In the United States since 9/11 it has been fashionable to criticize Arab satellite television, especially Al Jazeera, for being hopelessly biased and unfairly hostile to America. A great deal of the criticism comes from people who do not understand Arabic and have never watched Arab satellite TV, but they …

In her assignment as the communication director of George W. Bush’s presidential and gubernatorial campaigns, Karen Hughes maintained straight-A grades. In her first trip to the Middle East as undersecretary for public diplomacy in September, however, Mrs. Hughes’ GPA seems to have dropped to a C or even less, according …

It was a brief ceremony for the deceased. The eulogy was given by US Secretary of State Madeline Albright, on a brilliant Washington, DC morning, October 1, 1999. The assembled were reminded by Secretary Albright that this was a time to rejoice, and not to mourn, because the accomplishments of …

In this article, Nicholas Cull reviews the performance of the United States Information Agency (USIA) during the Gulf Crisis and War of 1990-91. He concludes by contrasting the effective US use of public diplomacy during this period with the problems encountered following 9/11.

House of Lords, London 9 March 2005 Next Steps The Arab International Media Forum (AIM), held a discussion on this topic in the House of Lords. This addressed how the Arab media cover the issues of freedom, women and economic diversification, building on earlier AIM workshops in Sharjah, which revised …

The Frontline Club, London 2 March 2005 This Frontline Forum has been made possible thanks to the generous support of the Open Society Institute. John Owen (Executive producer of newsexchange and chairman of the Frontline Forum): No one in this room needs to be told what a phenomenon Al Jazeera has …

Since its inception, mass media in its various forms (newspapers, radio, television, etc.) has been used as both a tool of nation-states as well as a weapon against them. The power of the press to influence opinion and help interpret reality for its constituents has created conflict over what constitutes …

Reviewed by Ralph D. Berenger, The American University in Cairo Mellor, Noha. The Making of Arab News. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. 176 pages. Paperback, 0-7425-3819-2, $23.95; Hard cover 0-7425-3818-4, $69. International scholars are often puzzled by the way translations of Arab news stories, printed and broadcast, are constructed and organized. …

Shortly after Algeria's presidential election last April, the Ministry of Communications abruptly ordered correspondents for Dubai-based broadcaster Al Arabiya and its rival, Al Jazeera, to suspend news operations in Algiers indefinitely. No convincing explanations were given, but Algerian officials had complained bitterly about Al Arabiya's election coverage and were apparently …

Edited transcript of a contribution to the Cambridge Arab Media Project conference on The Media and Political Change in the Arab World, 28-30 September, 2004 I plan to start this talk with a few theoretical observations about states and broadcasters before going on to discuss the mechanics of whether one …