France, Iran, and MBN Stories

Dear Colleagues,

Last summer, a Paris court charged a couple with involvement in Iranian plots to murder Jews in Germany and France. The French-Algerian dual citizen and his girlfriend — the former with ties to a major drug trafficker in Lyons — had made several scouting trips to Munich and Berlin.

“Since 2015, the Iranian [intelligence] services have resumed a targeted killing policy,” the French security agency said at the time, adding that “the threat has worsened in the context of the Israel-Hamas war.”

This summer, French police are on high alert. French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced last week that the French military — with ground-to-air systems and Rafale jets — had been intercepting Iranian drones dispatched toward Israel before the recent ceasefire.

We’ve just invited Benjamin Haddad, France’s minister for European Affairs, for an interview. Ben’s a professional friend. We were just together over the weekend in Normandy at the annual conference of the Paris-based Tocqueville Conversations (I’m a member of the group’s advisory board). Ben is also an MBN champion. He’s followed our fight for Congressionally approved funding. 

MBN Funding, Kari Lake’s Testimony

Thanks to General Counsel Anne Noble — and to superb representation from outside counsel Munger, Tolles & Olson —  we’ve been winning in court. As a result, we’ve been able to extract funding from Kari Lake’s United States Agency for Global Media. USAGM remains under court order to provide MBN each month our Congressionally appropriated funds.

Last week’s testimony by Ms. Lake to the House Foreign Affairs Committee was anything but reassuring, however. In broad brush strokes, Ms. Lake told Congress that we — along with VOA, RFA, RFE/RL, and the Open Technology Fund —  are “largely incompetent, corrupt, biased, and a threat to America’s national security and standing in the world.”

I’m not sure what Ms. Lake knows about MBN. To this day, she has declined to meet with us. She has not visited our offices or inspected our operations. She has not met with Chair Ryan Crocker or members of the MBN board. Ms. Lake has not made a single inquiry regarding our content. Nor has she asked about our plans for further reform. I don’t know that Ms. Lake is aware of the major restructure we undertook last fall.

Ms. Lake’s testimony last week was disappointing. Disparaging Congressionally funded media groups — with exaggeration, mischaracterization, sins of omission, and misleading factoids — is apt to be misunderstood by American allies and misused by adversaries. It seems self-destructive. It feels like Americans turning on Americans. It’s a pity Ms. Lake was the sole witness last week.

MBN’s work supports American foreign policy goals. MBN advances U.S. national security objectives by providing tens of millions across the Middle East and North Africa with credible, professional, mission-aligned journalism.

Thanks to board member Tom Melia who helped place the statement signed by me and the CEOs of RFA and RFE/RL — Bay Fang and Steve Capus, respectively — into last week’s hearing record.

Under difficult circumstances, we push forward. If the July funds due to us arrive this week, we’ll take additional steps toward paying down the mountain the bills that have accumulated since March and — important, as promised — start to provide severance to former employees who had been based with our U.S. headquarters. Severance is not a legal requirement in the state of Virginia. It is, however, a professional responsibility for us. We’re committed to making good on this pledge as soon as the necessary funds become available. We’ll keep you informed.

Our Journalism

In the midst of uncertainty and with extremely limited resources, you’ve held to the highest of professional standards. You keep delivering and thanks to you, dear colleagues, MBN has continued to develop through, no less — civil war in Sudan, war in Gaza and Lebanon, the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria, and the Israel-Iran conflict. All this takes fortitude. You deserve immense credit.

We’ll speak about MBN content and editorial strategy at an MBN board meeting this Wednesday. With the deep cuts we’ve been forced to make since April our numbers look very different now: We’ve plunged from an audience of 34 million weekly to 150,000. That’s a painful fact. It’s nevertheless remarkable what you’ve been able to do under these difficult circumstances.

Alhurra recently launched its new website. Straight forward and cost efficient, the new site has a mobile-first design with video and social media integration where Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and podcast episodes nicely align.

We’ve started a slate of new shows, too, including:

• Joe Kawly’s The Diplomat, a program that invites audiences into quiet rooms where U.S. foreign policy experts tackle big ideas and difficult decisions. A straightforward conversation with the people who navigate major crises and negotiate fundamental questions of war and peace.
• Rami El Amine’s Sharp Notes, a show that cuts through noise with satire and wit that often deliver bitter truths. Rami disarms with humor, and restores political awareness to a distracted, digital generation.
• Aya Elbaz who offers our audiences a Gen Z voice. Her tone is direct, her curiosity contagious in What’s It About? Main character energy. A major MBN slay.
• Close Up hosted by Randa Jebai. Randa’s segments are investigative pieces with strong and impressive storytelling.
• Conversations with Andres Ilves, a podcast with Andres Ilves that captures voices we often miss. Andres interviews guests who help us understand not just what’s happening in our region, but why it matters.
• Face to Face with Ibrahim Eissa. Ibrahim pushes boundaries and challenges guests on faith, family, identity, and ideology with discussions well rooted in history and cultural honesty.

Iran

When the first Israeli strikes hit Iranian nuclear facilities, we pivoted. For twelve days, we reallocated resources and with a severely reduced staff did an admirable job in covering a major conflict in which the United States has clear stakes. Our coverage included:

• Mapping of missile routes detailing Iranian nuclear sites and key vulnerabilities.
• Field reporting from St. Elias Church In Damascus just hours after the bombing that captured raw emotion, including community fear and signs of relief.
• Tracking of militia movements in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Lebanon using both satellite data and insider accounts.
• Platforming of Iranians in the diaspora with views on the war,  Tehran’s repressive clerical regime, and the chance for political change.
• Interviews that shed light and stimulate discussion, including guests our audiences are less likely to otherwise hear from. For example: U.S. political economist James Glassman, American proliferation expert Henry Sokolski, and former Israeli national security adviser Eyal Hulata.

During the 12-day Israel-Iran conflict, our content reached over 7 million people on Facebook, with more than 50 million views and over 4 million video plays. Instagram saw a 228% increase in views, and we gained 16,000 new followers. Here’s our story on Iranian backed militia and proxies across the region.

Thanks to Leila Bazzi and Andres Ilves we now have an important discussion with RFE/RL editor-in-chief Nicola Careem on new forms of cooperation with RFE’s Persian service. Thanks to Ilan Berman for his extremely helpful input. Ilan serves on both RFE/RL and MBN boards.

My tip of hat to each and every one of you.

Remarkable work.

I’m grateful.

My best, Jeff