Syed Athar Ali Shah recalls the early days of the newspaper, including his part in shaping its identity.
When I met Shah on the terrace of the historic Karachi Press Club, I did not realize that one of the two designers of the Arab News logo, which was created in the mid-1970s, was standing before me.
We had talked on the phone a few days before about those early days and I was expecting a quite elderly man. In person, a youthful 70-year-old greeted me. “Eating healthy food, having great publishers and the excellent, pleasant and enabling environment at the newsroom of Arab News, where I spent nearly four decades and a happy life in Jeddah, is the secret,” Shah told me.
I had planned to meet him at his residence in Gulshan-e-Maymar, a posh neighborhood on Karachi’s outskirts, but Shah said that he would meet me at the press club before going to the nearby Arts Council where one of his friends from Jeddah was scheduled to speak.
Shah is one of the two creators of the Arab News logo. “My colleague, Nazar, and I jointly created three different logos and the late Syed Mohammed Ali chose one, which we have seen on the newspaper front for decades now,” he said.
“I went to Jeddah on March 11, 1975 after I worked for nearly a decade in a Karachi-based advertising agency as a commercial artist. I, along with Nazar, was ... as a designer for Arab News and was with the paper from its first day,” Shah recalls. “I used to make a page of cartoons daily for the tabloid, which subsequently became a broadsheet,” he said.
Shah is philosophical about this year’s changes to the original logo that he helped to design.
A logo was an enduring part of the identity of a paper and lasted for years, decades and centuries, he said. “It remains the same. It’s not just a logo but several memories are attached to this symbol.”
“But, yes, we can modernize it. With newspapers entering the digital age, the logo should be modernized,” he said. For years, many believed that the logo had been created by the late cartoonist Mahmoud Kahil, Shah said. “It was not created by me (alone); it was created by both of us, Nazar and me. Our first priority was uniqueness, so instead of using the contemporary fonts we decided to create our own.”
“My most pleasant and great professional journey with Arab News ended in 2009, after which I started working with another newspaper for two years but came back to Pakistan last year. “It is now more than four months since I began living in Karachi but my heart still roams over there in Jeddah.”
Meet the co-creator of the original Arab News logo
Meet the co-creator of the original Arab News logo
- Syed Athar Ali Shah arrived in Jeddah on March 11, 1975
- It’s not just a logo but several memories are attached to this symbol: Shah
India probing Netflix for visa violations and racial discrimination, email shows
- The email was written by home ministry official to Netflix’s ex-director of business and legal affairs
- A Netflix spokesperson said the company was ‘unaware of an investigation by the Indian government’
NEW DELHI: India is investigating the business practices of US streaming giant Netflix’s local operations, including allegations of visa violations and racial discrimination, according to a government email sent to a former executive.
The details of India’s investigation were included in a July 20 email, reviewed by Reuters, which was written by a home ministry official to Netflix’s former director of business and legal affairs for India, Nandini Mehta, who left the company in 2020.
“This is regarding visa and tax violations concerns regarding the business practices of Netflix in India,” wrote Indian official Deepak Yadav from the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) of the home ministry in New Delhi.
“We have received certain details in this regard w.r.t (with respect to) the stated company’s conduct, visa violation, illegal structures, tax evasion and other malpractices including incidents of racial discrimination that company has been engaged in while conducting its business in India,” he added.
In an emailed statement, Mehta said she is pursuing a lawsuit in US against Netflix for alleged wrongful termination as well as racial and gender discrimination — charges the company denies.
Mehta said she welcomed the Indian investigation and hopes the authorities make their findings public, but did not elaborate on the allegations made by the government.
Yadav declined to comment, saying he was not authorized to speak to media. The FRRO and India’s home ministry did not respond to Reuters queries.
A Netflix spokesperson said the company was “unaware of an investigation by the Indian government.”
The Indian official’s email shows growing scrutiny of Netflix in India, where it has roughly 10 million users and which it considers a growth market where companies target affluent people in the nation of 1.4 billion people.
Over the years, the US streaming giant has developed more local content featuring Bollywood actors.
It has also often faced heat in India over its content deemed insensitive by some users. This month, it was forced to add new disclaimers to an Indian series about a plane hijack after social media outrage and government anger over what they said was Muslim hijackers being shown as Hindus.
SEEKING DOCUMENTS, US LAWSUIT
While it is known that Netflix has since 2023 faced an Indian tax demand — which it is challenging — the existence of a broader investigation into allegations including visa compliance and racial discrimination has not been previously reported.
The Indian government’s email did not elaborate which agencies are looking at issues concerning Netflix. The FRRO works closely with home ministry’s Intelligence Bureau, the domestic intelligence agency, and is the main agency looking into foreigners’ visa compliance and permissions to visit so-called “sensitive” regions.
