The EconomistJuly 22nd 2017 Middle East and Africa 371F
OR two years Ghanem al Masarir al-Do-
sari, a Saudi satirist, has fronted an on-
line comic look at the news in a show
called “Fadfada” (Natter), which pokes fun
at his kingdom’s royal highnesses. He por-
trays the young crown prince and de facto
ruler, Muhammad bin Salman, in nappies,
and calls him “al-dub al-dasher”, loosely
translated as “fat crumpet”. His YouTube
channel attracts millions of followers,
most of them Saudi. “Back home, I’d have
lost my head,” he says. But Mr Dosari
broadcasts from the safety of a north Lon-
don suburb, he hopes out of reach of the
royal sword.
Ever since the leading pan-Arab news-
paper, Asharq al-Awsat, launched in Britain
in 1978, London has served as an Arab me-
dia hub. Fleeing the censors at home, jour-
nalists found freedom in exile. Fresh crack-
downs, censorship and war are again
rejuvenating their ranks.
As part of its campaign against Qatar,
Saudi Arabia has demanded the closure of
the popular satellite channel it funds, Al Ja-
zeera, and threatened anyone tweeting in
sympathy with five years’ imprisonment
or a huge fine. The United Arab Emirates
upped the punishment to 15 years.
Oman has jailed editors. Last month,
Bahrain shut down its last independent
newspaper, Al-Wasat. A satellite channel
launched in Bahrain closed on its first day
after interviewing a Shia dissident. Jamal
Khashoggi, a veteran Saudi journalist and
its general manager, is one of hundreds
banned by his government from speaking
about Qatar, or in his case anything else.
He has opted for exile in the West.
A decade ago, Arabic media was return-
ing home from exile, lured by the opening
of glitzy“media cities” and promises of
Arab glasnost. MBC, a popular London-
based satellite channel, moved to Dubai.
Edgy new channels like Al Jazeera, Al Ara-
biya and Sky NewsArabia launched in the
Gulf. But in 2011 the Arab spring erupted,
and Arab despots responded bymuzzling
their critics.
Al Jazeera, which amplified cries for re-
gime change, both peaceful and not, faced
the sheikhs’ particular ire. When the clo-
sure of bureaus and Egypt’s jailing of jour-
nalists failed to induce its compliance, Gulf
governments signed an agreement with
Qatar in 2013 to curb its media. Al Jazeera
duly suspended its Egyptian arm, and after
a temporary blackout, blamed on techni-
cal difficulties, briefly broadcast from Lon-don. Qatar moved new operations off-
shore. Al-Araby al-Jadeed (the New Arab)
was launched in west London, along with
websites such as Arabi21and the Arabic
version of Huffington Post. London, says
an Al Jazeera journalist, remains the chan-
nel’s backup, should, for instance, the Sau-
dis or Emiratis invade.
London’s calling is a tradition. Since
Karl Marx, it has been a favoured home to
dissidents. British judges have repeatedly
ruled against the repatriation of activists.
Britain has resisted Emirati pressure to ban
the Muslim Brotherhood and hosts many
more senior Brotherhood figures than Qa-
tar does. Scores of Shia activists hounded
out of Bahrain have settled in Britain, and
beam their protests back to the Gulf. Sub-
ject to a Jordanian campaign to ban them
across the Arab world, Mashrou Leila, a
Lebanese indy band whose lyrics flout sex-
ual and political taboos, launched its latest
album in London. An Arab arts festival,
Shubbak, offers a platform to human rights
activists, like the Egyptian author, Basma
Abdelaziz, fearful of talking at home. Talk
of a new independent paper is afoot.
Even so, the despots have long arms.
Gulf governments fund their own media
outlets in London, lure journalists to their
ranks, and then call the tune. Asharq al-Aw-
sat, acquired in 2015 by the Saudi crown
prince, has become itsmaster’s voice. An-
other London-based Saudi-owned publi-
cation, Al-Hayat, was once lauded as the
most professional of Arab newspapers,
but now tends to toe the line. On July 18th
hecklers supporting Egypt’s president,
Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, tried to drown out a
debate on Al Jazeera at a journalists’ club in
London. And Mr Dosari remainscagey
about his address. In 1987 the greatest Pales-
tinian cartoonist, Naji al-Ali, was fatally
shot on London’s streets. 7Arab mediaExodus and the
airwaves
London is again becoming the Arab
world’s media capitalW
HEN a group of teenage boys
scrawled “down with the regime” on
their school wall they lit the powder that
ignited Syria’s civil war. Ever since their
torture at the hands of state-security agents
in March 2011, the boys’ home city of Deraa
has become synonymous with the rebel-
lion to overthrow the regime ofBashar al-
Assad. But Deraa may yet turn out to be the
place where dreams of overthrowing the
regime finally die.
The guns fell silent over the battered
city at noon on July 9th as a ceasefire bro-
kered by Russia and America came into
force. The truce, announced by Presidents
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin after
their first meeting, is the latest in a string of
failed attempts by the two powers to quell
more than six years of violence that has
killed perhaps 400,000 people. Its success,
if it lasts, may open the door to deeper co-
operation between America and Russia.
That could lead to a kind of peace, but at
the price of what may be a lasting carve-up
of Syria into zones controlled by different
foreign powers, which will in all probabili-
ty leave MrAssad in place on the populous
coastal west of the country.
It is unclear whether the ceasefire will
work this time. Months of secret meetings
between American, Russian and Jordani-
an officials in Amman have produced a
deal that lacks teeth. Russia saysit will de-
ploy troops to police the ceasefire zone,
which covers three southern regions that
abut the borders with Israel and Jordan.
American diplomats saythe make-up of
any ground force is still being discussed.SyriaAll quiet on the
southern front?
BEIRUT
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ability to rein back its alliesAl Tanf
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down Syrian air force
near Tabqa, SyriaM
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HeightsTURKEYISRAEL JORDANLEBANONMediterranean SeaAreas of control, July 2017Sources: Institute for the Study of War; Russian Defence MinistrySyrian government“De-escalation” zonesIslamic State Kurds Contested
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