorded in a film he made for Al Arabiya, were scenes of unspeakable brutality and untold suffering, scenes he thought would surely wake up an Arab public all too willing to let Darfur pass by. But 'Jihad on Horseback' never made it across the airwaves. In this highly charged interview with Lawrence Pintak, Kassem speaks of how Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir prevented the broadcast of perhaps the most provocative documentary film ever made by an Arab director.
Read More »British Middle East representative, Jon Wilks: Fluent Arabic spokesmen can “promote a freer media in the Arab World”
Recently posted at the British embassy in Dubai, Jon Wilks is no newcomer to the Middle East. Having served across the region over a number of years, the fluent Arabic speaker has been brought in to explain British government policy to the Arab World. Speaking to Arab Media & Society Managing Editor George Weyman, Wilks talks about his role, revealing his mixed views on Arab-channel interviews and how he avoids discussing conspiracy theories.
Read More »“Huge need for independent media” in Middle East: AmmanNet founder Daoud Kuttab
There are few media professionals in the Middle East who juggle as many commitments as Daoud Kuttab. Director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al Quds University, he is also a regular columnist for the Jordan Times and Jerusalem Post. But perhaps his greatest achievement is as founder and chief of the Arab World’s first online community radio station AmmanNet. So what has online radio achieved in Jordan? And where can it go from here? Co-Editor and Publisher of Arab Media & Society finds out.
Read More »‘I Hope One Day I may Publish Freely’: Tunisian journalist Sihem Bensedrine
All the journalists working with Kalima have been persecuted in their family life, in their job and so on. Every member of our team has faced a great many violations of their rights, reveals Sihem Bensedrine in conversation with Co-Editor Lawrence Pintak.
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