Khaberni - Joseph Al-Qusaifi, the head of the Lebanese Press Editors' Union, mourns the Jordanian-Lebanese journalist Mona Ziyada, who had a prominent presence in covering events and wars in the Middle East theater, and organized outcomes resulting in "geo-political" changes that had a profound impact on the course of major transformations in the region.
Ziyada, who was ravaged by cancer, began her journalistic career with the "United Press International" agency in Beirut before joining the "Associated Press". She spent 15 years covering the Lebanon war.
Her star shined in the foreign hostages file, especially regarding the kidnapping of Terry Anderson, the head of the agency's Middle East bureau.
The agency moved its headquarters in the year to Limassol, Cyprus, and Mona was among the leading journalists who followed the activities of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Beirut and Tunis after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and its transfer to this country. She closely followed the Western hostages file in Lebanon and returned with her family to Beirut in 1996 after marrying Ed Blanch, the agency’s correspondent and editor-in-chief of the Middle East for ten years,
She recorded a journalistic scoop related to the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations that led to the signing of a peace agreement between Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin.
In Beirut, she worked with her husband to relaunch the "Daily Star," a daily English-speaking Lebanese newspaper, and remained in her job until the year 2003, when she took up her new job as a communications officer at the World Bank office in Lebanon.
Al-Qusaifi said: "The rich professional history of Mona Ziyada, the brave journalist, cultured, from a family that adores science and culture, speaks for itself and does not need commentary or explanation. She was talented, adventurous, an independent thinker, she conveyed the facts as they were and with impartiality, and paired them with an objective analysis, and the reports she sent to 'UP' and then to 'AP' and 'Daily Star' were highly credible, hence they were relied upon as a trusted reference in newspapers, magazines, radio stations, and television channels at that time. Her fame as a passionate journalist and correspondent reached the point of melting into it sometimes.
After a long journey across the profession's carpet, the winds of nostalgia threw her back to Beirut, the capital she loved and fell for since her childhood. She lived long years among family, friends, colleagues, shared joys and sorrows with them, and empathized with the sufferings of the homeland, until the accursed disease struck her down with a fatal blow, so she left this world and closed the book of her life on its sixty-fifth page, seeking the mercy of her Lord, may God have mercy on her."
