The Challenges of Arab Journalists, Past & Present
To be a journalist is no easy feat, but to be an Arab journalist in a Western-dominated world is something entirely different. Stereotypes, oppression, and discrimination come in many different forms, and the world of media and journalism is no stranger to them. This issue dates back to the 1800s, as Arabs began establishing newspapers and printing presses, and continues to this day, as digital and independent media are on the rise. Censorship and discrimination took many shapes since then, with the Ottomans shutting down newspapers in the early 1900s, followed by “Britain’s attempts to silence them through shutdowns, arrests, or exile (Omer, 2015)” (King, 2021) in the 1920s. In Palestine specifically, the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank in 1967 resulted in a complete ban on all broadcasting until well into the 1990s (King, 2021). Today, as the world watches war, famine and genocide unfold across the Middle East, Arab journalists continue to face censorship and invalidation within a Western-led arena.
I am personally not an outsider to oppression and constant war, yet if I was, I feel certain that I would want to hear the stories of the oppressed, directly from the oppressed. However, this idea threatens Western media structures and personal ideals. Stereotypes and racism are instilled both systemically and within the general public, with those who produce and consume news preferring to hear it from someone who resembles them. From a reporting perspective, broadcasters rely on non-Arab sources for information. Western journalists and analysts are viewed as more credible than their Arab counterparts, and are hand-picked to be more digestible to non-Arab audiences. Muzaffar argues that, “Reporters globally tend to consider information factual and newsworthy only when it has been consecrated by those in positions of power. Consequently, facts “manufactured in corridors of high power” possess greater voice and legitimacy than facts emanating from disadvantaged peoples” (Muzaffar, Bashir, Hussain, 2025).
In an interview with Al Jazeera’s the Listening Post, journalist Rachel Shabi explains why this is also the case amongst the general public, “Muslims and Arab people are more widely cast as essentially an enemy within, as inherently suspicious, as inherently violent… it just creates this cloud of suspicion” (Al Jazeera English The Listening Post, 2025). The truth is, it’s difficult for Western audiences to take the word of someone who has been consistently portrayed as ‘the other’, as untrustworthy, as fundamentalist, and ultimately as third-world or uncivilised. These negative stereotypes make it hard for Arab journalists to succeed in highly competitive workplaces, and the sense amongst professionals in this sphere is that “We are only ever viewed in the West as subjects of others’ reporting, not reliable storytellers of our own struggles” (ElGendy, 2023). Like other minorities, Arab journalists must work much harder just to be heard.
The issue persists even when these journalists are in fact heard. Their voices more often than not are filtered, censored, and systemically marginalised. The main job of any journalist is to gather and spread valuable, reliable, unbiased information to the world, but for Arab journalists, this can be a jarring task any way it is approached. For starters, it is common for news agencies to push certain narratives onto Arab journalists, thus censoring their actual voices, in an attempt to ensure engagement from their Western audience. An example of this comes from Malak Silmi as she recalls her own experience in the US, where her voice and journalism were diminished to appease the audience (Silmi, 2024). I have personally spoken to several Arab journalists who have struggled not only with such censorship, but also with marginalisation of their views. Arab journalists are constantly being made to choose between their morals and values, and their international exposure and career progression.
It is a great moral dilemma to be faced with the opportunity to contribute to stories which highlight negativity around your own people, but at the same time presenting you with the career opportunity of a lifetime at some of the world’s largest news agencies. The question becomes – how do I amplify the true stories of my people and not contribute to the erasure of our voices, while at the same time not jeopardising my journalistic success? I find that not only Arab journalists have to make this choice but all minorities, making it harder for them to find jobs at esteemed broadcasters, where they are welcomed as they are. An article by Illume Magazine highlights Abdallah Fayyad’s perspective, a Palestinian-American journalist who feels that Muslim and Arab journalists are forced into neutrality within the workforce, while this requirement is not always placed on Israeli or even Jewish-American journalists (George, 2024). According to the Arab Media Society, “This marginalization has been reinforced by contemporary digital infrastructures, including algorithmically-driven content curation practices employed by platforms like Google, YouTube, and Facebook” (Arab Media Society, 2024).
