Ghida Fakhry
Encyclopedia
Ghida Fakhry is a Lebanese
journalist and is one of the primary broadcasters for the news channel Al Jazeera English at the network's Doha
broadcast headquarters. Since January 2010, she has also been the host of Witness, an award-winning documentary program.
(1975–1990), her parents sent her to study at the Swiss
boarding school Le Rosey. She completed her undergraduate education at the Richmond University, London
and got a Master's degree
in Near and Middle Eastern Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies
(SOAS) at the University of London
, and a Master of Arts in International Relations from the Boston University
European Programme. She is fluent in English, Arabic and French and speaks conversational Spanish.
(replaced in 2008 by Shihab Rattansi
) Washington, D.C. broadcasts of Al Jazeera
English language television news program (Al-Jazeera English TV news broadcasts daily from four separate news bureaus in Doha
, Washington, D.C., London
, and Kuala Lumpur
). Later on, she anchored solo Washington D.C. newscasts. On the 4–5 November, Ghida Fakhry and David Foster co-anchored a 12 hour-long continuous coverage of the 2008 US presidential elections. She announced at 11 p.m. local time that Barack Obama was the projected 44th President of the United States of America.
Fakhry has interviewed several Middle-Eastern leaders, including Colonel Muammar Gaddafi
of Libya
, President Hamid Karzai
of Afghanistan
, Shimon Peres
, President of Israel
and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran
. She has also interviewed Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat
and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
. In December 2006, she conducted a special program on Kofi Annan's term as Secretary General, titled Kofi Annan: Ten Years at the Top.
Ghida Fakhry moderated UN-related events. In January 2008, she moderated the First Plenary Session of the First Forum of the Alliance of Civilizations hosted by the Government of Spain in Madrid. The panel, which sought to specify the true nature of the divisions that foment extremism and polarization between communities, included the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
, the President of Slovenia, Danilo Türk
, Javier Solana
, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Policy, and Mr. Ali Babacan
, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey. A year later, she moderated the Market Place of Idea's at the Second Forum of the Alliance hosted by Turkey in Istanbul.
Earlier, Ghida Fakhry was New York Bureau Chief and Columnist for the London-based Arabic language daily Asharq Al-Awsat. From 2002-2004, she anchored the flagship evening newscast of the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation
-Al Hayat
from London
. During that time, Fakhry conducted exclusive in-depth interviews in Washington D.C. with U.S. Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, and the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, as well as several other senior State Department and Pentagon officials. She reported on location from Baghdad and Kabul in the summer of 2003 while travelling with Rumsfeld during his first trip to Iraq after the US-led invasion and covered his visit to the Abu Ghraib prison.
Fakhry worked for the Al Jazeera Channel (Arabic language service) as its New York
Bureau Chief from 2000 to late 2001. During this time she covered the attacks of September 11 and their aftermath, reporting from Ground Zero on the rescue and relief operations. She was a guest on major US networks and appeared on PBS's Charlie Rose
, ABC's Nightline with Ted Koppel (with Ambassador Richard Holbrooke
), with regular appearances on CNN's Diplomatic License with Richard Roth
. Earlier in her career, she was New York Correspondent of Abu Dhabi Television
. She began her journalistic career in the mid-1990s as a political reporter for the London-published Arabic language newspaper Asharq al-Awsat.
In October 2007, Esquire Magazine voted Ghida Fakhry as one of four US-based news anchors in its annual "Women We Love" ranking. According to LAU Magazine "Fakhry is one of the best-known Arab news personalities outside of the Arab world". On 13 December 2006, the US Channel Comedy Central had a piece on Al Jazeera on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart in which Ghida Fakhry was renamed 'Peppermint Gomez' to appeal to American audiences.
