Islam Rayyes, the editor-in-chief of Vice Arabia, is sitting quietly in the publisher’s temporary offices in Dubai Studio City. He looks relaxed, which is some feat considering the pressure he and his team have been under. Launching an internationally-recognized brand renowned for its hard-hitting reportage has been a challenge, but one Rayyes has cherished.

“I’m relaxed but stressed at the same time,” he said with a smile. “Actually, it’s not stress. It’s just wanting to be ahead of the game all the time. You want to really focus on what you’re doing. You don’t want to miss anything. And at the same time you don’t want to disappoint people.”

Launched as a partnership between Vice Media and the Dubai-headquartered Moby Group in November last year, Vice Arabia has promised to shine an honest and unflinching light on the lives of young Arabs. The centerpiece of that launch was ‘Bil Arabi,’ an hour-long documentary that featured youth from all over the Arab world discussing religion, politics, drugs, love and money. It was the first piece of content to be published by the platform.

“I knew there were a lot of things we had to do,” he said. “A whole platform had to be flipped into Arabic, we had to recruit a team of contributors and a team of writers who could write something different than what’s already out there in the current media scene.

“We were constantly in the office until midnight in the run-up to launch and everyone has been working hard. They’ve been trying to achieve something. They’re trying to rewrite history when it comes to Arabic content.”

No one can criticize Rayyes for lacking ambition. His vision for Vice is an intriguing one: To tell the region’s untold stories; to connect the Arab world’s disparate youth; and to focus attention on the struggles and achievements of women. Whether he can achieve this without falling foul of the censors remains to be seen.

Politics, however, will not be a priority (“enough publishers are doing this already”), nor will the endless and banal mockery of individuals. What will be a priority is Saudi Arabia and the changes it is going through.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to tell something different from what’s being told in Western media,” said Rayyes. “It’s like, ‘hey guys, we have a life over here, it’s not just what you see on TV.’ It’s exciting. I’m proud, for example, of what’s happening in the UAE in terms of its cosmopolitan culture, the smart government thing, the security we have in this country, the way they treat everyone. Being an Arab country, this is something exciting and I think we should tell stories like that. We should tell stories about what’s happening in Jordan and the changes in Saudi Arabia.

“Those changes are affecting young people’s lives more than anything else. That’s why we’re trying to focus on untold stories when it comes to Saudi Arabia. The life of young people over there, their achievements, the new events taking place, the culture itself.”

In many ways it’s easy to see why Rayyes landed the platform’s top editorial job. He has extensive digital experience thanks to the likes of Abu Dhabi Media and Sport360, has worked for pan-Arab broadcasters such as Al Arabiya, and as a Palestinian who grew up in Dubai understands the culture of both the Levant and the Gulf. Bringing those cultures together is one of the challenges he faces.

“Yes there are 22 Arab countries, we all speak Arabic, the majority are Arabs and Muslims, but I feel they’re not really connected,” he said. “We don’t know what’s going on with the young people in Tunisia for example, or Morocco or Syria or Iraq.

“That’s why we started with ‘Bil Arabi.’ We tried to shoot in every single Arab country but because of the difficulties, the permissions, the time frame we had, we couldn’t do that. But we promised that the second census will cover the other countries as well. Because the message we’re trying to say or send to the Arab audience is that it’s not only about telling stories. It’s about connecting young Arab people.”

Working alongside him is a team of writers, editors, directors and producers from Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Palestine and the UAE. Heading up the Vice MENA operation as managing director is Jason Leavy, with the UAE-based operation also housing a hub for its creative agency Virtue Worldwide, which will work with regional brands to create sponsored content.

“What grabbed my attention about Vice was that it never had an agenda,” said Rayyes. “We’re missing this in Arabia. We don’t have something that can talk to young people in the region. Be honest with them.”
But how open and honest can Vice Arabia be compared with its international siblings, which have frequently tackled thorny and controversial issues? And how much editorial freedom will Rayyes actually have?

“Honestly speaking, I’m focusing on the positive things,” he replies. “Arabia and the young Arabs, they need positive vibes. Enough of the negatives. Go to social media, there is more than enough.

“It’s not about freedom of speech or the freedom to be a journalist, it’s about respecting people’s privacy, it’s about respecting our readers’ minds, and producing added-value content. That’s how I see it.”

SEX SCANDAL EXPOSES SITE’S OWN VICES

Founded in 1994 as a youth-orientated magazine covering arts, culture and news, Vice is famed for its gonzo-style journalism and don’t-give-a-damn attitude.

Its reports have included investigations into bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan, the embedding of a reporter with Daesh, and a journey into the inhabited sewers of Bogota.

Co-founder Shane Smith, the company’s most recognizable face, starred in the Vice Guide to North Korea, reported from war-torn Liberia, and even traveled to Siberia to investigate a chain of North Korean labor camps.

Over the years, however, the platform has morphed into Vice Media, a digital and broadcast behemoth headquartered in New York. Its investors include advertising giant WPP and the Walt Disney Company. Just last June it landed a $450 million investment from private equity firm TPG, which it will use to develop scripted programming and streaming video. The deal boosted Vice’s valuation to $5.7 billion.

Smith has made no secret of his ambition to make Vice a global giant, with its video content slated to reach 80 territories by the beginning of this year. It recently increased its presence to countries such as India, Brazil and South Africa.

However, not all is rosy, with its reputation damaged by a recent New York Times investigation into allegations of sexual harassment and sexual impropriety at the company.

Earlier this year, the president of Vice Media and the company’s chief digital officer were both placed on leave after sexual harassment allegations were leveled against them by the New York Times investigation. Andrew Creighton and chief digital officer Mike Germano will remain on leave until enquiries into the accusations against them have been carried out.

The New York Times report had found four settlements involving allegations of sexual harassment or defamation against Vice employees. More than two dozen other women have also said they experienced or witnessed sexual misconduct at the company. Creighton and Germano are the only two employees accused in the New York Times article still working at Vice.

Sarah Broderick, Vice’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer, said in a memo to the company’s employees that a special committee of the company’s board was “reviewing the facts” related to a $135,000 settlement Creighton had reached with a former employee in 2016. The employee claimed she was fired after rejecting an intimate relationship with him.

Broderick added that “changing an organization takes time and doesn’t happen over night,” with Vice rolling out a series of initiatives designed to “ensure all our employees feel respected and supported.” Those initiatives have included the hiring of Susan Tohyama as chief human resources officer.

Since her appointment in November, Tohyama has fired three employees for behavior ranging from “verbal and sexual harassment to other behavior that is inconsistent with our policies, our values, and the way in which we believe colleagues should work together.”