Arab News

Arab News
Type Daily newspaper
Format Broadsheet
Owner(s) Turki bin Salman Al Saud
Founder(s) Saudi Research and Marketing Group (SRMG)
Publisher Saudi Research and Publishing Company
Editor Mohammed Fahad Al Harthi
Founded 20 April 1975
Language English
Headquarters Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Circulation 51,481[1]
Sister newspapers Al Eqtisadiah[2]
Asharq al Awsat[3]
ISSN 0254-833X
OCLC number 4574467
Website Arab News

Arab News is an English-language daily newspaper published in Saudi Arabia. It is published simultaneously from Jeddah, Riyadh, and Dammam.[4] The target audiences of the paper which is published in broadsheet are businessmen, executives and diplomats.[5][6]

History

Arab News was founded in Jeddah on 20 April 1975 by Hisham Hafiz and his brother Mohammad Hafiz.[7][8][9] It was the first English-language daily newspaper published in Saudi Arabia.[10] Arab News is also the first publication of SRPC.[11] The daily was jointly named by Kamal Adham, Hisham Hafiz and Turki bin Faisal.[12]

The paper is one of twenty-nine publications published by Saudi Research and Publishing Company (SRPC), a subsidiary of Saudi Research and Marketing Group (SRMG).[13] The chairman of SRMG and therefore, Arab News is Turki bin Salman Al Saud.[14]

Chief editors and staff

Muhammad Ali Hafiz and Zuhair Al Fakeeh were two early editors of Arab News in 1976. Jihad Khazen is the first editor-in-chief of the paper.[9][12] Muhammad Al Shibani became the editor-in-chief of the paper in 1981. Later, Khaled Almaeena served as editor-in-chief from 1982 to 1993. Then, Farouk Luqman worked as editor-in-chief beginning in 1993 for a short period. In 1994, Abdul Qader Tash became the editor-in-chief and his tenure lasted for four years.[10] Jamal Khashoggi also worked for the daily as an editor.[6]

The editor-in-chief was again Khaled Almaeena from 1998 to October 2011. The next editor-in-chief was Abdul Wahab Al Faiz until January 2013,[15][16] former chief editor of Al Eqtisadiah that is another daily paper published under SMRG and former editor of the internationally distributed weekly magazine Al Majalla, another publication of SMRG.[17] Faiz was replaced by Mohammed Fahad Al Harthi in January 2013 as editor-in-chief of the daily.[16]

Among its staff is Hana Hajjar, the only female political cartoonist in Saudi Arabia.[18]

Political position

Arab News is regarded as one of the Saudi newspapers dominated by late Nayef bin Abdulaziz and his brother Salman bin Abdulaziz.[19] In fact, since the publisher of Arab News, SPRC, is a subsidiary of SRMG, Prince Salman's son Turki bin Salman Al Saud is owner of the paper.[14]

Content

The front page of the first issue of Arab News (20 April 1975)

Arab News offers a variety of news ranging from politics and finance to sports and social events.[5] One of the good examples of the transparency in media was a commentary written on the first anniversary of the September 11 attacks by Rasheed Abu Alsamh published in Arab News:[20]

First, we must stop denying that any of the hijackers were Saudis or even Arab. We must also stop saying that the September 11 attacks were a CIA-Zionist plot to make the Arabs and Islam look bad. That is utter nonsense. We must be mature and responsible enough to admit that these sick minds that hatched and perpetrated these dastardly attacks, were, sadly, a product of a twisted viewpoint of our society and our religion...We must stop the hatred being taught to our children in schools.

