an-Nahar

It was launched on 4 August 1933 as a four-page, hand-set paper. The paper, whose staff numbered five, including its founder Gebran Tueni, started with a capital of 50 gold pieces raised from friends, and a circulation of a mere 500 copies. Tueni served as the chief editor of the paper until his death in 1949.{{cite news|title=Daily "An Nahar" reeling from publisher's assassination, in-house feuding|url=https://wikileaks.org/cable/2006/02/06BEIRUT305.html|access-date=25 March 2013|work=Wikileaks|date=2 February 2006}} His son, Ghassan Tueni, and grandson, also named Gebran Tueni, were subsequent editors and publishers.{{cite news|title=Veteran Lebanese journalist Ghassan Tueni dies|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18364105|access-date=9 June 2012|work=BBC|date=8 June 2012}}

Ghassan Tueni was publisher and editor-in-chief of the paper from 1948 to 1999 when he retired. On 19 December 1976, Syrian forces occupied the offices of the daily,{{cite web|title=Syrian chronicles 1973-1990 |url=http://www.tayyar.org/NR/rdonlyres/D8726CC4-B415-4DFF-A497-81363ABBC490/0/SyrianChronicles021214_US.htm |work=Tayyar |access-date=11 April 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111219040640/http://www.tayyar.org/NR/rdonlyres/D8726CC4-B415-4DFF-A497-81363ABBC490/0/SyrianChronicles021214_US.htm |archive-date=19 December 2011 }} prompting Ghassan Tueni to suspend the publication for a while and leave Lebanon for Paris.{{cite news|title=An Nahar suspends publication|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=A-8uAAAAIBAJ&sjid=PdsFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2816,6169329|access-date=22 September 2013|newspaper=Beaver County Times|date=30 December 1976|agency=UPI|location=Beirut}} In 1977, several journalists writing for the daily were detained.{{cite web|title=The Syrian occupation of Lebanon |url=http://www.acpr.org.il/publications/books/syria-4-in-1-nisan.pdf |work=ACPR |access-date=24 September 2013 |author=Mordechai Nisan |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130928055700/http://www.acpr.org.il/publications/books/syria-4-in-1-nisan.pdf |archive-date=28 September 2013 |df=dmy }}

Ghassan's son, Gebran Tueni, was the editor-in-chief of the paper from 2003 to 2005. He was elected to parliament for a Beirut constituency in the 2005 elections, but was assassinated on 12 December 2005 in Mkalles near Beirut in a car bomb explosion. A fiery critic of Syria and its hegemony in Lebanese affairs, Gebran had just returned on the eve of his assassination from Paris where he had been living for fear of assassination. After Gebran's assassination on 12 December 2005, his father Ghassan took over the paper again until his death on 8 June 2012.

Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal has a stake in the paper.{{cite web|title=Saudi Arabia's Media Influence|url=https://www.arabmediasociety.com/?article=421|work=Arab Media and Society|access-date=25 September 2013|author=Paul Cochrane}} The 2009 Ipsos Stat survey revealed that the paper is the most popular newspaper in Lebanon and one of the five most popular in the Middle East.

An-Nahar is the first Arab paper which regularly covers news on environmental issues.{{cite web|author=Najib Saab |title=The Environment in Arab Media |url=http://www.afedonline.org/afedreport/english/book14.pdf |work=Arab Forum for Environment and Development |access-date=7 October 2014 |format=Report |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141010170621/http://www.afedonline.org/afedreport/english/book14.pdf |archive-date=10 October 2014 }} Since 1997, the daily contains a daily page for the environment.

An-Nahar provided a platform for various freethinkers to express their views during the years of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. The paper can be best expressed as centre-left, though its writers' views range across the political spectrum.{{cite web|title=Lebanon|url=http://www.publicitas.com/fileadmin/uploads/italy/Files/ME_portfolio_01.pdf|work=Publicitas|access-date=8 June 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121202073858/http://www.publicitas.com/fileadmin/uploads/italy/Files/ME_portfolio_01.pdf|archive-date=2 December 2012}}

Journalist Charles Glass argues that An-Nahar is Lebanon's equivalent of The New York Times.{{cite magazine

|author=Charles Glass|title=The lord of no man's land: A guided tour through Lebanon's ceaseless war|magazine=Harper's Magazine

|url=http://www.charlesglass.net/archives/2007/03/the_lord_of_no.html|access-date=9 April 2013|date=1 March 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130208085020/http://www.charlesglass.net/archives/2007/03/the_lord_of_no.html|archive-date=8 February 2013}} The New York Times and Time have called it "the newspaper of record for the entire Arab world".{{cite news|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/08/06/world/us-and-plo-said-to-be-close-to-accord-on-a-guerrilla-pullout.html|title=U.S. and P.L.O. said to be Close to Accord on a Guerrilla Pullout|date=6 August 1982|access-date=6 May 2022| quote=An Nahar, the newspaper of record for the entire Arab world, which was printed every day during the 1975-76 civil war, ground to a halt Wednesday on its 50th anniversary after an Israeli phosphorous shell sailed into the fourth floor of its building.}}{{cite magazine|magazine=Time|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,950719-3,00.html|author=William Edgett Smith|date=16 August 1982|access-date=6 May 2022|title=Beirut Goes Up in Flames|quote=Countless buildings in the Hamra area were badly damaged, including the Information Ministry and the headquarters of An Nahar, the newspaper of record for the entire Arab world.}}