Lebanese people
The Lebanese people are a nation and ethnic group of Levantine people originating in what is today the country of Lebanon, including those who had inhabited Mount Lebanon prior to the creation of the modern Lebanese state....
journalist and is one of the primary broadcasters for the news channel Al Jazeera English at the network's Doha
Doha
Doha is the capital city of the state of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf, it had a population of 998,651 in 2008, and is also one of the municipalities of Qatar...
broadcast headquarters. Since January 2010, she has also been the host of Witness, an award-winning documentary program.
Early life and education
Fakhry was born in Beirut, Lebanon, where she lived till the age of six. To escape from the Lebanese civil warLebanese Civil War
The Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted civil war in Lebanon. The war lasted from 1975 to 1990 and resulted in an estimated 150,000 to 230,000 civilian fatalities. Another one million people were wounded, and today approximately 350,000 people remain displaced. There was also a mass exodus of...
(1975–1990), her parents sent her to study at the Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
boarding school Le Rosey. She completed her undergraduate education at the Richmond University, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and got a Master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in Near and Middle Eastern Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies
The School of Oriental and African Studies is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the University of London...
(SOAS) at the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
, and a Master of Arts in International Relations from the Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
European Programme. She is fluent in English, Arabic and French and speaks conversational Spanish.
Career
At the launch of Al Jazeera English in April 2006, Fakhry was appointed Lead Female Anchor for the Americas Broadcast Centre at Washington D.C. She co-anchored with Dave MarashDave Marash
David Marash, known as Dave Marash is an American television journalist.Marash garnered considerable attention when he joined Al Jazeera English in January 2006 as the network's Washington, D.C. anchor, thus becoming the de facto American face of the new English language station. Two years later,...
(replaced in 2008 by Shihab Rattansi
Shihab Rattansi
Shihab Rattansi works for Al Jazeera English as a lead news anchor in their Washington, DC Broadcast Center. He regularly anchors the Al Jazeera Newshour presenting news and conducting interviews primarily relating to the Americas....
) Washington, D.C. broadcasts of Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera is an independent broadcaster owned by the state of Qatar through the Qatar Media Corporation and headquartered in Doha, Qatar...
English language television news program (Al-Jazeera English TV news broadcasts daily from four separate news bureaus in Doha
Doha
Doha is the capital city of the state of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf, it had a population of 998,651 in 2008, and is also one of the municipalities of Qatar...
, Washington, D.C., London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, and Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...
). Later on, she anchored solo Washington D.C. newscasts. On the 4–5 November, Ghida Fakhry and David Foster co-anchored a 12 hour-long continuous coverage of the 2008 US presidential elections. She announced at 11 p.m. local time that Barack Obama was the projected 44th President of the United States of America.
Fakhry has interviewed several Middle-Eastern leaders, including Colonel Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...
of Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
, President Hamid Karzai
Hamid Karzai
Hamid Karzai, GCMG is the 12th and current President of Afghanistan, taking office on 7 December 2004. He became a dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001...
of Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, Shimon Peres
Shimon Peres
GCMG is the ninth President of the State of Israel. Peres served twice as the eighth Prime Minister of Israel and once as Interim Prime Minister, and has been a member of 12 cabinets in a political career spanning over 66 years...
, President of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
. She has also interviewed Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat
Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini , popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar , was a Palestinian leader and a Laureate of the Nobel Prize. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization , President of the Palestinian National Authority...
and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
Kofi Annan
Kofi Atta Annan is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the UN from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006...
. In December 2006, she conducted a special program on Kofi Annan's term as Secretary General, titled Kofi Annan: Ten Years at the Top.
Ghida Fakhry moderated UN-related events. In January 2008, she moderated the First Plenary Session of the First Forum of the Alliance of Civilizations hosted by the Government of Spain in Madrid. The panel, which sought to specify the true nature of the divisions that foment extremism and polarization between communities, included the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
Tun Abdullah bin Haji Ahmad Badawi is a Malaysian politician who served as Prime Minister from 2003 to 2009. He was also the President of the United Malays National Organisation , the largest political party in Malaysia, and led the governing Barisan Nasional parliamentary coalition...
