''Raseef22'' () is a liberal

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

media network founded in 2013 based in

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

. It publishes content in Arabic and English from different

Arab states The Arab world ( '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in ...

and describes itself as an independent media platform. International Media Support mentions ''Raseef22'' along with ''HuffPost Arabic'' and ''

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which pro ...

'' as one of the biggest Pan-Arab online platforms.

Name

The Arabic word ''raseef'' () means platform or pavement, and the number 22 refers to the number of states in the

Arab League The Arab League (, ' ), officially the League of Arab States (, '), is a regional organization in the Arab world. The Arab League was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945, initially with seven members: Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt, Kingdom of Iraq, ...

History

Kareem Sakka co-founded ''Raseef22'' in the aftermath of the

Arab Spring The Arab Spring () was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings, and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began Tunisian revolution, in Tunisia ...

, which he cites as a source of inspiration. In an article in

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

, he wrote that ''Raseef22'' was created as a "digital space for those eager to know what was going on around them." ''Raseef22'' was one of the 500 websites censored in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

in late 2017 after it published an article on Egyptian security agencies' vies to influence the media. After the site was blocked in Egypt, it was targeted in a cyber attack that took it offline in locations around the world.

Jamal Khashoggi Jamal Ahmad Hamza Khashoggi (13 October 1958 – 2 October 2018) was a Saudi journalist, Saudi dissidents, dissident, author, columnist for ''Middle East Eye'' and ''The Washington Post'', and a general manager and editor-in-chief of Al-Arab New ...

wrote for ''Raseef22'' regularly. One of his notable articles was "Notes on the Freedom of the Arabs from Oslo, Norway," published June 5, 2018. The site was blocked in

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

December 2018 when the Saudi

Ministry of Communications and Information Technology A Communications Ministry or Department of Communications is a ministry or other government agency charged with communication. Communications responsibilities include regulating telecommunications, postal services, broadcasting and print media. The ...

ordered its censorship due to its "unprecedented response to the

assassination of Jamal Khashoggi On 2 October 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident journalist, was killed by agents of the Saudi government at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Khashoggi was ambushed and strangled by a 15-member squad of Saudi operatives. His body w ...

in Istanbul." This decision might have also been related to ''Raseef22'''s coverage of Saudi-Israeli relations and interviews with activists later imprisoned or placed under house arrest coverage In 2019 the (AJL) in Paris gave ''Raseef22'' a golden foreign press award for its six-month series of articles on gender and sexuality issues.{{cite news , last1=Braidy , first1=Nour , title=Raconter les sexualités en arabe : Raseef22 remporte ''l'Out d'or de la presse étrangère'' , url=https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/1175467/raconter-les-sexualites-en-arabe-raseef22-remporte-lout-dor-de-la-presse-etrangere.html , accessdate=26 June 2020 , work=L'Orient-Le Jour , date=19 June 2019

Readership

According to its publisher in 2019, the news agency counted 12 million readers annually from 22 Arab nations. Of the readership, he wrote that it "believes in the talent and promise of the Arab mind and sees the ugliness of tyranny, patriarchy, misogyny and the futility of proxy rulers and wars."

Al-Quds Al-Arabi ''al-Quds al-Arabi'' () is an independent pan-Arab daily newspaper, published in London since 1989 and owned by Palestinian expatriates. According to news reports in 2013, it is now owned by Qatar media interests, through intermediaries. The pa ...

described ''Raseef22'' as "oriented to the youth."

References

Digital media Arabic-language websites