“Why are Arab universities excluded from international academic rankings?” At least the ones like U.S. News that assess major institutions in the West and worldwide. I came across that provocative, yet important, headline of a 2016 article published by the Lebanon-based Arab Thought Foundation. It’s a legitimate question, notably in…

A gloomy day over Beirut’s demolished seaport reflected the trauma Lebanon residents relived two years after a near-nuclear blast ripped through the facility killing hundreds, injuring and maiming thousands and damaging a good chunk of the capital. Reinforced concrete grain silos that stood tall in the port for decades took…

The country is sick, the economy is sick, and worst of all people are sick, physically and psychologically. There’s growing acknowledgement in Lebanon that mental health needs attention as people become more unsettled and driven to despair thanks to an epic financial meltdown, lost savings in zombie banks involved in…

I’ve always found images important in journalism so it was doubly relevant when I read about “Innovation in Visual Digital Storytelling” featuring a tragic virtual graphic novel about a place I’d visited decades ago. Radio-Canada’s remembrance of a runaway train carrying crude oil that derailed in the Canadian town of…

Media Ethics Tested on All Fronts We’re back to that existential question of whether it’s ethical to show gory scenes of human “collateral damage” in conflict zones and mass shootings and if one should zoom in on people’s misery. Whether it’s Ukraine, Palestine, Syria, Yemen, Tigray, Myanmar, China or the…

Latest Russian joke: - Putin’s propagandists on TV said nuclear war is fine because patriotic Russians will go to Heaven. Heaven heard it and immediately applied to join NATO! So tweeted self-exiled Russian dissident and chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov last week. People may chuckle at the black humor, but war…

The verdict in the murder of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh last week is in: the Israeli military, accused by eyewitnesses of shooting her, won’t conduct a criminal investigation into the Al Jazeera network reporter’s slaying. The stated reason according to the Israeli daily Haaretz is that there’s no suspicion…

A sniper’s bullet pierced through Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh’s head on Wednesday as she covered Israeli troops’ assault on a refugee camp in the West Bank town of Jenin, said eyewitnesses who accused Israel of deliberately targeting the Al Jazeera network veteran. A preliminary Palestinian forensic report said Israeli…

It’s a loaded question in a country crippled by a financial meltdown, sectarianism, clientelism, hyperinflation, record-high unemployment, spiking crime, staggering corruption, massive emigration, chronic power cuts, food and medicine shortages, and collective PTSD. Can there be accurate, fair, balanced, humane and ethical coverage by print, broadcast, online and digital multimedia…