The image of Arab media has been spoiled

As you may have witnessed by now, social media users in the Middle East, and perhaps in the world, were struck after watching what could be considered one of the most embarrassing moments in the history of the Academy Awards.

As Leonardo DiCaprio headed to the press room to answer questions about his glorious Oscars win, he was left startled when a self-proclaimed “first Egyptian journalist covering the Oscars” wrapped up the conference with a cringe-worthy question: “What about the first Oscar for you?”

It wasn’t only her heavily-accented English that turned her into an internet meme, but Shaima Abdul Moneim, who works for Al Youm Al Saba newspaper, showed an apparent ignorance of journalistic principles that contradicted her experience in a relatively leading media corporation in Egypt. More cringe-worthy was her superior’s decision to send her to cover the Oscars next year, again.

First, the situation came at a critical time where the Middle East is already facing negative attitude from the West. Abdel Moneim did not only ridicule herself, but spoiled the image of Arab media practice. The fact that she apologised later on and attributed the incident to her “lack of experience” raises eyebrows. Why would a newspaper send an ‘inexperienced’ journalist to cover the year’s biggest night?

Her claim before the disastrous question of being the first Egyptian to cover the Oscars was hasty and lacked evidence. Fellow Egyptian presenter of OSN’s Arabic version of ‘Saturday Night Live’ Khalid Mansour covered the red carpet on the same night. Where’s the credibility she should be practicing?

Moreover, the fact that she didn’t mention which newspaper she came from, like any professional reporter, and preferred to take this opportunity to market herself deserves a thought. Then after claiming to be the “first” and setting expectations high, she came up with a conversely shameful question that could have been avoided had she spent ten minutes of preparation.

If anything, Abdel Moneim’s stunt should have been a lesson to her superiors. But assuming she is the one picked for next Oscars, she should start preparing from now. This time, the world will be zooming in on Abdel Moneim.

— The reader is an Egyptian media person based in Dubai