Al-Hayat is celebrating these days the 25th anniversary of its return to publication. I hope we will see it one day celebrating its 50th anniversary, and that people after us would go on to celebrate its centenary. Al-Hayat – or The Life in Arabic – deserves to live in the era of the technological onslaught. To be sure, it has proven throughout its long history that it is true to itself and to its readers. In 1966, its founder and first ever editor Kamel Mrowa paid his life as the price for defending the nation's causes, and some colleagues there and I had seen him lying on the floor in his office that day with blood pouring out from a wound in his heart. After 12 years of forced absence from its readers because of the Lebanese civil war, Al-Hayat returned to publication from London, and then from the whole world. The publisher now is Prince Khalid bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz, who does not need any introduction on my part to the readers, as his patriotic track record is well known. Prince Khalid has given his full confidence to the editorial team, and has protected the freedom of responsible expression in the newspaper's work. We thus won the trust of the reader, as we practiced the newspaper's slogan of "Life is Creed and Hard Work." Credibility, like a matchstick, once burnt cannot be restored. But I note today, with Al-Hayat celebrating 25 years of its return to publication, that Prince Khalid is the one behind this high credibility. It was he who launched and protected it, and we paid the price time after time by being banned in this country or that, without the publisher and the colleagues ever backing down, appeasing, or caving in. I have known the publisher over decades of friendship that goes beyond journalistic work. I write every day, but I have never complimented him, and he does not like or ask for it. If I note his accomplishments today on the anniversary of Al-Hayat's return, then this is because it is based on my extensive knowledge of Al-Hayat's achievements both in its first and second versions, as a contemporary of them both. No one is infallible, and he who works is doomed to make mistakes sometimes. But I say that it never happened that any party in the whole world, forced Al-Hayat to publish a story or stop it from publishing a story. I was the editor of Al-Hayat for ten years, and I was succeeded by colleague George Semaan and now Ghassan Charbel. I throw down the gauntlet and challenge anyone to say that he ever interfered in the editorial work of the newspaper. I am fully confident that the publisher would close down the newspaper if its credibility ever comes under pressure. Success is made by successful professionals, and I dare say we are a successful team in every country, or stars of journalism from London, Beirut, Riyadh, and Cairo, to Paris, New York, Washington, and elsewhere. We are journalists, and not employees, and most of us work seven days a week without being asked to do so. I wish I could mention names, but I don't want to mention some and neglect others, because the editorial team has unknown soldiers who risk their lives every day in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Palestine, and elsewhere, to bring the readers highly professional and credible news stories. Al-Hayat paved the way for electronic printing for the Arab press, and the newspapers that followed in our footsteps used Al-Hayat's typeface before others were developed. If there were another professional role that we all boast of, it would be our support for Kuwait in its ordeal under occupation. Prince Khalid bin Sultan, before he became Commander of the Joint Forces ad Theater of Operations, and before an international alliance was established to liberate Kuwait, told me on the morning of August 2, 1990, "Do everything you can to support Kuwait and its people." We published a special edition on the occupation, the only one of its kind in the whole world, and distributed it in Europe on the noon of that historic day, along with the issue of August 3 for free, and we stayed on Kuwait's side and its people's until liberation. Al-Hayat is creed and hard work, and all I say is, congratulations to the publisher and the colleagues on Al-Hayat's anniversary. [email protected]