On 8 May 2011, Hassan bin Youssef Yassin, a longtime aide to Foreign Minister Saud bin Faisal, wrote in Arab News that the Arab countries had all failed miserably to offer either democracy or economic well-being.[21]

Controversy

Although the paper is owned by SMRG that is close to the Saudi government, there are some incidents in which journalists of the paper are dismissed by the government. In March 1992, the editor-in-chief of the Arab News, Khalid Almeena was briefly dismissed for reprinting an interview with the Egyptian Muslim leader Sheikh Omar 'Abdal-Rahman which had been published in a US daily.[22]

The other controversial incident occurred in April 2007 when journalist Fawaz Turki was dismissed for publishing a column on the atrocities of Indonesia during its 1975–99 occupation of East Timor.[23] It was also reported that Turki had previously been warned by related Saudi authorities to stop his criticisms about former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.[24]

Distribution

In addition to its domestic distribution in Saudi Arabia, Arab News has a wide range of international distribution, including United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Near East, North Africa, Europe and the USA.[4][5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Saudi Arabia". Press References. Retrieved 16 May 2012.
  2. ↑ "Al Fayez Appointed Al Eqtisadiah Editor". Arab News. 19 July 2003. Retrieved 10 May 2012.
  3. ↑ "The Saudi Press: Profiles of Individual Papers". Wikileaks. Retrieved 8 April 2012.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Arab Media Review: Anti-semitism and other trends". Anti-Defamation League (ADL). July–December 2010. Retrieved 16 May 2012. (Archive)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Publications of SPPC". Saudi Research and Marketing Group. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Khashoggi, Jamal". Biographical Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa. 1 January 2008. Retrieved 15 October 2013. – via Questia (subscription required)
  7. ↑ "Biography". Hisham Ali Hafiz. Retrieved 22 May 2012.
  8. ↑ "Arab News Website". Numu Multimedia. Retrieved 5 June 2012.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Alterman, Jon B. (1998). "New Media New Politics?". The Washington Institute 48. Retrieved 7 April 2013. (Archive)
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Ramnarayan, L. (22 April 2005). "Phases, faces and paces". Arab News. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
  11. ↑ "Publications". Saudi Research and Publishing Company. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Al Faisal, Turki (20 April 2010). "‘Arab News: Mother of all SRMG publications'". Arab News. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
  13. ↑ Rajasingham, K.T. (10 October 2011). "Khaled A. Almaeena – The bastion of modern Saudi Arabia". Asian Tribune. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 "Saudi Research and Marketing Group appoints new chairman". Al Arabiya. 10 February 2013. Retrieved 12 February 2013.
  15. ↑ "Al-Faiz new editor in chief of Arab News". SRPC. Retrieved 30 April 2012.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 "Jobs Shuffle at Saudi Research & Media Group". Crossroads Arabia. 5 January 2013. Retrieved 9 February 2013.
  17. ↑ "Ideological and Ownership Trends in the Saudi Media". Cablegate. 11 May 2009. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
  18. ↑ Sterns, Olivia.Female cartoonist's provocative work challenges Saudi society. CNN. 27 October 2009. Retrieved 29 October 2009.
  19. ↑ Mouline, Nabil (April–June 2010). "Power and generational transition in Saudi Arabia". Critique Internationale 46. Retrieved 26 April 2012. (Archive)
  20. ↑ Kapiszewski, Andrzej (2006). "Saudi Arabia: Steps toward Democratization or Reconfiguration of Authoritarianism?". Journal of Asian and African Studies 41 (5–6): 459–482. doi:10.1177/0021909606067407. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
  21. ↑ Ottoway, David B. (2011). "Saudi Arabia in the Shadow of the Arab Revolt". Middle East Program. Occasional Papers Series: 1–20. Retrieved 23 April 2012. (Archive)
  22. ↑ Affendi, Abdelwahab (Summer 1993). "Eclipse of Reason: The Media in the Muslim World". Journal of International Affairs 47 (1). Retrieved 29 September 2013. – via Questia (subscription required)
  23. ↑ Karin Deutsch Karlekar; Eleanor Marchant (2008). Freedom of the Press 2007: A Global Survey of Media Independence. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 263. ISBN 978-0-7425-5582-2. Retrieved 26 January 2014.
  24. ↑ "2007 Annual Report. Middle East and North Africa". Reporters without borders. 2007. Retrieved 19 May 2012.

External links