Mid-East Media Guide

Under Perpetual Construction.  Additions Welcome.

Egypt

Al-Ahram 
(The Pyramids, Egypt); one of the oldest papers in the Middle East, it is considered to represent the official views of the Egyptian government.  As an institution, it is the most established paper in all of the Middle East.  It certainly has more resources than any other Egyptian paper, offers better salaries, job security etc and as a result has probably the most talented journalists in Egypt. 

Many people dismiss Al-Ahram as not worth reading because it is “government propaganda.”  Its true that the news section is a bit stale and you will not find highly critical, investigative journalism.  But in  my opinion, Al-Ahram is good on foreign policy news and  its opinion section is the best in Egypt.  Of course, its slanted towards the government’s views, but in Egypt, the government’s views, are well, important, so one can’t just skip reading Al-Ahram because they don’t like the Egyptian government.   

Unfortunately, Al-Ahram has no English edition.  But  Al-Ahram Weekly, its weekly English language journal is excellent and  provides in-depth English language  coverage of the latest happenings in Egypt and the Middle East from an Egyptian and Arab perspective.  Its an excellent source of quality analysis for those who don’t know Arabic and even those who do. 
 

Al-Masri Al-Youm

Founded in early 2007, Al-Masri Al-Youm (The Egyptian Today), is a widely respected independent daily newspaper.  The key distinguishing feature is its professional coverage of the news.  Its definitely an opposition newspaper but if critical its also professional.  It doesn’t engage in personal attacks on certain high profile political figures (such as Gamal Mubarak and Ahmed Azz)  and as a result, everyone in Egypt is willing to talk to them.  For example,  Ahmed Azz gave them a six page feature interview. 

Because of this earned credibility, Al-Masri Al-Youm gets the “scoops,” and is probably the best source of domestic Egyptian news.  On the other hand, their op-ed section is is only so-so.  It does put out weekly columns by Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Amr Shabuky and Dia Rashwan, but in general its not great.  The paper also lacks great coverage of foreign affairs, meaning Mid-East regional issues or Egyptian foreign policy. 

Al-Masri has an English language site but the quality is very poor.  They choose to translate maybe 3 or 4 news items a day but rarely any of the good op-eds or interviews that foreigners would find most interesting, and the quality of the translation is usually mediocre.  Its surprising they don’t dedicate more resources to improving the quality of its English section.   For reasons of paper prestige, it seems that it would be better to not put out an English section at all than to put out one of such poor quality. 

Supposedly, Al-Masri Al-Youm is now the most widely distributed paper in Egypt.  I’m suspicious here and want to see reliable data on this.  Judging from the papers I see people reading, it still seems Al-Ahram is the dominant player. 

Al-Dostor (The Constitution, Egypt)

Al-Dostor is an opposition newspaper  that is extremely critical of the Egyptian government.    Read Al-Dostor to be entertained as it has a highly sarcastic style, something of a mix between Bob Baer and Keith Obermann.  The paper holds nothing back in its attacks on the Egyptian government, especially Gamal Mubarak and Ahmed Azz.   Its not correct to say that there isn’t freedom of expression in Egypt because Al-Dostor expresses every possibly negative thought about the Egyptian government and is available whereever newspapers are sold. 

But there is a tradeoff.  Al-Dostor can not be considered a professional, credible source of news.  Sure, they grab readers attention with their sensational headlines, but they are not professional.    From a purely journalistic standpoint their  journalistic integrity is often  not much higher than the National Enquirer.   Because of its attack dog style Dostor might attract attention, but noone who gets so savagely attacked  (which means here anyone remotely affiliated with the status quo) is going to give scoops or interviews to the paper. Therefore, the  scope of views and info is limited. 

The biggest asset at Al-Dostor are the frequent op-eds by editor Ibrahim Issa and Fahmy Huweidi.  Two of Egypt’s most respected commentators, they each run 4-6 op-eds a week.  Some are better than others, and Issa tends to be repetitive, but I guess thats to be expected when you write 6-7 op-eds a week.  Noone can come up with truly fresh ideas at that rate.  In general, Issa and Huwaydi provide good  analysis of Egyptian  and regional affairs. 

Couple Overall Points on Egyptian Papers:
- Egypt is like the US  in that its citizens are insular and arrogant about whats going on outside their borders.  So the quality of coverage of regional and international affairs in Egyptian papers is pretty poor.  Very few seem to have correspondents abroad. 

- Some people automatically refuse to read Al-Ahram calling it government propaganda.  In my  mind this is not a constructive approach because sticking to only one of these three papers will not give you an understanding of the big pic.  However,  reading all three of them together, will give you a pretty decent idea of what is going on in Egypt. 

-Related to the last point.  Egypt’s papers shouldn’t necessarily be seen as a black and white divide between Opposition and Government.  Fahmy Huwaydi, one of Egypt’s most respected commentators, writes for both Al-Dostor and Al-Ahram.

Regional Newspapers

Al-Hayat- London-based regional daily.  Considered one of the region’s most prestigous papers,  It covers big-picture regional issues, such as Iraq, Lebanon, in depth.  Has the resources and prestige to put correspondents wherever the action is. Particularly good is their “specials” or “Khess” section,which often has good investigative reports, although it seems to have gone down in quality over the past several months.  Not nearly as bold and cutting edge.   Al-Hayat can be considered the print version of Al-Jazeera.  Sadly, like Al-Jazeera, the “cutting edge” quality of their reporting seems to have  gone down with the Saudi-Qatari rapprochement. 

Al-Hayat has a good English language site, which translate the op-eds of previous days, although sometimes it takes a while, and the news is not usually translated.   

Asharq Al-Awsat,  London based regional daily.    It is owned by members of the Saudi royal family, so you will find a lack of criticism on that front.   But as far as covering news stories on the big regional political issues, they are the best.  If Saudi money means they don’t criticize or cover them negatively in their op-ed section, it also means they have the financial resources to put correspondents everywhere and also the prestige to attract scoops and high level sources.  It seems to me they do this better than any other Arabic newspaper. Asharq consistently gets the best scoops on the the stories, especially those related to security, political  or diplomatic issues.  For example, Asharq broke the story on Libyan Jihadist Revisionsand almost immediately after the Suleiman assassination was first reported they had high Syrian  sources giving them the skinny before anyone else.   They also had the best coverage of the recent story of the Hezbollah Salafi document of understanding. 

Be wary of their op-ed section which is not a source of serious analysis.  You already know what they will say before hand; Its automatically anti-Hezbollah, Iran and Syria.  There is little honest intellectual discussion.  On the other hand, it can be taken to represent Saudi foreign policy and no one can  deny that Saudi Arabia is the major player in the region right now, so in that sense there is value in reading the Op-Ed page. 

But they probably have the best English language siteof any Arabic newspaper.  They translate both op-eds and news pieces and seem to do it much quicker than everyone.  Ie within 24 hours.

Al-Quds Al-Arabi
London based pan-Arabic newspaper.  Can be described as left-wing or popular.  They claim to be the only truly independent Arabic newspaper in the region and this might be the case.   Their op-ed section is usually  good.  I recommend checking in on their lead op-ed on a daily basis which has provided the nucleus of more MediaShack posts than any other Arabic source.   Editor Abdel Bari Atwan, author of a great book on Al-Qaeda, is one of the most respected Arabic commentators. 

 However the paper lacks resources to get the “scoops” on the major stories.  News wise its not outstanding.