Ghida Fakhry, a journalist with guts and a story to tell

Growing up in Beirut, I was confronted with the realities of our civil war and the heated debates that accompanied it. I was far too young to make any sense of the chaos, the destruction, and the tensions that marred the city during that period. I asked many questions only to be told repeatedly “you’ll find out when you grow up.” These lingering memories and unanswered questions piqued my curiosity and made me always want to learn more about the complexities of the Middle East. As the war did not give any sign of letting up, and as I started spending more days in bomb shelters that in classrooms, my parents eventually sent me to a small school in Europe. I was uprooted and yet extremely privileged to escape the violence. When I arrived in Switzerland, I remember the stark difference between the two countries and wondered why there was war when peace seemed so easy, so natural. I went on to attend university in England, where I studied international relations. It was in the early nineties, when the first Gulf War was being waged, and for the first time, a war was being broadcast live on television. That is when I decided to pursue a journalistic career. And upon graduation, I landed my first job with a major Arabic-language newspaper.

What challenges did you face at the early stages of your career?

I faced the same challenges that every young and enthusiastic journalist faces. Journalism is a very competitive working environment. I initially worked in a male-dominated newsroom, but in spite of the competitive nature of the news business, my colleagues were very supportive. I was fortunate to work with editors who gave me challenging assignments, allowing me to prove myself and to eventually become the only female “political” reporter at the newspaper.

You were the first Al-Jazeera reporter to file for CNN’s World report. Would you rather report from the Arab world to the rest of the world, or report world news to the Arab world?

At this stage in my career, I feel privileged to be part of a global news organization that caters to a worldwide audience; and I feel that it is particularly important for us to also target a western audience which, until now, only had access to information on the Middle East, its wars and challenges, from western news outlets and perspectives. Al-Jazeera English (AJE) seeks to redress the low of information, which until recently was the monopoly of American or European-based news organizations, with their natural tendency to view the region through their western-centric prism.

Who is AJE’s target audience? How is AJE’s news agenda different from its Arabic counterpart?

AJE reaches a global audience of over 100 million households. It is aimed at viewers who seek an alternative source of news and analysis. The scope of its viewer-ship is wider than its sister network, since it caters to a global market of viewers whose first or second language is English. I believe the networks’ common aim is to cover news from a different perspective and with a different political reading of events taking place throughout the world. Whereas Al-Jazeera Arabic focuses its news coverage and current affairs programs on the Middle East, its primary market, AJE’s goal is to widen the geographical breadth of its coverage to meet the demands of its multi-cultural viewers across the five continents. But needless to say, being headquartered in Qatar, and given the pivotal role the Middle East plays today in international affairs, AJE covers the region and its politics with the aim of meeting the expectations of critical viewers yearning for other global broadcasters.

Some people believe that Al-Jazeera has become a propaganda station, and just as Al-Manar website has set up a Hebrew version to affect Israelis, Al-Jazeera needed an English station to influence more people. Was AJE developed as a response to a demand, or was it simply to preach the Al-Jazeera objectives to the English-speaking world?

There is absolutely no doubt that AJE was developed as a result of an increasing demand by many non-Arabic-language speakers who became familiar with the channel and wanted to be able to understand it. I don’t view AJE as an exercise in propaganda but rather as the first English-language global network based in the South that broke the western monopoly on the low of information. One of the network’s aims is to bridge the growing divide between East and West, North and South, by offering a more critical and nuanced analysis of world events. BBC broadcasts in several languages including Arabic, CNN has a Spanish-language network, France 24 and Russia Today both cater to English-speaking audiences. AJE is part of a new trend in global media, with every new major network seeking to capture markets outside of its linguistic and geographical gambit.

Do major US cable and satellite companies still refuse to carry the station? Can viewers in America watch AJE?

It is true that, to date, no major US cable carrier offers AJE, but I am not sure I would describe it as “refusal” on their part. CNN International or the BBC World Service are not carried by some major US cable operators. Important commercial considerations govern the decisions of the major US satellite or cable television carriers where there is keen competition in an already saturated market. I assume that AJE, probably more that any other global news network, has to contend with the stigma that has been attached to its brand name since the events of 9/11; and this is to a large extent due to the repeated negative comments by the Bush administration about the channel. My own personal reading is that it is only a matter of time before a major US carrier will break what is still a taboo and decides to carry AJE. The network, however, has been making inroads on the internet in the US where it has entered into an agreement with YouTube. More recently, several editorials in major US newspapers such as the New York Times and USA Today have advocated that American viewers should have access to the channel and decide for themselves whether or not is worth watching.

Since its establishment in 1996, Al-Jazeera has emerged as the first independent news channel creating new space for freedom in the Arab world. I wonder though, whether your own space of freedom changed after working for Al-Jazeera. Does your career offer you a larger space of freedom, or did the space shrink with the responsibilities that came along?

The credibility of every news organization is a function of its track record and accuracy in reporting. In that sense, we all have to exercise a level of caution to maintain our journalistic integrity. But this should not necessarily come at the expense of bold journalism, ready to challenge centers of power and conventional wisdom. This is how I approach my work, mindful of course of my responsibilities towards the viewers, and the need to remain as objective as possible, and yet as critical as professionally permissible.

This has been a very difficult period for journalists and reporters around the world. Many were killed in the line of duty and others were kidnapped. Do you sometimes feel that your life is at risk? How did your working conditions change since joining Al-Jazeera?

The last few years have seen a drastic increase in the targeting of journalists, both indiscriminate and willful. Those who are at great risk are our colleagues who report from the field, and fall victim to acts of intimidation and violence. The nature of our profession brings with it certain risks in order to fully cover a story. I reported from Iraq and Afghanistan a few years ago, and felt a sense of anxiety and sometimes fear, knowing full well that anything could happen at any moment. When I was reporting from the streets of New York, in the immediate aftermath of the attacks of 9/11 for Al-Jazeera Arabic, I felt a different kind of concern, because of the anger that was sometimes directed at me for being from the Middle East and working for an Arabic network. My American cameraman often intervened protectively to defuse tense situations. But since joining AJE as an Anchor in Washington DC, the thought that ‘my life may be at risk’ hasn’t crossed my mind.

Some people argue that print journalism is slowly being pushed aside by TV journalism and internet. You had the chance to work in both print and TV journalism. Do you feel that newspapers and magazines will soon become a thing of the past? What in your opinion is the advantage of each, and which media do personally prefer working in?

This is a difficult question to tackle. Ten, fifteen year ago, with the advent of satellite television, one might have been more readily inclined to anticipate the demise of print journalism, but today with the internet revolution, this new powerful medium has re-energized print journalism by making the written word available to a wide-reaching audience, in real-time and at a marginal cost. Today, every major news organization, print or television, invests large resources in the development of their websites. I enjoy working in both the print and television media; both have their challenges and rewards. Print may be a little more intellectually challenging while television has a wide-reaching direct impact.