, the President of Slovenia, Danilo Türk
Danilo Türk
- Early life :Türk was born in a lower middle class family in Maribor, Slovenia . His father died when he was a child. He attended the prestigious II. Gymnasium High school in Maribor. In 1971 he enrolled to the University of Ljubljana where he studied law...
, Javier Solana
Javier Solana
Francisco Javier Solana de Madariaga, KOGF is a Spanish physicist and Socialist politician. After serving in the Spanish government under Felipe González and Secretary General of NATO , he was appointed the European Union's High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Secretary...
, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Policy, and Mr. Ali Babacan
Ali Babacan
Ali Babacan is a Turkish politician and the current Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey responsible for the Economy. He was previously Minister of Economy in the 58th cabinet from the Justice and Development Party . On August 29, 2007, he was named Minister of Foreign Affairs of in the cabinet of...
, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey. A year later, she moderated the Market Place of Idea's at the Second Forum of the Alliance hosted by Turkey in Istanbul.
Earlier, Ghida Fakhry was New York Bureau Chief and Columnist for the London-based Arabic language daily Asharq Al-Awsat. From 2002-2004, she anchored the flagship evening newscast of the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation
Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation
The Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation , widely known as LBC, is the first private television station in Lebanon. It went global in 1996 when it launched its satellite channel LBC Al-Fadha'iya Al-Lubnaniya covering the Arab World. It now has several channels covering Europe, America, Australia, and...
-Al Hayat
Al-Hayat newspaper
Al-Hayat is one of the leading daily pan-Arab newspapers, with a circulation estimated over 200,000. It is the newspaper of record for the Arab diaspora and the preferred venue for liberal intellectuals who wish to express themselves to a large public....
from London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. During that time, Fakhry conducted exclusive in-depth interviews in Washington D.C. with U.S. Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, and the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, as well as several other senior State Department and Pentagon officials. She reported on location from Baghdad and Kabul in the summer of 2003 while travelling with Rumsfeld during his first trip to Iraq after the US-led invasion and covered his visit to the Abu Ghraib prison.
Fakhry worked for the Al Jazeera Channel (Arabic language service) as its New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
Bureau Chief from 2000 to late 2001. During this time she covered the attacks of September 11 and their aftermath, reporting from Ground Zero on the rescue and relief operations. She was a guest on major US networks and appeared on PBS's Charlie Rose
Charlie Rose
Charles Peete "Charlie" Rose, Jr. is an American television talk show host and journalist. Since 1991 he has hosted Charlie Rose, an interview show distributed nationally by PBS since 1993...
, ABC's Nightline with Ted Koppel (with Ambassador Richard Holbrooke
Richard Holbrooke
Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke was an American diplomat, magazine editor, author, professor, Peace Corps official, and investment banker....
), with regular appearances on CNN's Diplomatic License with Richard Roth
Richard Roth
Richard Roth is an American journalist, a CNN correspondent who covers the United Nations and was the host of Diplomatic License , a weekly program that was devoted to United Nations affairs. Roth is a CNN "original" — one of the first employees when the network launched in 1980...
. Earlier in her career, she was New York Correspondent of Abu Dhabi Television
Abu Dhabi TV
Abu Dhabi Al Oula is an Arabic television station that originally launched in 1969 but was re-launched in 2000 and again in 2008. It broadcasts from Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates and is owned by Abu Dhabi Media Company...
. She began her journalistic career in the mid-1990s as a political reporter for the London-published Arabic language newspaper Asharq al-Awsat.
In October 2007, Esquire Magazine voted Ghida Fakhry as one of four US-based news anchors in its annual "Women We Love" ranking. According to LAU Magazine "Fakhry is one of the best-known Arab news personalities outside of the Arab world". On 13 December 2006, the US Channel Comedy Central had a piece on Al Jazeera on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart in which Ghida Fakhry was renamed 'Peppermint Gomez' to appeal to American audiences.