In the summer of 1988, Jamil Mrowa, the son of Al-Hayat founder Kamel Mrowa, came to tell me that he was re-launching Al-Hayat. Jamil is a colleague and an old family friend. We were at the French School together in Beirut with his big sister Hayat when the news came that his father had been assassinated, on 16 May 1966 in his office on Maarad Street, gunned down by a man with a silencer-equipped pistol. Al-Hayat, which was founded in 1946 in Lebanon, stopped publishing during the civil war, which broke out in 1975. Jamil, who took on the editor-in-chief job, told me that Jihad el-Khazen would be the head of the paper's management and George Semaan would be the editorial chief. We knew Jihad well ever since he was the editor of the English-language Daily Star, which Kamel Mrowa also founded. However, Jamil declined to reveal the identity of the main backer of the re-launch of Al-Hayat, whose publisher today is Prince Khaled bin Sultan. We are now celebrating, with Prince Khaled and his son Fahd, the passing of 25 years since one of the most important Arabic-language newspaper was re-launched. In October 1988, Jamil offered me the job of running Al-Hayat's Paris office and continuing to cover oil-related affairs. I asked our mentor, the late Ghassan Tueni, the publisher of An-Nahar, to be partners in the Paris office, to take advantage of his wide professional experience and let Al-Hayat share the exorbitant costs of the office. The Paris office of Al-Hayat was launched in October 1988, in partnership with the experienced journalists Ghassan Tueni and his son Gebran, who had a special bond of friendship with Kamel Mrowa. Later, when Ghassan Tueni sent a letter to Prince Khaled, asking that Al-Hayat in Paris also house An-Nahar's coverage of French issues, the prince did not hesitate to say yes, based on his appreciation of Ghassan Tueni and also because he always wanted Al-Hayat to help in improving Arab media, with no regard for the aspect of competition. The re-launch of Al-Hayat in London was a pioneering event for Arab media, as well as a pioneering event internationally. It was the world's first newspaper to enter the field of electronic publishing. Karim Mrowa, Kamil's son, remembers that he visited American newspapers during this period in Washington and they had yet to enter this field. Prince Khaled bin Sultan always wanted an objective newspaper with journalists of high professional standards, and always wanted Al-Hayat to help in developing Arab journalism. Al-Hayat was re-launched with a language of freedom and modernity and from the beginning, had innovative reporters in all parts of the world, from east to west. The paper paid attention to covering Russian news, with its Moscow correspondents Cameron Karadaghi and then Jalal Masheta. It had writers in every part of the globe. Al-Hayat was a pioneer in many fields, before the rise of Arab satellites and social networks on the internet. Since the re-launch of Al-Hayat, Prince Khaled has offered all possible support and trust to journalists and the newspaper remained a model of independent and varied opinion. It was a pioneer compared to Gulf newspapers in relaying news in a more open and modern fashion. Al-Hayat certainly introduced a new model of Arab journalism, especially in the Gulf, where the sector made huge strides after the re-launch of Al-Hayat. The publisher, Prince Khaled, played a large role in this because he always encouraged freedom of opinion and never once intervened in what was being written, or with any journalist, in any country, despite all of the calls he received from this or that official to prevent a journalist from expressing his or her opinion. This week, Al-Hayat and all journalists working with the paper in London are celebrating the anniversary along with the publisher, Prince Khaled, and his son Fahd. Prince Khaled has begun to turn over responsibility for following-up what is desired for the newspaper. Prince Khaled is aware that his son is concerned with journalism, and thus tasked him with this mission. Journalists and staff at Al-Hayat hope that our newspaper will remain a pioneer and a trend-setter in relaying the news.
