The challenge of interviewing Middle East leaders: A first-hand story of my encounters with dictators and dissidents

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the course of almost four decades of journalistic work in the greater Middle East the author has interviewed some of its most charismatic leaders, from the Iranian Presidents Ahmadinejad and Khatami to Saudi King Abdullah, Taliban ministers, dissidents, rebels, and warlords. Some of them were popular. Others were not. Only a few were elected. Such is the predicament in the region. All were convinced of their own legitimacy. But is the interview by a mainstream western media journalist a confirmation of this, ora way to highlight their shortcomings? This article argues that the answer lies in the eye of readers and their complicity with an interviewer who is bound both by the journalistic mandate to unveil the truth and by being the interviewee’s guest. When leaders agrees to an interview, they either have a message to sell to the public, or they are convinced of projecting an ideal image.