Hisham Kassem

Hisham Kassem is a residential Senior Fellow with the Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative. A preeminent publisher and one of Egypt’s most notable public analysts, Mr. Kassem is a titan of privately-owned media in the Arab world. He founded the Cairo Times in 1997, an independent English-language weekly news magazine, which was a key source for international outlets, governments, and non-profit organizations. Then, he was appointed as the Vice Chairman and CEO of Al-Masry Al-Youm, the first daily newspaper in Egypt since 1954 neither controlled by the government or a political party. Under his leadership, Al-Masry Al-Youm evolved into an authentic and profitable enterprise with a six-figure circulation rate. In 2010, he established a convergent newsroom media company, AlGomhouria AlGadida, which integrated various media platforms (print, online, broadcast, and social media) into a unified operation. Due to the events of the Arab Spring, the media company was never launched due to funding shortages despite the unprecedented innovation and inspired work of all who sought to establish it. During his tenure in the publishing field, Mr. Kassem drove extensive fiscal and institutional reforms despite myriad complex political challenges, wielding extraordinary leadership, technical competency, and character.

In addition to his senior positions in the media industry, Mr. Kassem was also involved as a member of civil society and political party leadership. Beginning in 2004, he was the Vice President of Foreign Affairs for the Al Ghad Party, a centrist secular party, and held that position until 2009. In the intervening period, he remained politically active, and he was later elected as chairman of the Free Current Movement, a coalition of four liberal political parties in June 2023. He was hosted in the Oval Office by President George Bush upon receiving the 2007 National Endowment for Democracy Award and served on the steering committee of the Washington, D.C.-based World Movement for Democracy (2010 – 2019).

Mr. Kassem has also paid a personal price for his public profile. In June 2023, he launched the “Free Current Movement,” which was a political coalition of four liberal political parties. The Movement intended to participate in the December 2023 presidential election cycle. From August 2023 until February 2024, he was jailed for political commentary on social media. For more on his arrest, please note the Egypt section of the State Department’s 2023 Country Report on Human Rights Practices, whereby he is mentioned by name for the detention and conviction on charges of libel and slander.