media figure

Faisal al-Qassem

فيصل القاسم

Journeys

Faisal al-Qassem: The Debate That Changed Arab Television

Al-Qassem built one of the Arab world's most watched political programs at Al Jazeera — a show that broke taboos by inviting direct confrontation between opposing Arab political voices. When Syria's war began, he found himself covering the destruction of his own country, in a position where Al Jazeera's Qatari ownership and Qatar's Syria policy shaped what could be discussed and how.

Biography

Faisal al-Qassem is a Syrian journalist and the host of 'The Opposite Direction' (Al-Ittijah al-Muakis), Al Jazeera Arabic's flagship debate program, which he has hosted since 1996. The show — which brings together guests with diametrically opposed views and often features highly charged debates — became one of the most watched political programs in the Arab world. Al-Qassem, himself Syrian, covered the Syrian uprising and civil war extensively on the program, hosting debates that featured Syrian opposition voices, regime defenders, and regional actors. His show's amplification of Syrian opposition voices — enabled by Al Jazeera's Qatari ownership and Qatar's policy of supporting the Syrian opposition — was itself a factor in the information ecosystem of the Syrian conflict. His career represents the intersection of Arab satellite media, Gulf politics, and the Syrian information war.

Documentation Status

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Journeys1

Key Facts

Born:1959

Place:Jabal al-Arab, Sweida, Syria

Nationality:Syrian