Tomorrow Starts Today: Al Mayadeen marks 10 years with a new identity

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On its 10th anniversary, Al Mayadeen Media Network unveils a new visual identity that expresses its new slogan: "Tomorrow Starts Today".

On this special occasion, Al Mayadeen Media Network CEO, Ghassan Ben Jeddou, gave an opening speech as Al Mayadeen embarks on its second decade. In his speech, Ben Jeddou elaborates on Al Mayadeen editorial policy, goals, and future plans. 

Herein Ben Jeddou's letter on Al Mayadeen day:

The year is 2022. It is ten in the morning, on the tenth day, of the tenth month, on the tenth anniversary of Al Mayadeen Media Network launching. Welcome dear viewers to Al Mayadeen, the ever-renewing channel that is advanced based on fixed principles and developed based on Reality As It Is. Al Mayadeen that shall thrive with a journalistic vision that has the future in sight. 

A new visual identity lights up our path toward a new decade with a faster pace and a stronger will... It shall stand as our fundamental philosophy that is so clear to the eye, as it lights up our path with the rays of sun outlining our way.

We are content with our limited capabilities, which makes us more determined to invest the very little that we have in the course of more creativity and innovations… We are satisfied with the status Al Mayadeen has attained and the credibility it has imposed. We are more committed to the culture of humility in media self-presentation. We promise to pursue wider coverage, via intellect and modernization despite all the constraints. We grow more attached to our editorial policies and worldwide horizons. We vow to pursue advancing to the utmost level of empowerment of a media outlet capable of shattering monopoly and unilateralism. In our future tomorrow, we will be more engaged in fields and aspects that the alliance of the tycoons of money, intelligence, politics and the media want to close with the aim of elimination, containment, and domestication.

Dear followers and beloved friends of Al Mayadeen, wherever you may be…

Al Mayadeen is a universal Arab Media Satellite Network with global outreach. It provides a myriad of news, based on its belief in meaningful, honest, effective, and influential media. We started with the slogan “Reality As It Is” journalistically and professionally, followed by “With man everywhere” on cultural and civilizational levels, and we will take our first step into our second decade with the slogan “Tomorrow starts Today”; a clear roadmap and strategic vision.

Whoever sees Al Mayadeen merely as a media outlet is just mistaken. Indeed, it is a media outlet, when it comes to work on the ground and practice, but at the same time, it is a lot more than that… Al Mayadeen is a media project that carves its own path and makes empowered choices in a global frame of humanitarian, cultural and strategic values. It consolidates noble principles and builds a strong sense of belonging at the workplace within its media family.

Al Mayadeen deals with Arab public as an integral entity, upholding diversity and respect regardless of people’s differences or convictions, with the aim of achieving cohesion and unity. Al Mayadeen strives to be an influential power, spreading awareness and involving trust, credibility, and objectivity, away from any arrogance and superiority.

Al Mayadeen considers itself an integral part of a free and liberating Arab and universal media. It aspires to become an alternative global media platform and is keen to contribute to the establishment of Arab and global cooperation and coordination frameworks founded on media, humanistic, and strategic bases and not on doctrinal ones.

Al Mayadeen looks at the Palestinian cause from the perspective of a human theme of national and human liberation. Palestine lies in the core of the Channel. Al Mayadeen deals with the Palestinian people as one in both the occupied territories and the diaspora. The Palestinians of ‘48 occupied territories constitute the cornerstone of the Palestinian people. In addition, the issue of Palestinian detainees inside Israeli prisons and detention centers has always been the core of news Al Mayadeen is concerned with. It always has, it always will.

Al Mayadeen rejects any foreign hegemony. It regards the choice of "global resistance" as a full right of peoples for the liberations of their land from occupation, at the forefront of which is the Israeli occupation of Palestine and any Arab land. Al Mayadeen stands strong against any form of normalization or dependence and does not accept any pretext that the occupation could use to justify infiltrating into our societies, as much as it rejects any form of disguised guardianship against peoples’ will.

Al Mayadeen advocates transparency toward the public opinion via an identity with crystal clear methodology and policies based on authentic and unshakable principles. Al Mayadeen is characterized by its flexible performance on the ground and deals with reality as it is in political issues. Starting from the principle of respect for others, it shows positivism toward parties that do not converge with its convictions. Al Mayadeen aspires to be a platform for dialogue and interaction, since it is aware of the particularity of identities: their diversities and the status of sacred affiliations.

