Adham Center News

CNBC Arabiya Comes to Cairo

Lamees Al-Hadidi, CNBC Arabiya Bureau Chief

Since its launch in June 2003 CNBC Arabiya, which broadcasts from Dubai Media City, has been attracting large audiences for its in-depth and up-to-the-minute coverage of regional and international economic affairs from an Arab perspective. It does this with the help of a number of Adham Center graduates and in particular with the help of graduates who staff the CNBC Arabiya Cairo bureau.

Owned and operated by Middle East Business News (MEBN) under an alliance arrangement with CNBC International, CNBC Arabiya provides access to the resources of Dow Jones and the global CNBC network, which reaches 200 million households around the world. Its prime-time news program Al-Yawm al-Layla ("Today, Tonight") is co-anchored in Cairo and Dubai, with live reports from Beirut, Bahrain, London, and New York

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How does she manage two highly responsible positions - as a TV news bureau chief and as executive chief editor of a daily newspaper?

Lamees says, "They balance -but it's very hectic. Both are in the same field-business reporting-but in fact the newspaper is like a factory producing business news so it helps me by giving me a broader view than one would have if one's experience was limited to the time constraints of television. Writing for a paper requires that you have the capacity to provide in-depth analysis, which can only help as background that can be called up at any moment in television journalism, particularly when anchoring a news bulletin or interviewing guests live."

As bureau chief, Al-Hadidi has recruited a number of Adham Center graduates. "I'm very proud to have Adham Center graduates at the bureau. They have proved to be well educated and well trained and they are always bright and enthusiastic."

One of those graduates is Hania Moheeb ('96). Hania says she already knew Lamees as a reporter in the field and was well aware of her standing in the profession. "I was particularly keen to work with her as she is one of the Adham Center's top graduates," Moheeb says.

Al-Hadidi introduced her to CNBC Arabiya executives and she was officially hired. Moheeb continues, "I had been working in TV since I graduated from AUC in 1992. I worked for a variety of channels in Egyptian television, for ART, and for the Italian state TV RAI. But I guess that the most relevant work experience I had was reporting for Nile News and then reporting for Dubai Business Channel."

Moheeb says the Adham Center has contributed a great deal to her career. "In addition to the fact that the study boosted my ambition, I have to say that the technical knowledge and kind of training we get makes us more familiar with the work environment and rather positive in facing difficult situations," she says. "The efficiency we show certainly adds to our reputation and to our CVs. I'd say that this particularly helped not only with CNBC but with work in all non-Egyptian channels when a higher degree of accuracy and efficiency is required."

Assistant producer Dalia Ashmawi ('02) is another AUC graduate working at the CNBC Cairo bureau and she says her Adham Center training helped her a lot. "If I succeed in my field this will be because of the Adham Center and in particular Jan Sandle. If I weren't a graduate from the Adham Center I wouldn't have known the meaning of TV production. At the Adham Center I learned every aspect of news and I am using all this in my work."

Ashmawi's first job after finishing her MA from the Adham Center was as a reporter in the English section of the Dubai Business Channel. "It terrified me because I knew nothing about business. My BA was in Middle East studies - political science - and you can imagine how far business was from that." Ashmawi stayed there for five months but at first felt she wasn't learning anything. "I also wanted to report in Arabic," she says. "At about that time I started to enjoy business news and to get interested in it, maybe because I felt I was learning something new. So I left the Dubai Business Channel and joined a weekly business newspaper called Al Mal. There it was a totally different experience. Our editor-in-chief, Hazem Sherif, was an excellent journalist, and gave all the newcomers training in all fields of business."

At the newspaper Ashmawi covered stories for the tourism and foreign pages. "I was so happy to be reporting in Arabic, but all the time I felt there was something missing," she says. "I missed the camera; I missed the whole environment of TV production. I felt I wanted to do what I used to do on the masters program."

Then she met Al-Hadidi and discussed joining CNBC. "I felt at least I would be engaged in this field," she says. She wanted to join the team as a reporter but felt her knowledge of Arabic might let her down. Instead, she joined the office as an assistant producer. "I am doing all the things I used to do at the Adham Center," she says. "Sometimes I take the camera and go out to shoot, and you don't know how much I enjoy doing this. At CNBC work is conducted in a professional atmosphere: Lamees is so professional, and all the time I am learning from her. Our bureau tries to cover all business stories as well as news and exclusives. I think business news coverage will grow fast during the coming years, as it is the focus of the whole area."

Manar Zabara ('99) also works as an assistant producer at CNBC's Cairo bureau. She finds both the work and the field of business journalism very challenging. Like Dalia she is pleased by the opportunity to draw upon her experience at the Adham Center in mastering all aspects of production including field reporting.

As for business news, Manar says, "I didn't realize at the beginning how interesting business news could be. I liked doing it but at first I thought it was more rigid than general news coverage. But I've come to realize that one can be creative in reporting and producing stories on business and it enhances one's knowledge of society."

S. Abdallah Schleifer, the Adham Center's director has always argued that the journalism and mass communication department at AUC should develop a concentration or at least a course in business journalism because the potential for professionalism and the free practice of journalism in the Arab World is far greater than in the significantly more sensitive sphere of political news, particularly as it impacts upon ruling elites. Schleifer doesn't consider this a form of escapism. On the contrary, he argues that it is precisely the demonstration on the margin of society of the possibilities of a free press environment in which professionalism trumps politics-providing proof by example-that freedom of the press will expand.

The growing audience for CNBC Arabiya and the latter's impact on the competitive field of Arab satellite television -an impact in which Adham Center graduates play a major role-is an argument for Schleifer's thesis.

By Jenny Jobbins