In the Arab media, it has been claimed that independent news channels put more pressure on officials and public figures, compared with the state-owned news channels. This article aims to compare empirically the strategies that Arab interviewers use to restrict or broaden the answers expected from interviewees in two different channels. Adopting contrastive methods, the findings show that the percentage of equivocations is remarkably low in the government-controlled channel.

Arab journalists and interviewers are often accused of taking a soft approach with officials and public figures on the government-controlled channels, addressing questions to them in an overly polite and cautious way.