Al Jazeera reports on the issues Arab journalists face when they attempt to speak out against such marginalisation and other forms of Western media bias, specifically in recent times regarding the ongoing Israeli genocide on Gaza. It highlights that 1,500 journalists from dozens of US news organisations signed an open letter that protests the West’s coverage of the Gaza genocide. Many Arab journalists complained that Western-heavy newsrooms were “accountable for dehumanizing rhetoric that has served to justify the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians” as well as “undermining Arab, Muslim and Palestinian identity and perspectives which then proceeded to invoke “inflammatory language” that was used to reinforce Islamophobic and racist tropes” (Jong, 2024). While some Western journalists received backlash for their involvement in such open letters and other similar initiatives, it was predominantly Arab journalists who bore the consequences of these actions.
Society tells you to chase your dreams and to stand by what you believe in, but it fails to mention the obstacles intentionally put in the way for those who are deemed not to be deserving of such privileges. Not everyone is a storyteller – but Arabs have been subject to oppression for so long, that story-telling and journalism now carry a sense of duty. That said, the task will only get harder amid the subconscious or even conscious Western microaggressions, unless major strides are taken to dismantle the status quo of the media world. “Redressing narrative asymmetry requires dismantling institutional biases… without structural reforms—e.g., diversifying newsroom leadership, regulating AI ethics—the Palestinian narrative will remain ensnared in digital and geopolitical colonialism” (Arab Media Society, 2024).
Bibliography
Al Jazeera English – The Listening Post (2025). How Western Media Failed Gaza. [online Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylTIWQMzPx4 [Accessed 19 Jan. 2026]
Arab Media Society (2024). War Reporting in the Middle East: Historical Contexts and Contemporary Challenges. [online] Available at: https://www.arabmediasociety.com/war-reporting-in-the-middle-east-historical-contexts-and-contemporary-challenges/#:~:text=The%20post%2D9/11%20era,or%20BBC%20(Geniets%202013) [Accessed 20 Jan. 2026]
ElGendy, A. (2023). Palestinian Journalists Are Exposing How ‘Objectivity’ Is Used to Silence Them. [online] Truthout. Available at: https://truthout.org/articles/palestinian-journalists-are-exposing-how-objectivity-is-used-to-silence-them/#:~:text=They%20show%20us%20how%20their%20intimate%20involvement,context%20typically%20missed%20in%20so%2Dcalled%20objective%20reporting[Accessed 20 Jan 2026]
George, J. (2024). On Israel–Palestine, Pro-Palestine Journalists Are Subject to Unique Censorship. [online] illume magazine. Available at: https://illumemagazine.substack.com/p/on-israelpalestine-pro-palestine [Accessed 18 Jan. 2026]
Jong, B. (2024). Why Journalists are Speaking Out Against Western Media Bias in Reporting on Israel-Palestine. [online] Al Jazeera Journalism Review. Available at: https://institute.aljazeera.net/en/ajr/article/2561 [Accessed 19 Jan. 2026]
King, G. (2021). Palestine: Resilient Media Practices for National Liberation. [online] Open Book Publishers. Available at:https://books.openbookpublishers.com/10.11647/obp.0238/ch3.xhtml#:~:text=After%20the%20occupation%20of%20Gaza,Nossek%20&%20Rinnawi%2C%202003[Accessed 29 Jan. 2026]
Muzaffar, I., Bashir, A., Hussain, S. (2025). Crisis of Credibility: How the Anglo-American Journalism Model Failed the World. [online] Al Jazeera Journalism Review. Available at: https://institute.aljazeera.net/en/ajr/article/3453#:~:text=Associate%20editor%20of%20New%20Lines,the%20limits%20of%20public%20interest.%E2%80%9D[Accessed 21 Jan. 2026]
Silmi, M. (2024). Why, as a Palestinian American journalist, I had to leave the news industry. [online] Al Jazeera. Available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/1/28/why-as-a-palestinian-american-journalist-i-had-to-leave-the-news-industry [Accessed 18 Jan. 2026]