The prime challenge of writing political Arabic language political satire
News satire is a form of political commentary. It is a take on the news from another angle, a less expected one. But while one must be able to make people laugh when doing it, what is more important is that it must say something.
And the commentator or satirist’s process always starts with reading the news. The “angle” the angle the writer has taken, and whose “side” his story is on is everything. It is the foundation of the critique that is to come next.
To write good satire, what is needed is good news reporting: facts, reliable reports, objective information, and valuable trusted opinions, which would highlight hypocrisy and uncover issues.
In the Middle East that is a problem, no matter who we decide to trust as a news source.
Independent local media organisations are few, small, have limited coverage and teams, and rarely do they cover issues from a regional context. They tend to cover investigations more than news — which is important in a variety of ways, but doesn’t serve as a daily news source.
On the other hand, most large media organisations with an interest in the Middle East are propaganda machines, whether Arab or foreign. Aljazeera or RT, Alarabia or Alyoum Alsabe, they are all serving the agendas of their governments. They cover a lot of stories but either highly skewed to support their side, or actively misreport and distort it.
This means when reading either side of the story, the reports are so conflicting that neither story adds up (think reports from Syria), leaving the writer having to choose a side of the story to believe (or disbelieve both of them).
And less agenda driven large international media organisations cannot be the main source of news for a regional commentator. While they have teams on the ground, they are normally small, understaffed, and covering their stories are local stringers. The shape of the story is broadly coming from editorial decisions in another country, and then implemented on the ground, which leads to stories being built to confirm points of views rather than exploring the truth. For example, when looking at Syria, they are so vehemently anti-Assad that the main focus is to expose him despite the crimes being perpetrated by all sides.
Alhudood has been trying to tackle this problem since day one. One of our main focuses and what has built its reputation as credible in the region is that we take sides with no-one, and we criticise whoever we believe should be challenged. But, with the mounting complexity of politics and the media in the region, and all the misinformation circulating, we sometimes can’t even figure who that is.
