Tripoli, LIBYA—Libyan borders are now open and foreign investments are quickly pouring into this oil-rich north-African country. Since the embargo was lifted almost two years ago, pipelines are being extended and new businesses are being set up every day.  It would be nice to think that such a rapid economic …

On July 4, 1953, Cairo Radio first broadcast a half-hour radio programme called The Voice of the Arabs. It included a short statement by the ostensible leader of Egypt’s recent July Revolution, General Mohammed Naguib, garnished with a great deal of anti-colonialist rhetoric.(1) The new programme was perfectly timed to take …

Arab television has reached a new milestone. Now that the satellite revolution has “liberated” the airwaves from the grip of state control, business and technology have come together once again to stimulate change in the Middle East. Just as Arab regimes have come under political pressure thanks to the emergence …

In a room not more than two square meters, a small black-and-white television is perched uncertainly on top of a refrigerator, a cable running through the corrugated tin roof. In this small baqala, shelves stacked with tins of milk, dry biscuits, and crates of eggs, six men sit around a large …

(A draft of this paper was presented at the New Media in the Middle East International Conference for Contemporary Middle East Studies at the University of Southern Denmark in November 2005.) The Republic of Lebanon is a curious, small state situated in a politically unstable region. Currently subjected to confused …

On the evening of Monday, August 11, 2003, two spontaneous riots erupted in Beirut. They occurred around the same time and were triggered by the same event. About an hour earlier, Future TV had announced voting results after the semi-final of its flagship program, Superstar, the Arabic version of Pop Idol (UK) …

Ramadan television in the Arab world is a showcase for “family values” as production companies and advertisers make huge efforts to attract millions of viewers gathered for the post-Iftar time slots. Inevitably, controversies arise. Complaints come from both producers and viewers, either condemning the broadcast of glitzy vaudeville programs starring …

“If you would swim on the bosom of the ocean of Truth, you must reduce yourself to a zero.” -- Mahatma Gandhi When twelve cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad were published in Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten on September 30, 2005, few foresaw the violent backlash that transpired as a result of their …

Soad Saleh, one of the world’s leading female scholars of Islam, fields requests for religious advice each week from callers across the Arab world. Seated at a gilded table on the set of her Egyptian satellite TV show, Women’s Fatwa, Saleh provides religious rulings on a wide range of subjects. How …

A number of war-themed reality shows have become enormous hits in Iraq since the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime and the subsequent proliferation of satellite channels throughout the country. State-run Al Iraqiya has a hit on its hands with the controversial Terror in the Hands of Justicein which captive insurgents confess …