Al Mayadeen deals with the issues of the nation and the world by adopting a global vision. It upholds unity of the Arab Nation and advocates positive interaction in its civilizational, strategic, and regional space. Al Mayadeen is keen to safeguard the solidarity of the Arab world and maintain communication links between the free people across the world. Based on its principle of belonging, Al Mayadeen is part of the Global South; it sees itself renewed with the renewal of the East which goes upstream in its choices advocating liberation, independence, and comprehensive development. Al Mayadeen stands in the face of savage globalization and the imposition of a stereotypical lifestyle and culture.

We say it out loud… Al Mayadeen despairs how the Arab revolutions had deviated, only to be manipulated by opportunists who murdered people’s aspirations. These countries have suffered the exploitation led by international organizations that have created “counter-revolutions” rife with disinformation campaigns. These countries have suffered the most unfortunate consequences; their unity was shattered and their national sovereignty was violated. The so-called “Arab Spring” was an evil tool that gave birth to a decade of darkness marked by bloodshed and destruction. Al Mayadeen has courageously approached all changes on the political scene. It declared clearly its own stances contrary to provocative popular discourses. Al Mayadeen was aware of all that from the beginning and asserted it with courage and boldness. As we step into a new decade of achievements, Al Mayadeen, with its clear and deeply-rooted media identity, will continue to lay the foundations of internal social peace and patch any fissure, be it social or psychological, in order to establish stability, unity, and progress.

Al Mayadeen was and will always be concerned with issues of freedom, reform, social equity. It defends the right of people to freedom of expression and to their free choices of patriotic decision-making. Al Mayadeen touches on their daily sufferings, understands youth aspirations, and emphasizes the role of women. It focuses on the state of poor populations, hard workers and oppressed people wherever they may be, while attributing special importance to human development.

In our upcoming decade, just like the outgoing one, Al Mayadeen will continue to advocate the culture of tolerance and oppose extremism and terrorism. Its mission targets the fixed principle of diversity of the Arab Muslim and Christian society, including the variety of sects, confessions, and nationalist components. Al Mayadeen does not tolerate any racial and ethnic discrimination, or any form of religious dissidence, or any discord of religious and sectarian nature, because it endorses intellectual differences and encourages interaction of cultures and civilizations. Al Mayadeen is a platform for positive dialogue, in particular to find common ground for productive dialogue with the West.

To my fellow sisters and brothers… to all my colleagues in Al Mayadeen…

I am sure you know all of the above even if it is not said out loud, simply because you experienced it, practiced it, and applied it in real life…These are our media options and our editorial policies ... We are not a political party or an ideological system... We are journalists with a message... We said it since day one, ten years ago... Many were those who believed us and trusted us at the time, and you have not let them down… Today, with your efforts, Al Mayadeen has become a vital player in the Arab media arena... To all those who believed in us, we say, ‘trust that we will not let you down, professionally, morally, and strategically. We shall continue with full honesty and conviction…'

Dear brothers and sisters of Al Mayadeen... you paid no heed to those who insisted on distortion, defamation, and slander, which only resemble them.

Pay no attention to the arrogant and intransigent… as you anticipate the launch of our new decade, God willing, in deed, not with words, but with deeds.

As we start our new decade with a new slogan “Tomorrow Starts Today,” let us announce together today a new title that stands for how we understand media and how we will work to consolidate it.

Media… a culture of hard work and a message of life…

Media… a culture of hard work and a message of life…

Media… a culture of hard work and a message of life…

Together, we will move forward toward our second decade, with more ambition, determination, planning, and thinking… with creativity, innovation, modernity, openness, and modernization, with whatever capabilities we have... As we move forward, we cannot but be accompanied at all times with a lot of humility and realism, with a lot of hard work and patience, and with a lot of contentment and satisfaction, as much as we should be dedicated to serving people, and not exploiting them.

We do not claim that Al Mayadeen has become a school for teaching media on its own… But we confidently say that Al Mayadeen has its own special media identity… Al Mayadeen is the voice of the national community, with all its intellectual, political, and cultural streaks… the voice of the global progressive community, in the East, the West, and the Global South.

Our pan-Arab media approach is patriotic and all-inclusive… Our approach says there is no difference between an Arab and a non-Arab, but in what their stance from Al-Quds is.

Behind me stands an olive tree with 2 branches in what seems like a victory sign… It’s a blessed tree. Allah did not mention it for no reason in His Holy Quran. For us, it resembles knowledge and light, and Palestine and Al-Quds. From this belief, we launch our new humble studio that goes by the name Al-Zaitouna (The Olive).

Let’s keep moving forward, my loved ones, with confidence, hope, and full trust in God. We launched the Network with a word that has accompanied us all the time, and it shall remain, as it is our unifying word as we beseech God, saying, “O Allah”.