An-Nahar

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An-Nahar (Arabic: النهار) The Day, is a leading Arabic-language daily newspaper in Lebanon. It was first published on August 4, 1933 as a four-page, hand-set paper.

The paper, whose staff numbered five, including its founder Gebran Tueni, was started with a capital of 50 gold pieces raised from friends, and a circulation of a mere 500 copies. Gebran's son, Ghassan Tueni, and grandson, also named Gebran Tueni, were subsequent editors and publishers.

An-Nahar is now seen as one of Lebanon's newspapers of record, with a right-wing, liberal political line and a strong stance against the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. It is banned in Syria, where the other principal Lebanese newspapers are freely available.

Gebran, Ghassan's son, editor of An-Nahar, who was elected to parliament for a Beirut constituency in the 2005 elections, was assassinated on the 12th of December 2005 in Mkalles near Beirut in a car-bomb explosion. Gebran, a fiery critic of Syria and its hegemony in Lebanese affairs, had just returned from Paris, where he had been living for fear of assassination.

Prominent writers for An-Nahar have included novelist and critic Elias Khoury, who edits its weekly cultural supplement Al-Mulhaq (which appears on Thursdays) and, until his assassination, historian, journalist and political activist Samir Qassir.