Emad Adeeb

Emad El Din Adeeb’s luck began in 1975 when he was writing for the Cairo University Faculty of Mass Communication newspaper. That year, his third term of college, each student in his class was asked to choose an official to interview for their final paper. Some chose journalists, others chose under-secretary officials. The most ambitious student wanted to interview the governor of Cairo. Adeeb, however, aimed even higher.
“I thought of interviewing the president of Egypt [Anwar El Sadat]”, he said.

Adeeb called the president’s office, asked for an interview and was granted one. It was the first interview that was ever done by a student with a president. And although he was allotted only 30 minutes with President Sadat, the interview lasted for two hours. 
Soon after, Al Ahram newspaper sought a trainee for their publication. 

They chose Adeeb after reading his interview with President Sadat. On his first day as a trainee, his boss, the late famous journalist Hamdy Fouad, had to fly to New York. Since Adeeb was the only person working with him, he was asked to replace Fouad in covering former Nazi member Kurt Waldheim’s visit to Egypt. Adeeb went to the airport with a photographer and somehow managed to get into the guest’s hall, right behind the staff of Ossama El Baz, at that time the Foreign Minister’s bureau chief. Late Foreign Minister Ismail Fahmy noticed Adeeb and asked him what he was doing there. Adeeb replied: “ I managed to [get in] here.”

His answer amused Fahmy, who laughed and granted him an interview with Waldheim, while other journalists were made to wait outside. Adeeb then went back to the newspaper and filed his story. Other journalists were not allowed in the guest hall — and many were not permitted to interview Waldheim — so Al Ahram’s editor in chief, Ali Hamdy El Gammal, couldn’t believe that Adeeb had gotten one. 
Considering the media at that time was restricted, there was not an independent or party press, only one main national press existed, and freedom was very limited, Adeeb’s editor’s shock is understandable. 

But Adeeb says he was given an advantage that does not exist anymore: he was trained properly by an editor who offered advice, added values, and insight. 
In 1977, when President Sadat went to Jerusalem, the entire American media came to Cairo. At the time, Adeeb was the only English-speaking journalist covering the presidency. His language skills gained him introductions to foreign agencies, and he convinced the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) to let him work with them, which he did part time for 11 years. His tenure there taught him a lot, and he gained access to new media inventions and technologies — such as the electronic camera and digital editing. “That was a very important stage in my life,” he says.

Today Adeeb is an accomplished writer (he authored three books: “Dialogue of Jerusalem,” “One Woman Is Not Enough,” and “From the Heart”), prize winner (including Best Arabic Press Person in 1996 and 1997 and Best Journalist in 1992) and the chairman and editor-in-chief of Kul El Nas magazine and Al Alam Al Youm newspaper. Eleven years ago, he launched his own company, The United Journalists, and it grew so quickly, he enlisted partners to help him with the expenses. 
He is most known, however, for his live television program, “Ala Al Hawa,” which he has been hosting for more than six years now. The show, which has a reputation for being slightly controversial, is the longest running in Arab television history. Adeeb says the show’s success is attributed to a single rule of thumb: there is no issue that cannot be discussed. 
“If [religion, sex and politics are] is forbidden, then we are limiting ourselves to discussing only food and fashion,” he says.
Through his program, Adeeb says he hopes to prove that every subject can be discussed and that no one cannot be interviewed or held accountable to the media. 
“If we differ with someone like [Moammar] El Qaddhafi, or if we want to know if [Lebanese singer] Nagwa Karam really insulted [religion], then we should be able to talk with them. We should give everybody a chance and create a bridge between people and public figures,” he says. 
He generally offers such bold statements, but never without limitations. Although he says he does not agree with censorship, (“People should not be censored,”) he believes journalists should impose a “self-censorship” on themselves.

Just because he watches what he says doesn’t mean he, himself, isn’t watched. Officials from the president downward make up Adeeb’s loyal audience, and articles he features in his publications are read with scrutiny — sometimes, to his benefit. One time President Hosni Mubarak asked former Prime Minister Kamal Al Ganzouri to investigate the facts in a story Adeeb had written. Consequently, and as a result of Adeeb’s article, a law was changed. 

Adeeb is used to having an effect on situations. He hopes, for the sake of the Egyptian media, he has an effect on the way journalists are hired in Egypt in the future. Although he believes the quality of printing is improving, he says the quality of reporting is deteriorating. 

“Egyptian television is not up to date… and needs a true revolution,” he said. “The role of television is not clear in the minds of those who work there. They see it as an official medium to report what the government wants, and not to inform and teach people. [It] has become a boring medium… the tempo is very slow, its anchors… are not well prepared, and it is a very weak news source.”
Adeeb cites the October 31 EgyptAir crash as an example. “The plane crashed on CNN, but not on the Egyptian television [until] four or five hours later,” he said. 
Adeeb hopes Egyptian media will become more up to date in the millennium if more skilled journalists are hired. 
“The Middle East has the wrong concept about press,” he says. “In the Arab world, reporters have either a good voice or a pretty face... In order to be a good reporter in any other country, a journalist must think, investigate and [hone his skills]. But in Egypt, we do not have the looks or the brains,” he says. 

Clearly Adeeb is not one of those brainless figures. He is proud of his own successes and says he is satisfied with what his company has become. He thinks the coming two or three years will be very successful, especially after more than a decade of intensively hard work. Although clearly an already accomplished writer, media figure and host, Adeeb strives to better the industry as a whole as well as the role of journalists. In doing so, he will continue interviewing controversial figures and bridging the gap between public and private individuals.