ArabNet speaks to Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, prominent commentator on Arab affairs, about the future of news reporting and consumption in the region. Read more »
Media
Interview with Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (SCDDRL)
In an interview with Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, he shares some of his work, provides insight into the role of social media in the Arab world and comments on his experience as a 2013 Stanford Draper Hills Summer Fellow. Read more »
The Foreign Policy Top 100 Twitterati of 2013
Sultan Al Qassemi counted among the top 100 voices on Twitter in 2013 in the Middle East category, according to Foreign Policy. Read more »
Al Jazeera’s awful week
As it prepares for the launch of its U.S. channel later this year, Al Jazeera remains a network staffed largely by good journalists, but run by a shortsighted and biased administration. One of the first steps Qatar’s young new emir took upon succeeding his father was to replace Al Jazeera’s director-general, who was a member of the ruling family. Perhaps the new replacement will be able to save the channel at this critical time. Read more »
Internazionale a Ferrara 2012 – Maryam Al-Khawaja e Sultan Al Qassemi
Maryam Al- Khawaja and Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi discuss the present and future condition of the so-called Arab Spring, focusing on key-countries such as Egypt and on themes less discussed, such as the influence of regional actors on these various movements. Read more »
Breaking the Arab news
While civil war rages on the Syrian battlefield between regime loyalists and myriad rebel factions, another battle is taking place in the media world. Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera, the two Gulf-based channels that dominate the Arabic news business, have moved to counter Syrian regime propaganda, but have ended up distorting the news almost as badly as their opponents. In their bid to support the Syrian rebels’ cause, these media giants have lowered their journalistic standards, abandoned rudimentary fact-checks, and relied on anonymous callers and unverified videos in place of solid reporting. Read more »