Gassan Tueni: Doyen of Lebanese press
In the late 1960s while I was still a young journalist I went to Beirut on the advice of my father, editor and publisher of three newspapers in Aden then a British colony in the southern west corner of the Arabian Peninsula. Aden was a small area, just a few hundred sq. kilometers plus a semi desert hinterland under British control. But it had a vast British military base with all its paraphernalia.
Because of the many British families, schools, clinics, sports activities the colony was one of the last bastions of the British Empire. It was also prosperous.
When I visited Beirut, I was impressed with the beauty of the city and envied its modern newspaper industry and some of its stalwarts. It had a wonderful Arabic press and a very good English daily called Daily Star belonging to the Hayat Group, one of the best newspaper groups in the Middle East. Its main competition in Arabic came from Alnahar newspaper owned and edited by a great journalist called Gassan Tueni, and earlier on by his father Gebran Tueni.
I was excited at going to Lebanon first and then visiting Alnahar group and, most of all, meeting Gassan Tueni who until his death in June this year, at the age of 86, was the dean and doyen of the Lebanese and Arab press. I was delighted and honored at meeting Gassan who was kind enough to welcome me in his office in Alhamra. He was a very good-looking person, with excellent command of Arabic, English and French having gone to the American University there and then to Harvard. He belonged to the Greek Orthodox community.
We discussed among other things our taking of the franchise for the popular magazine Superman. The first consignment was 1,000 copies a week and we agreed to promote it in our three Arabic and English newspapers.
We were also planning to take on the distribution of Alnahar itself but the sudden decision by the British government to pull out of the region put paid to such plans.
Some years later I met him at an American University colloquium in Cairo about freedom of the press in the Arab world. He was one of the main speakers given his experience and knowledge. I sat close to him and took notes, which I reported in this newspaper and our sister Arabic publication Asharq Al-Awsat.
Often referred to as the dean and doyen of the Lebanese press he reminded me of another stalwart, Mustafa Amin of Egypt whose story I published in this paper a couple of weeks ago. Gassan got deeply involved in the political life of his country on behalf of the Christian community although he was never known as sectarian or anti-Muslim. He was Lebanese first and foremost and a fine journalist whose newspaper placed Lebanon above everything else.
He served in different government departments and became house speaker, deputy prime minister and as Lebanon's permanent representative to the United Nations. The assassination of his son also named Gebran could have shattered him like any other father but, instead, he stood for elections in his son's constituency and won. And continued fighting in Lebanon's political jungle where the Syrian armed forces held sway and very few indeed were free to oppose the Syrian presence.
Lebanon is a small but fascinating country that was created by the French colonialists while the British were in charge in Palestine, Jordan and Iraq. The country is a superb tourist attraction with Arabic as the mother tongue while many people also speak good English and French. It has a lot of problems with Israel and with Syria.
Saudi Arabia truly saved it from wholesale devastation through the Taif agreement. Alhamra remains may be the best street reminding me of London's Oxford Street with its shops, restaurants, French style cafes, close to the American University, fine movie houses and excellent roads leading to the mountains. Its climate caters to all tastes because of the mountains and the sea.
- Farouk Luqman is an eminent journalist based in Jeddah
Email: luqman@srpc.com
