Journalists born of the revolution

TUNIS // It was 9am at the office of Tunisia Live, a start-up Tunisian news website, and writer Rabii Kalboussi was halfway through his first story of the day. He was sitting at a table with five other writers, compiling news stories from other local media.

"My first story today ... is a conference on the electoral process," he said. "I read the article, then I translate from Arabic and reformulate it, considering the audience of Tunisia Live: the English-speaking world."

Kalboussi, 23, and his colleagues were young, inexperienced and operating on a shoestring budget. But fuelled by ample enthusiasm, they represented Tunisia's first generation of post-dictatorship journalists.

The brainchild of Zied Mhirsi, 33, a doctor-turned-media entrepreneur, and colleagues, Tunisia Live was the country's only news outlet offering local coverage in English to an international audience.

The fledgling enterprise needed investment, Mhirsi said. For now, a sideline in "fixing" - offering visiting foreign reporters assistance including translation, logistics and media consulting - provided cash while offering writers experience with seasoned journalists.

That business model was unthinkable under president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, whose removal in January ended decades of state censorship, coercion and corruption of media.

A fluent English-speaker, who spent four years studying and working at the University of Washington in Seattle, Mhirsi was swept up in a foreign media blitz on Tunisia that followed Mr Ben Ali's departure on January 14.

After weeks of helping foreign journalists get their bearings, Mhirsi and fellow fixers "realised that Tunisians weren't writing in English", he said. "I was sensitive to the issue of communicating in English because I'd always felt my country was isolated."

In April, Mhirsi launched Tunisia Live with co-founders Youssef Gaiji and Ramla Jaber.

Among the first recruits was Sadok Ayari, 26, who now sets the daily news agenda. Arriving each day at 7am, he scavenged the Tunisian press for articles to translate.

"For example, today's top story is on human-rights training for police," he said. "For years, they didn't even have a concept of human rights. Now they're getting a human-rights dimension. We're not used to that."

Meanwhile, Kalboussi polished off his article on the electoral process and begun pulling together news reports about Hizb Attahrir, a hard-line Islamist party.

"In the future I'd like to do what news agencies are doing," he said. "To call people, to attend conferences and events - to become a source of news."

Mhirsi was also looking forward to that day, he said. Tunisia Live's offices were decorated with inspirational sayings about journalism.

Beside the whiteboard where Mr Ayari writes the daily schedule was a quote from Burton Rascoe, a 20th-century American editor: "A news sense is really a sense of what is important, what is vital, what has colour and life - what people are interested in. That's journalism."

However, the most pressing need of Tunisia Live's 20-odd writers was practical experience, said Mhirsi.

"Skills in English, in writing, in learning to observe and analyse," he said. "They have a lot of passion, they put in a lot of hours, but they need proper training."

That need was met partly by fixing for foreign media.

"I began fixing even before I came here," said Asma Ghribi, 24, a graduate student in cultural studies who had worked for Al Jazeera English following the revolution. Since joining Tunisia Live in April, she has focused increasingly on original video reports, while continuing to fix for the foreign media who make up Tunisia Live's client base.

"When you're a fixer you have to obey and listen to what journalists want," she said. "Reporting for Tunisia Live, I'm my own master. This is the best part. You become aware of the privilege you have as a reporter."

Ghribi was seated at a table with Ayari and their colleague Malak Somai, 26, working out the trilingual text of a video urging viewers to vote on questions for a political interview show.

"Something imperative," Ayari said, as they tried out phrases in Tunisia's Arabic dialect. "How about, 'Choose the questions that you want to ask'?"

"No, that doesn't capture it," Ghribi said. "Try, 'Choose the questions you like'."

Finally they settled on, "Vote for the questions you like."

They fell to reminiscing about January 14. Ayari remembered a starry night - "A beautiful night for a revolution," he said.

For Mhirsi, Tunisia Live was positioned to document the effects of Tunisia's revolution - among them the burst of free expression that has made such enterprises possible.

However, it remained to be seen whether hard work and passion will translate to profitability.

"We're jumping into the unknown," Mhirsi said. "We're doing this as long as it can sustain itself. And if it can't, it will still have been a good adventure."

jthorne@thenational.ae

The bio

Favourite book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Favourite travel destination: Maldives and south of France

Favourite pastime: Family and friends, meditation, discovering new cuisines

Favourite Movie: Joker (2019). I didn’t like it while I was watching it but then afterwards I loved it. I loved the psychology behind it.

Favourite Author: My father for sure

Favourite Artist: Damien Hurst

Test

Director: S Sashikanth

Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan

Star rating: 2/5

PREMIER LEAGUE FIXTURES

Saturday (UAE kick-off times)

Watford v Leicester City (3.30pm)

Brighton v Arsenal (6pm)

West Ham v Wolves (8.30pm)

Bournemouth v Crystal Palace (10.45pm)

Sunday

Newcastle United v Sheffield United (5pm)

Aston Villa v Chelsea (7.15pm)

Everton v Liverpool (10pm)

Monday

Manchester City v Burnley (11pm)

Brief scores:

Manchester City 2

Gundogan 27', De Bruyne 85'

Crystal Palace 3

Schlupp 33', Townsend 35', Milivojevic 51' (pen)

Man of the Match: Andros Townsend (Crystal Palace)

The specs

Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel

Power: 579hp

Torque: 859Nm

Transmission: Single-speed automatic

Price: From Dh825,900

On sale: Now

Skewed figures

In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.

Key facilities

Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
Premier League-standard football pitch
400m Olympic running track
NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
600-seat auditorium
Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
Specialist robotics and science laboratories
AR and VR-enabled learning centres
Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills

At a glance

Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year

Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month

Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30

Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse

Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth

Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

The National's picks

4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young

Explained

Who are the bidoon?

Company%20profile

%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Ogram%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2017%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Karim%20Kouatly%20and%20Shafiq%20Khartabil%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%2C%20UAE%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20On-demand%20staffing%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2050%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMore%20than%20%244%20million%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%20round%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Series%20A%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EGlobal%20Ventures%2C%20Aditum%20and%20Oraseya%20Capital%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A

Bridgerton%20season%20three%20-%20part%20one

%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirectors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EVarious%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Nicola%20Coughlan%2C%20Luke%20Newton%2C%20Jonathan%20Bailey%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E3%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A