Asharq Al Awsat newspaper which was launched in 1978 with London as it headquarters has completed four decades of its publication which is considered as a major achievement especially when most of the international print media is facing setbacks and many popular ones were either sold out or closed down. It was celebration time for the Saudi Arabia’s International newspaper Asharq Al- Awsat in social media which is a deserving one when it completes 40 glorious years of publishing especially from a foreign land.

The newspaper which belongs to the Saudi Research and Marketing Group has spread its wings since its inception and now has bureaus in Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Washington, New York and Belgium. Asharq Al Awsat has news coverage throughout the MENA region, the US, Europe and Asia

According to Asharq Al-Awsat’s first Editor in Chief, Jihad Khazen when  Hisham Ali Hafiz (co-founder of Arab News) and his brother, Mohammed Ali Hafiz decided to start the newspaper from U.K. it was considered as a very bold decision at that time. Arab News’ Editor in Chief, Faisal J. Abbas, was among the first to contribute to the Asharq Al-Awsat 40th anniversary hashtag on the social media site: “I want to thank Asharq Al-Awsat for all that it has given me.”

Asharq Al Awsat ‘s UAE bureau chief Mosaed Al Ziyani in his tweet shared that his fourteen years of association with the newspaper gave a real experience of professionalism and journalism. According to Saud Kateb, the Saudi deputy minister for public diplomacy affairs tweeted that this newspaper is his companion and favorite for the past 20 years and he lives and breathes journalism not for a job but because of it. Saudi journalist Nasir Al-Haqbani’s tweet says that Asharq Al Awsat took the first steps to take Arabic journalism to the international arena.