‘Akhbar Elyoum’ Would Remain Giant Press Foundation

Akhbar Elyoum is and will always be a giant press foundation. Its founders, twin brothers Mostafa and Ali Amin, have attended many concerts of late singer Umm Kulthum and watched films of actor Naguib el-Rihani.

They also held interviews with late musician Mohamed Abdul Wahab and late poet Ahmed Shawki.

The twin brothers were grown up at late Egyptian president Saad Zaghloul’s palace and met with many of globally well-known public figures, such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Albert Einstein and Charlie Chaplin.

In November 1944, they decided to set up Akhbar Elyoum newspaper to be the first spark for the 1952 revolution.

If legacy of any writer is measured by the values ​​he left in the hearts of readers, we could say that Akhbar Elyoum newspaper was and will always be a giant foundation that always served as a gate for freedom, liberalism and guaranteeing people’s rights in expressing their opinions.

We, now, celebrate the 75th anniversary of the foundation, which was established in 1944.

The twin brothers had a dream of establishing an independent newspaper, so they resorted to their mother, who helped them to let their dreams come true through providing them will funds required for printing and publishing the first issue of the newspaper; 110,000 copy were distributed within only 3 hours, making the biggest ever distribution level at that time.

Since that day, it has formed a large record of Egypt's history. It achieved a big number of scoops throughout its history, despite experiencing critical periods of closure, in addition, its founders were sent to prison, but it rose up again and become one of the biggest press foundations in Egypt and the Arab World.

It is an inspiring story of challenge and success for anyone working in the journalism field.

A big number of great journalists have worked in it, including, Tawfiq al-Hakim, Mohammed al-Tabei, Ibrahim Abdel Qader al-Mazni, Ihsan Abdul Quddus, Galal al-Hamamsi, Moussa Sabri, satirist Ahmed Rajab, cartoonist Mustafa Hussein, Hussein Bikar, Kamal al-Malakh, Maha Abdel Fattah, Nabil Esmat, Hassan Shah and Sana Fathallah.

It was fortunate to be a student of Mustafa Amin, who studied at the American University in Cairo and at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Amin began reporting for the Cairo newspapers in 1928, and had a column in the weekly Akher Saa "Last Hour" magazine after his graduation from the AUC in 1934.

In 1938, Amin served as editor-in-chief of Akher Saa for a year before moving to Al-Ahram, the oldest and most prestigious Middle Eastern daily newspaper.

In 1952 Amin and his twin brother Ali launched a daily newspaper Al Akhbar.

As an advocate of Western liberalism, Amin was first jailed in 1939, after criticizing King Farouk, and was also jailed briefly twice in the early 1950s by late president Gamal Abdel-Nasser.

Amin returned to journalism, serving as editor of chief of Akhbar Elyoum.

He also published autobiographical works, several novels, and also wrote film screenplays. He also lectured journalism at Cairo University and the AUC.

He founded Lailat al-Qadar charity to pay medical expenses and provide business assistance for the poor.

Amin continued writing up until his death on 13 April 1997.

A big number of Egyptian senior journalists worked as editors-in chief of Akhbar Elyoum, including, Moussa Sabri, Said Sonbol, Ibrahim Saada, Galal Dowidar, Mumtaz El-Ot, Al-Sayed Al-Najjar, Yasser Rezk, Khaled Miri and Amr El-Khayat.

Contributed by Hassanain Tayea.