Manama: Veteran journalist Ibrahim Al Abed, adviser to the Chairman of the UAE’s National Media Council (NMC), died on Tuesday. He was 78.
He is survived by his wife, three children and grandchildren.
Al Abed was one of the pioneering media figures in the Emirates. He long served as the head of the country's National Media Council, a government regulatory body, until he passed away after five decades of devotion and contribution to the evolution of the country’s media landscape.
He joined the Ministry of Information in 1975 and contributed to establishing the UAE’s official News Agency WAM in 1977.
He also was a de facto government spokesman, with his phone number the first rang by foreign journalists for decades. He held several posts throughout his career, including the director general of NMC and later, the adviser to the Chairman of NMC.
He was renowned for his professionalism and authenticity. Hence he played a major role in molding the media landscape throughout his long tenure with the industry, and close ties with UAE leaders.
“Five decades Ibrahim spent working tirelessly until the last day,” Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum wrote on Twitter.
A Palestinian by birth, al-Abed fled on his father's shoulders during the 1948 war surrounding Israel's establishment, his longtime colleague Peter Hellyer said. Known as the “naqba,” or “catastrophe” in Arabic, the conflict uprooted hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, Associated Press reported.
Before moving to the UAE, Al-Abed studied at the American University of Beirut and served as a Palestinian student leader. He graduated with a political science and public administration major.
At the time of his arrival, he once recounted, there were just two newspapers and a fledgling radio and television scene.
“The very important development for the media in the UAE was the creation of the Dubai media zone. When it started, we were wondering what are we going to have,” al-Abed told the Saudi-owned satellite news channel Al-Arabiya in 2018. “It turned out that we have now over 2,000 organizations, companies, working in Dubai media zone. The UAE has become a hub for the international media,” the channel was quoted as saying by the AP.
Al Abed burned the midnight oil to develop UAE media, especially in the early days of the foundation of the UAE. He remained faithful to journalism and its ethics. He remained abreast with the changing times.