Last year, India accused Chinese smartphone player Vivo and its Indian affiliates for breaching visa rules by visiting certain “sensitive” regions without permission. India classifies parts of certain states such as Jammu & Kashmir in north and Sikkim in east as restricted areas.
The FRRO also acts as a liaison in matters related to foreigners with other government offices.
Mehta worked at the company’s Los Angeles and Mumbai offices from April 2018 to April 2020, her LinkedIn profile shows.
The Indian government email asked her to provide “details/documents” as she was a former legal executive of the company.
In 2021, Mehta sued Netflix in Los Angeles County Superior Court in California for alleged wrongful termination and racial and gender discrimination, among other things, US court filings show.
Netflix has in US court denied “each and every allegation” and said in its statement that Mehta was fired for repeatedly using her corporate credit card for tens of thousands of dollars in personal expenses.
Mehta said she will “continue to fight for justice.” Her case is set for a status hearing on Monday in Los Angeles.
Israeli forces raid Al Jazeera West Bank office, order 45-day closure
- Israel’s military has repeatedly accused journalists from the Qatari network of being “terrorist” allies of Hamas
- Al Jazeera denies Israel’s accusations and claims that Israel systematically targets its employees in the Gaza Strip
DOHA: Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera said that Israeli forces raided its office in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Sunday and issued a 45-day closure order.
Israel’s government last week announced it was revoking the press credentials of Al Jazeera journalists in the country, four months after banning the channel from operating inside Israel.
“There is a court ruling for closing down Al Jazeera for 45 days,” an Israeli soldier told Al Jazeera’s West Bank bureau chief Walid Al-Omari, the network reported, citing the conversation which was broadcast live.
“I ask you to take all the cameras and leave the office at this moment,” the soldier said, according to the footage, which showed heavily armed and masked troops entering the office.
The broadcaster said the soldiers did not provide a reason for the closure order.
Israel’s army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has had a long-running feud with Al Jazeera that has worsened since the Gaza war began following the October 7 attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The Israeli military has repeatedly accused journalists from the Qatari network of being “terrorist agents” in Gaza affiliated with Hamas or its ally, Islamic Jihad.
Al Jazeera denies Israel’s accusations and claims that Israel systematically targets its employees in the Gaza Strip.
The media office of the Hamas-run government in Gaza condemned Sunday’s raid, saying in a statement it was a “resounding scandal and a blatant violation of press freedom.”
The Israeli parliament passed a law in early April allowing the banning of foreign media broadcasts deemed harmful to state security.
Based on this law, the Israeli government approved on May 5 the decision to ban Al Jazeera from broadcasting from Israel and close its offices for a renewable 45-day period, which was extended for a fourth time by a Tel Aviv court last week.
The shutdown had not affected broadcasts from the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, from which Al Jazeera was still covering Israel’s war with Palestinian militants.
Al Jazeera correspondent Nida Ibrahim said the network’s West Bank office closure “comes as no surprise” after the earlier ban on reporting from inside Israel.
“We’ve heard Israeli officials threatening to close down the bureau,” she said on the network.
“But we (had) not been expecting it to happen today.”
Bureau chief Omari said that “targeting journalists this way always aims to erase the truth and prevent people from hearing the truth.”
In May, the network condemned as “criminal” the ban on it operating over its coverage of the Gaza war.
“We condemn and denounce this criminal act by Israel that violates the human right to access information,” the channel said in a statement.
Ukraine bans official use of Telegram app over fears of Russian spying
- Restrictions apply only to official devices, not personal phones
- Telegram heavily used in Ukraine and Russia since 2022 invasion
KYIV: Ukraine has banned use of the Telegram messaging app on official devices used by government officials, military personnel and critical workers because it believes its enemy Russia can spy on both messages and users, a top security body said on Friday.
The National Security and Defense Council announced the restrictions after Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency, presented the council with evidence of Russian special services’ ability to snoop on the platform, it said in a statement.
But Andriy Kovalenko, head of the security council’s center on countering disinformation, posted on Telegram that the restrictions apply only to official devices, not personal phones.
Telegram is heavily used in both Ukraine and Russia and has become a critical source of information since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
But Ukrainian security officials have repeatedly voiced concerns about its use during the war.
Based in Dubai, Telegram was founded by Russian-born Pavel Durov, who left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with demands to shut down opposition communities on his social media platform VKontakte, which he has sold.
Durov was arrested upon landing in France in August as part of an investigation into crimes related to child pornography, drug trafficking and fraudulent transactions on Telegram.
