The Saudi government now has a media relay in French. On the occasion of the July 14 holiday, Riyadh launched an information website in the language of Molière, Arab News in French. This new medium is the digital and French version of English daily life Arab news, property of the royal family and showcase of the new Arabia wanted by the crown prince, the bubbling Mohammed Ben Salman, known as MBS, strong man of the Saudi crown.
Coronavirus forces, the launching ceremony took place in the form of a webinar. President of Djibouti, Ismaïl Omar Guelleh, Acting Saudi Minister of Information, Majid Al-Qasabi, Director of Arab News Group, Faisal Abbas, and French Ambassador to Riyadh, François Gouyette, participated in the event. Placed under the sign of the rapprochement of cultures, this ended with the interpretation of Life in pink, the anthem of Edith Piaf, by a Saudi opera singer.
A team of 40 people
The site, which Faisal Abbas defines as “A pan-Arab news outlet in French”, relies on a team of 40 people, mixing journalists, editors and translators. The leading figure of the editorial team is the Lebanese Randa Takieddine, a veteran of the Arab press, a fine connoisseur of French diplomacy, whom she has long covered for the daily newspaper with Saudi capital. Al-hayat, which ceased to appear in 2018.
Arab News in French intends to publish both original content and translations of articles initially published in the daily newspaper in English and press agency dispatches. Its network of correspondents in French-speaking countries, such as Morocco, Tunisia and Lebanon, but also Belgium and Canada, should enable it to attract readers beyond the borders of France.
Among the articles put online Tuesday evening include a long story of the space odyssey of Prince Sultan Ben Salman Ben Abdelaziz, who was in 1985, as passenger of the American shuttle Discovery, the first Arab to tear himself away from Earth’s gravity; a richly illustrated history of the ancient site of Al-Ula, a verdant oasis, dotted with rock tombs, which has become the flagship product of the tourist industry, in germ in Saudi Arabia; and then a return to Ramadan’s flagship soap opera Um Haroun, broadcast during the Saudi channel MBC, which treated with nostalgia the Judeo-Muslim coexistence in the Gulf in the 1940s.
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