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Columbia Journalism Review content tagged Middle East

1. July 6, 2011 05:00 PM

   Arab Spring to Arab Summer

   World Conference showcases science journalism in Middle East

   By Curtis Brainard and Cristine Russell

   Doha, Qatar—The Arab Spring that toppled governments in North Africa and the Middle East turned into an Arab summer for science journalism, as more than 700 attendees from ninety countries gathered for four days last week in this Persian Gulf city to discuss the importance of covering science in a rapidly changing world and the crucial role of a free...

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2. March 23, 2011 11:15 AM

   Arab Spring: A Guardian Interactive Timeline

   By Lauren Kirchner

   On Tuesday, The Guardian posted an excellent infographic, ”The path of protest,” which promises to make the popular uprisings sweeping the Middle East a little easier to follow. The timeline begins on December 17, when Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in Tunisia, and goes up until today, with Libya’s Gaddafi calling the U.S. and its allies “a bunch of...

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3. March 2, 2011 12:13 PM

   Egypt’s Revolution through My Students’ Eyes

   Arab reporters bear witness to Mubarak's fall

   By Lawrence Pintak

   “I was attacked today when I tried to protect some foreigners.” The Facebook message arrived in my inbox early afternoon Pacific time. It was evening in Cairo on Feb. 4, the pivotal “Day of Anger” that would ultimately lead to the downfall of the regime. The young woman who sent the message was a graduate of the Adham Center for...

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4. July 11, 2011 02:00 PM

   Growing Science in the Desert

   Several Middle Eastern countries are pouring money into research; will it work?

   By James Fahn

   Doha, Qatar—“Water flows uphill toward money and power,” said hydrologist Tony Allan, citing a political truism during a talk here at the recent World Conference of Science Journalists. Can the same be said for scientific research? Several Middle Eastern countries are pouring money into new research centers and ventures, hoping to make science bloom in the desert and bear fruits...

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5. April 8, 2011 12:20 PM

   Is This the World’s Best Twitter Account?

   Meet Andy Carvin, verification machine

   By Craig Silverman

   Yesterday morning NPR’s Andy Carvin took a break from running one of the world’s best Twitter accounts to explain what it’s like to be a living, breathing real-time verification system. “All of this is more art than science,” he said. In truth, it sounds equal parts exhilarating and exhausting. As has been repeatedly detailed in other places, Carvin is the...

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6. April 21, 2011 02:05 PM

   Lebanon and the Power of the Press

   Media freedoms make nations more stable, not less

   By Justin D. Martin

   BEIRUT—Lebanon spoils the myth that press restrictions are essential to maintaining a delicate security balance. This country was practically structured to spill insecurity, and yet it has what many believe to be the Arab world’s most free media system. Regimes in speech-stingy countries have long argued that press freedoms can’t be expanded due to sectarian tensions (quite broadly defined). Lebanon...

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7. March 25, 2011 01:17 PM

   Libya and the Arab Street

   What do ordinary Arabs think? Let’s ask them

   By Michael Massing

   On Wednesday, I went to hear Ayman Mohyeldin, the Cairo correspondent for Al Jazeera English, speak at the office of the Committee to Protect Journalists. His subject was the risks and realities of covering the Mideast, and at one point he was asked to reflect on the current situation in Libya. In his answer, he said something that stunned me:...

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8. March 29, 2011 01:08 PM

   Obama Leaves the Pundits Wanting More

   Libya speech did little to clear up the unclear

   By Joel Meares

   If the president had hoped last night’s speech would quash claims that the purpose and objective of our intervention in Libya was unclear, he probably shouldn’t unfold a paper or open his laptop this morning. The pundits—left, right, and in between—are pretty damningly unanimous: what little was clear before President Obama took the lectern remains clear; what was unclear...

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9. May 19, 2011 01:20 PM

   Obama’s Big Speech: Is Anyone in the Middle East Listening?

   By Greg Marx

   As the president prepared to deliver his remarks on American policy in the wake of the “Arab Spring,” the lead headline on the NYTimes.com home page read, “Obama Speech on Mideast Is Also Aimed at U.S. Audience.” But if some of the observations coming in from the Middle East are on target, the various domestic constituencies noted in Michael Shear’s...

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10. October 27, 2011 02:11 PM

    POWs, Dead Dictators, and Journalistic Ethics

    Would any journalist have turned down the opportunity to interview Gilad Shalit?

    By Lawrence Pintak

    The young Iranian prisoner was no more than fourteen, still caked with a thick layer of dust from the battlefield. He was among thousands of old men and young boys being held in an Iraqi POW camp somewhere outside Basrah. It was September 1980, the early weeks of the Iran-Iraq War, and my CBS News crew and I had been...

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11. September 19, 2011 04:02 PM

    Q&A: New NBC Correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin

    “Part of me wants to speak to the global audience, and a part of me wants to speak to America”

    By Dave Marash

    This spring, just before he turned thirty-two, Ayman Mohyeldin’s contract with Al Jazeera was ending and he was faced with a happy career decision—choosing among offers to stay where he was or go to any of three major American network news organizations. I had worked with him for the first year of Al Jazeera English, when I was an anchor...

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12. January 28, 2011 10:00 AM

    Reporting a Revolution in Cairo

    A Q&A with Chris Stanton of The National

    By Lauren Kirchner

    Chris Stanton, a New Jersey native who has worked for several years for The National, an English-language newspaper in Abu Dhabi, has been reporting since November from Cairo. He had just returned from a vacation in the U.S. on Tuesday morning when the “January 25” protests against President Hosni Mubarak’s authoritarian government broke out in the city. You can read...

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13. November 4, 2011 02:17 PM

    Speech in Israel Is Not Free

    There's more to democracy than just holding regular elections

    By Justin D. Martin

    Both Israeli and US policymakers are fond of calling Israel and the United States likeminded democracies. “America has no better friend than Israel,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said to applause from a joint session of Congress in a 2011 address. “We stand together to defend democracy.” Vice President Joe Biden has basically called Israel his second America. “No matter how...

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14. January 31, 2012 11:21 AM

    Why Aren’t More Arab Americans Working in Mainstream Journalism?

    Group remains underrepresented in US newsrooms

    By Justin D. Martin

    There are anywhere between 3.5 and 5.1 million Americans of Arab descent, according to figures from the Arab American Institute, yet relatively few work in journalism full time. While meaningful estimates aren’t known, as journalism scholars that conduct demographic research in American newsrooms do not typically tally newsmakers of Arab descent, the National Arab American Journalists Association counts around 250...

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