(Editor’s Note: This article is one of two personal essays in this issue of TBS, one written by Vivian Salama, a reporter covering the Mubarak campaign, and another written by Usama Najeeb, a staffer working on the media team for that same campaign. Najeeb, a former Adham Center graduate student …

Egypt’s first-ever presidential campaign opened dramatically for the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) with a speech by the president at the recently built Al Azhar Park. Designed and laid out by the Aga Khan foundation, the park perches majestically on the edge of the city on a former landfill, overlooking …

At an August press conference early on in Egypt’s landmark race for the presidency, Mohammad Kamal, the mastermind behind the smoothly crafted reelection campaign of President Hosni Mubarak, stood before a skeptical international press corps. He had not come to sell the world on his candidate. There was no need …

1. It is prohibited to broadcast any program that includes negative statements about religions or beliefs. 2. It is prohibited to broadcast any program that creates any disputation among different religious groups. 3. It is prohibited to broadcast any program that criticizes the state national system. 4. It is prohibited …

A heated debate rages within public diplomacy circles over who is watching Alhurra and how the channel is perceived by Arab audiences. Polls commissioned by Alhurra indicate much higher viewership numbers and credibility ratings than those reported in independent surveys conducted by academics and Arab research organizations. In an effort …

ARAB ADVISORS GROUP Arab Advisors Group is a specialized research, analysis and consulting company focused on the communications, media and technology markets throughout the Arab World (MENA) region. Arab Advisors Group scope of services include providing primary research based analysis, market sizing forecasting, the competitive landscape, the regulatory landscape, market …

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced in February that his country will hold its first multi-candidate presidential elections in 2005. Mubarak hopes that this "historic step," as many have deemed it, will convince outsiders and Egyptians alike that Egypt is finally leading the way to democracy in the Middle East, as …

Are Ruby's critics an obstacle to her stardom, or does the controversy over her secular style eclipse the star herself? The music videos that established Ruby's fame feature pelvic-thrust dance moves and revealing costumes, which infuriate a growing number of Middle Easterners. But compared to the gyrations and attire of …

20 November 2004, Cairo Ahmad al-Farrag is one of the pioneers of religious television broadcasting in the Arab world. His long-running program Nur ala Nur, or "Light Upon Light" was the first of its kind in Egypt and a model for future religious talk shows. It also was the first …

Reprinted from Al Hayat, 7 November, 2004, p.21, with permission. This year's Ramadan brings in its train, as usual, hundreds of serialized dramas, talk shows, and other standard format programs of the sort that increase year after year as a result of the burgeoning number of Arab satellite channels. What is …