The Security Council statement said Budanov had provided evidence that Russian special services could access Telegram messages, including deleted ones, as well as users’ personal data.
“I have always supported and continue to support freedom of speech, but the issue of Telegram is not a matter of freedom of speech, it is a matter of national security,” Budanov said in his own statement.
After the decision was announced, Telegram issued a statement saying it had never disclosed anyone’s data or the contents of any message.
“Telegram has never provided any messaging data to any country, including Russia. Deleted messages are deleted forever and are technically impossible to recover,” Telegram said.
It said every instance of what it described as “leaked messages” had been proven to be “the result of a compromised device, whether through confiscation or malware.”
According to the Telemetrio database, about 33,000 Telegram channels are active in Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, who sits on the security council, as well as military commanders and regional and city officials all regularly publish updates on the war and report important decisions on Telegram.
Ukrainian media have estimated that 75 percent of Ukrainians use the app for communication and found that 72 percent saw it as a key source of information as of the end of last year.
IDF to review video of soldiers throwing Palestinian bodies from building
- Israeli forces are reported to have knocked over pedestrians after 10-hour assault on Qabatiya
- Neither identities nor cause of death were immediately known
LONDON: The Israeli Defense Forces have confirmed they are “reviewing” a video which appears to show their soldiers throwing the bodies of three Palestinians from a building in the West Bank.
According to an Associated Press journalist on the scene and obtained video footage, the soldiers allegedly killed the three men before pushing them from the top of a structure in Qabatiya.
“This is a serious incident that does not coincide with IDF values and the expectations from IDF soldiers,” said a statement from the organization.
No formal investigation has yet been launched.
The BBC runs a report on Israeli soldiers pushing Palestinian bodies off the roof of a building & the presenter then remarks that the footage is an example of the many fronts Israel is fighting on
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) September 20, 2024
No, its an example of the IDF committing war crimes. pic.twitter.com/9GHtbNNXXh
The incident happened following a 10-hour military assault on Qabatiya, where Israeli forces reportedly knocked over pedestrians as they hurtled through the town in armored vehicles.
Israel claimed its troops killed four militants in the assault. However, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah reported only one confirmed death, with 10 people hospitalized.
This is the latest in a series of alleged violations by the Israeli military, with human rights groups expressing concern over excessive force used against Palestinians.
In the video, soldiers are seen standing on the ground while troops peer over the roof of the building before pushing a body over the edge. In a second instance, soldiers are shown swinging a body over the side by its limbs, and in a third the body is kicked to the edge before falling.
Photos captured by AP during Thursday’s raid show an Israeli army bulldozer near the buildings where the bodies were dropped. Other journalists at the scene also witnessed the bodies being pushed.
Neither the identities of the dead nor the cause of their deaths were immediately known.
The AP reporter who witnessed the raid said they saw a blindfolded and shirtless Palestinian man kneeling before an Israeli army jeep and armed soldiers.
Gazan journalist Shrouq Al Aila to receive CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award
- Despite having been displaced repeatedly by relentless Israeli bombardment, Al Aila continues to cover the war in Gaza
LONDON: Palestinian journalist Shrouq Al Aila, who has been covering Israel’s ongoing assault on the Gaza Strip, is set to receive a 2024 International Press Freedom Award in November, the Committee to Protect Journalists announced on Thursday.
Al Aila, 29, is among four awardees who “have withstood extraordinary challenges to continue reporting on their communities while experiencing war, prison, government crackdowns, and the rising criminalization of their work,” CPJ said in a statement.
A journalist, producer and researcher, Al Aila assumed leadership of Ain Media, a Gaza-based independent production company, after Roshdi Sarraj, her husband and the firm’s co-founder, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in October.
On Oct. 7, the Israeli military launched a bombing campaign across the Gaza Strip after Hamas carried out a surprise attack in southern Israel. The hostilities have so far killed at least 41,272 Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to the enclave’s health authority.
The onslaught has displaced more than 90 percent of Gaza’s population at least once, devastated the health, sanitation and water services, and annihilated entire residential neighborhoods.
Repeatedly displaced by the Israeli bombardment, Al Aila continues to cover the war and its devastating impact on Gaza’s residents.
Al Aila and her late husband Sarraj were on a business trip in Saudi Arabia when the war started in their hometown Gaza, prompting them to quickly return to report on the developments.
On Oct. 22, Sarraj was killed in an Israeli airstrike, and Al Aila swiftly assumed responsibility and headed their company, Ain Media.
Alongside Al Aila, CPJ’s International Press Freedom Awards this year will also recognize journalists Quimy de Leon from Guatemala, Alsu Kurmasheva who was detained in Russia, and Samira Sabou from Niger.
