Ayoon Wa Azan (The permissible and the forbidden in our line of work)

I entered my office one morning a few days ago, and found sitting on my desk an article titled, “Jihad el-Khazen and Sex Scandals.” The energetic secretary had highlighted the parts that she judged to be important in yellow. I was shocked until I read and found out that the author of the article was none other than Dr. Mohammed Mesfer, a known Qatari writer and academic. There is a friendship and a working relationship between us, so I was reassured. I found that Dr. Mesfer was referring to an article I wrote published on August 16, 2013. Dr. Mesger concludes by saying, “The last question is addressed to Mr. Jihad el-Khazen: Has any of the journalists who wrote about the scandals of Berlusconi, Kennedy, Sarkozy, Bill Clinton and others been subjected to any harassment or persecution in their time by these senior officials? Would Mr. Jihad dare to write about the womanizing of any Arab prince or king or head of state, which is painfully widespread in our Arab and Islamic environment?” I say to Dr. Mesfer: You do it. My name is Jihad Bassam el-Khazen, not Antar bin Shaddad. Moreover, there are no sex scandals at the level of leadership in our countries. If I write about scandals of any kind involving the leaders of Arab countries, the very least of what could happen to me is that the country concerned would ban me from entering it, or from leaving if I entered. At any rate, Dr. Mesfer’s article has given me a chance to go over an important principle in journalism with the readers. When I wrote about the sex scandals of Western politicians, I only chose what is fit for publishing in an Arab newspaper, without getting into too much scandalous detail. I relied in what I wrote on material published by Western media, as well as trials and court proceedings. As usual for me in everything I write, I kept the original material that I used for my article. To be sure, in Western democracies, if a writer finds himself facing legal investigation about a subject he wrote about, the first question he would be asked is this: Have you kept the source material? In divine and secular law, “the onus is on the accuser (in this case, the accuser would be the author/journalist.” For this reason, my office in London contains piles of original material that I use in my writings. If months go by without anyone objecting to the article, I discard the old material to give room to material for more recent articles. Of course, in relation to the Arab sex scandals that Dr. Mesfer wants me to write about, this is a completely different matter, because the details would not have been published in the local papers, and no senior official would have appeared before court facing charges related to sex scandals. In other words, I would not have any evidence that would be admissible in court if I published “just anything” only because it is in vogue in coffee shop gatherings. In the West, there are police reports and thousands of articles and books about scandals like the drowning of Mary Jo Kopechne in Lake Chappaquiddick with Ted Kennedy, who swam and survived, or the scandal involving British Defense Secretary John Profumo and Christine Keeler, or Bill Clinton and White House intern Monica Lewinsky. In our countries, there is nothing like this, and perhaps the reason is that an Arab leader becomes like the Pope in Rome in power, where he is only concerned about the interests of the citizens – like we saw in Libya one day, and in Syria and Iraq and elsewhere today. Finally, I wish that the Egyptians who wrote rap sheets accusing their opponents of theft and treason would be tried in the English tradition, because these impostors who are deprived of morality and conscience would return home to find that they have no more homes. Indeed, if they fail to prove the accusations in court, then they must pay compensation to the innocent defendants, and more importantly, lawyers’ fees. I hope that what I wrote will benefit the Arab readers and writers. I have experience in this subject, and I won a lawsuit I filed in London and another brought against me, because I know the limits of the freedom available to me as a journalist in the West. The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arab Today.