Now defunct Lebanese daily As-Safir was cited as the rival of An-Nahar.{{cite journal|author=Mohalhel Fakih|title=Pulling at Lebanon's strings|journal=Al Ahram Weekly|date=2–8 September 2004|volume=706|url=http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/706/re4.htm|access-date=19 April 2013|archive-date=21 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921054423/http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/706/re4.htm|url-status=dead}} In the mid-1990s the latter was described as a moderate and right-of-center paper, while the former as a left-of-center paper.{{cite book|title=Mass Media in the Middle East: A Comprehensive Handbook|year=1994|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport, CT|author=Yahya R. Kamalipour|author2=Hamid Mowlana|isbn=978-0313285356}} In the 2000s these papers were again supporters of two opposite poles in Lebanon, in that An-Nahar was a supporter of March 14 alliance, whereas As-Safir supported March 8 alliance.

On 11 October 2018 An-Nahar published eight blank pages to pay attention to the difficulties experienced in Lebanese press.{{cite news

|author=Paul Khalifeh|title=Pressing issue: Lebanon's print media is dying|url=https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/pressing-issue-lebanons-print-media-dying|access-date=29 August 2021|work=Middle East Eye|date=11 November 2018}}

Prominent writers for An-Nahar have included novelist and critic Elias Khoury, who used to edit its weekly cultural supplement Al Mulhaq (which appears on Saturdays) and, until his assassination, historian, journalist and political activist Samir Kassir. Walid Jumblatt worked as a reporter at the daily in the 1980s. Leading caricaturist Pierre Sadek also worked for the daily.{{cite news|title=Pierre Sadek Defended the Right to Criticize Until His Dying Breath|url=http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/04/lebanon-political-cartoonist-dies.html|access-date=22 September 2013|work=Al Monitor|date=26 April 2013|author=Elie Hajj}} Another well-known contributor was Samir Frangieh.{{cite book|title=Who's Who in Lebanon|year=2007

|location=Beirut|publisher=Publitec Publications|edition=19th|url=https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110945904.476

|isbn=978-3-598-07734-0|page=132|doi=10.1515/9783110945904.476

}}

In the mid-1990s, the paper had the highest circulation in Lebanon. However, its circulation in the beginning of the 2000s was 45,000 copies, making it the second after As-Safir.{{cite web|title=Lebanon Press|url=http://www.pressreference.com/Ky-Ma/Lebanon.html|work=Press Reference|access-date=27 September 2013}} In 2012, the Lebanese Ministry of Information stated that An-Nahar has a circulation of 45,000 copies.{{cite web|title=Mapping Digital Media: Lebanon|url=https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/mapping-digital-media-lebanon-20120506.pdf|work=Open Society Foundations|access-date=19 September 2013|date=15 March 2012}}

The paper's online version was the 13th most visited website for 2010 in the MENA region.{{cite news|title=Forbes Releases Top 50 MENA Online Newspapers; Lebanon Fails to Make Top 10|url=http://www.jadaoun.com/2803/forbes-releases-top-50-mena-online-newspapers-lebanon-fails-to-make-top-10/|access-date=11 September 2014|work=Jad Aoun|date=28 October 2010}}

In addition to its native readers in Lebanon, the daily is read by officials, intellectuals and activists outside Lebanon.{{cite journal|last=Ghareeb|first=Edmund|title=New Media and the Information Revolution in the Arab World: An Assessment|journal=The Middle East Journal|date=Summer 2000|volume=54|issue=3|pages=395–418|url=http://www.globalmediapolicy.net/sites/default/files/4329508.pdf|access-date=19 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140309012605/http://www.globalmediapolicy.net/sites/default/files/4329508.pdf|archive-date=9 March 2014|url-status=dead}}

The paper was closed for ten days on 3 May 1961 due to the publication of a cartoon depicting Lebanon as a province of Syria.{{cite book|author=Samir Khalaf|title=Civil and Uncivil Violence in Lebanon: A History of the Internationalization of Communal Conflict|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n5SRcnDW7VYC&pg=PR9|access-date=24 October 2012|year=2002|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-12476-8|page=211}} Syria banned mass circulation of the daily in 2005, while its online edition was not banned.{{cite journal|author=Sami Moubayed|title=Reluctant embrace|journal=Al Ahram Weekly|date=24–30 March 2005|volume=735|url=http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/735/re5.htm|access-date=15 April 2013}} In March 2006, the Damascus correspondent of An-Nahar was charged in Syria with publishing "false information harmful to national security" after writing about the intelligence services of the country.{{cite news|title=Syria: Private media breaks taboos, but restrictions remain|url=http://www.irinnews.org/report/26330/syria-private-media-breaks-taboos-but-restrictions-remain|access-date=16 September 2014|work=Irin News|date=30 April 2006|location=Damascus}}

{{Reflist|33em}}

• {{Official website|https://www.annahar.com/}}

{{Newspapers in Lebanon |state=collapsed}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nahar}}

Category:1933 establishments in Lebanon

Category:Arabic-language newspapers

Category:Liberalism in Lebanon

Category:Newspapers published in Beirut

Category:Newspapers established in 1933

Category:Tueni family

Category:Daily newspapers published in Lebanon