VIDEO: Saudi Film "Keif Al-Hal" Disappoints Students

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When You Are a Journalist, You Are No Longer An Arab

Hassan Fattah, a Middle East correspondent for The New York Times, outlined the basics of journalistic ethics, while recounting his role in presenting the region to an American audience.

Speaking at a broadcast journalism class in the American University of Sharjah, the Beirut-born Fattah highlighted the reporter’s need to judge the news value of events, while also presenting the big picture. Citing his experiences in Lebanon during the war, Fattah underlined the importance of having good sources, stressing that being approachable was a recipe for success. He urged budding journalists to forsake their ego in the search for information, quipping that “a good interview should feel like a therapy session.”

Fattah noted the emotional impact of covering a war zone, but emphasized that a reporter should not be taken by the story. Dubbing criticism of articles covering the Arab-Israeli conflict as commonplace in the United States, Fattah called for nonpartisanship, explaining that “when you are a journalist, you are no longer an Arab.” -Kareem Shaheen

Online Journalists Jailed

A new census by the Committee to Protect Journalists found a record 134 journalists in jail in 24 countries.
Internet bloggers and online reporters now make up one-third of those incarcerated. While print reporters, editors and photographers made up the largest number of jailed journalists, with 67 cases, there were 49 imprisoned Internet journalists, making them the second-largest category.

Newspaper to be Shut Down?

Secret Dubai Diary reports that the tabloid 7Days might be shut down.
Recently three Arab papers raged against 7Days in their editorials and called for advertisers to boycott the tabloid. The paper is now hard to find and was allegedly banned from Emaar properties. SDD speculates a recent interview with UAE President Khalifa, could have sparked the controversy.
The interview, with a London-based Arabic paper, was reprinted from WAM and AFP copy. Apparently some people think something was lost in translation. Editorials in the Arab press raged against 7Days claiming Khalifa [was] misquoted and utterly insulted. The article and interview has been deleted from the 7Days site, but its Google cache can be seen here.
Last month the Media Watch blog mysteriously vanished after in-depth reporting on the problems at the Khaleej Times newspaper. I was hoping someone would dare to fill the void and blog about the politically charged media scene. Fortunately Secret Dubai Diary has picked up the beat. Full story at Secret Dubai Diary.