Out Loud is an independent newsletter by journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin (Ahmed Eldin) on power, Palestine and press freedom. It goes after the stories that governments, militaries and their media partners would rather keep quiet: the journalists killed in Gaza and the officials who explain it away, the arms deals signed during a genocide, the money behind Washington’s wars in the Gulf, the courts that put reporters on trial.
I’ve spent twenty years inside the newsrooms that shape how the world sees the Middle East: PBS, The New York Times, Al Jazeera English, where I co-created and hosted the Emmy-nominated The Stream, then HuffPost Live, VICE on HBO and AJ+. My BBC investigation Queer Egypt Under Attack won a British Journalism Award and an Amnesty International Media Award. Amnesty International Australia gave me its Human Rights Defender Award, and in October DAWN gave me its Jamal Khashoggi award. In March 2026, Kuwait held me for nearly two months over posts about the Iran war; a court acquitted me, and the state stripped my citizenship anyway.
My parents were both born in Palestine. They were forced out in 1948 and 1967, and that history drives every story I tell. I also act and produce: you can see me in Annemarie Jacir’s Palestine 36, and I’m a producer on Rolla Selbak’s The Visitor.
Start with these
Israel Was Inside Al Jazeera’s Computers: Ads for earbuds carried spyware onto 45 Al Jazeera computers, the first proven case of its kind, in the same years Israel hunted down the network's journalists.
The AI Did It: The Pentagon blames the software for 123 children killed in a Minab classroom because you can’t send software to The Hague.
The Shape of Ed Sheeran Is Spineless: To keep a billionaire happy, Ed Sheeran gave up his opening acts, his band, his nice-guy reputation and whatever integrity he had left.
France's Students Asked for Teachers and Got a Culture War: When children ask for a future, power answers with police and a story about Islam.
Europe’s “Arab Spring”: From Paris to Tirana, Europe’s young are rising, and the governments that praised the Arab revolutions are crushing their own.
What you'll find here
Investigations: reporting built on documents, data and named sources.
Culture: music, film, sport, art and the stories power tells through them.
Watch: Out Loud conversations with people like Gabor Maté, Susan Abulhawa and Tareq Baconi.
Every piece links its sources. When I get something wrong, I correct it at the bottom of the post with the date.
Most of it is free. Readers who pay keep it that way. Paid subscribers get the subscriber-only investigations, the full archive, Season 2 of the podcast with transcripts and bonus conversations, and a direct line to me.
