Al Raya
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Owner | Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah |
| Publisher | Gulf Publishing and Printing Company |
Editor-in-chief | Abdulla Taleb Al Marri |
| Editor | Majid Al jubara |
| Founded | 10 May 1979 |
Political alignment | Pro-government |
| Language | Arabic |
| Headquarters | Doha |
| Country | Qatar |
| Circulation | 30,000 (as of 2019) |
Sister newspapers | Gulf Times |
| Website | Al Raya |
Al Raya (Arabic: الراية, lit. 'The Banner') is an Arabic-language pro-government daily newspaper published in Doha, Qatar.[1] It is a semi-official newspaper,[2] and is one of the five leading Qatari dailies.[3] As for Arabic-language dailies published in the country, Al Raya is among the three major newspapers along with Al Sharq and Al Watan.[4]
Through its publisher, it is owned by Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, formerly the deputy Prime Minister of Qatar, as well as head of the emir's official royal court.[5] Gulf Times is Al Raya's English-language sister newspaper.[1]
History and profile
[edit]Al Raya was launched by the Gulf Publishing and Printing Company as a weekly newspaper on 10 May 1979.[6][7] The company, which was founded by Ali bin Jaber Al Thani, a member of the royal family of Qatar, also owns Gulf Times, an English-language daily.[6][8] Based in Doha,[9] Al Raya is the second Arabic newspaper published in Qatar.[10] On 27 January 1980, Al Raya was relaunched as a daily newspaper.[7]
In 1996, a corpus was created which included 187 articles published in Al Raya.[11]
Nasser Mohamed Al-Othman was the first editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper.[6] In the initial period, many leading Arab journalists wrote for the daily.[12][13][14] Abdulla Ghanim Al Binali Al Muhannadi was appointed editor-in-chief of Al-Raya in 2019.[15] In 2023, Abdulla Taleb Al Marri became the editor-in-chief of the newspaper.[16]
Ownership, political stance and content
[edit]Al Raya has a pro-government stance,[17][1] and although it is privately owned, it has at times been considered a semi-official newspaper of Qatar.[2] It is owned by Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, formerly the deputy Prime Minister of Qatar, as well as head of the emir's official royal court.[5] Gulf Times is Al Raya's English-language sister newspaper.[1]
Al Raya mostly provides news about the receptions and activities of the ruling family, Al Thani, as well as about official events.[2] In addition, the daily has large supplements on sports and business as well as a special supplement called He and She.[2] The paper offered a weekly page on environmental issues from 1999 to 2005.[18]
Following the 2013 coup in Egypt, Al Raya concentrated on the ongoing demonstrations of supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and ousted President Mohamed Morsi.[19] In August 2013, an editorial of the paper argued that possible US-led intervention against Syria would not be celebrated, but that the Assad regime was "murderous", and "stupidly" left no other option than such an intervention.[20]
According to the US State Department, the newspaper has been involved in the promotion of antisemitic content. In April 2019, it published an article stating that "The Zionist movement managed to establish the 'Holocaust culture' in Western political ethics and morally forced it on European societies." The article described the Nazi Holocaust as "alleged" and placed the survivors in quotation marks.[21] In October 2019, the newspaper also published a cartoon by a Palestinian artist that depicts Israel as a stereotypical caricature of an Orthodox Jew.[21]
Circulation
[edit]In the early 1990s, Al Raya had a circulation of 10,000 copies and was distributed in Saudi Arabia and Egypt in addition to its native Qatar.[12] It had higher levels of circulation until 1995 when the other Arabic daily, Al Watan, was launched; Al-Raya then lost one-third of its circulation.[10] In 2000, Al Raya was the second best selling newspaper in Qatar with a circulation of 18,000 copies.[22] The estimated circulation of the paper in 2003 was 8,000 copies.[10] Al Raya's circulation increased to 18,000 copies again in 2008.[3] In 2010, the online version of the paper was the 47th most-visited website in the MENA region.[23]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d "Qatar profile". BBC. 20 February 2023. Retrieved 4 May 2026.
- ^ a b c d "Qatar". The Arab Press Network. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
- ^ a b "Media sustainability index 2008" (PDF). IREX. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 December 2012. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
- ^ Khalid Al Jaber; Barrie Gunter (2013). "Evolving News Systems in the Gulf Countries". In Barrie Gunter; Roger Dickinson (eds.). News Media in the Arab World: A Study of 10 Arab and Muslim Countries. London: Bloomsbury. pp. 26–27. ISBN 978-1-4411-0239-3.
- ^ a b Dragomir, Marius (2025). "Gulf Publishing and Printing Company". State Media Monitor. Media and Journalism Research Center. Retrieved 26 April 2026.
- ^ a b c "About us". Gulf Times. Archived from the original on 10 February 2013. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
- ^ a b "Information and Media". Embassy of Qatar. Archived from the original on 16 July 2014. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
- ^ "Al Raya newspaper". Press Fair. 17 September 2010. Archived from the original on 12 September 2014. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
- ^ "Al Raya and Gulf Times Newspaper". Wow City. Archived from the original on 16 January 2014. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
- ^ a b c William A. Rugh (2004). Arab Mass Media: Newspapers, Radio, and Television in Arab Politics. Westport, CT; London: Praeger. p. 60. ISBN 978-0-275-98212-6.
- ^ Blaise Cronin, ed. (2006). Annual Review of Information Science and Technology 2007. Vol. 41. Medford, NJ: Information Today Inc. p. 511. ISBN 978-1-57387-276-8.
- ^ a b Mohamed M. Arafa (1994). "Qatar". In Yahya R. Kamalipour; Hamid Mowlana (eds.). Mass Media in the Middle East: A Comprehensive Handbook. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0313285356.
- ^ "Qatar mourns victims of shopping mall blaze". Al Jazeera. 3 June 2012. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
- ^ "Qatar denies Iran, Syria retaliation in mall fire that killed Western nationals". World Tribune. Abu Dhabi. 6 June 2012. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
- ^ Bassam Ramada (23 April 2014). "Qatar under pressure over support for Brotherhood". Al Masry Al Youm. Archived from the original on 1 July 2014. Retrieved 4 October 2014 – via Al Monitor.
- ^ "عبدالله طالب المري رئيساً لتحرير جريدة الراية". Al Sharq Al Awsat (in Arabic). 26 July 2023. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
- ^ "Qatar newspapers". World Press. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
- ^ Najib Saab. "The Environment in Arab Media" (PDF). Arab Forum for Environment and Development. Archived from the original (Report) on 10 October 2014. Retrieved 7 October 2014.
- ^ "Of Egypt and Arabs". Al Ahram Weekly. Vol. 3383. 16 June 2013. Archived from the original on 21 July 2013. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
- ^ "Middle East press apprehensive over Syria". BBC. 29 August 2013. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
- ^ a b "Qatar - Status of Societal Respect for Religious Freedom". United States Department of State. Retrieved 26 March 2026.
- ^ "World Press Trends" (PDF). World Association of Newspapers. Paris. 2004. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
- ^ "Forbes Releases Top 50 MENA Online Newspapers; Lebanon Fails to Make Top 10". Jad Aoun. 28 October 2010. Archived from the original on 29 July 2016. Retrieved 11 September 2014.