Yasser Thabet


Yasser Talaat Hafez Thabet is an acclaimed Egyptian journalist and liberal writer.

Biography

Born on 7 May 1964 in Cologne, Germany, Thabet gained a BA in Journalism from the Mass Communication Faculty at Cairo University, Egypt in May 1985 and a master's degree in Journalism from the Centre for Journalism Studies, University of Wales, Cardiff in 1998. In September 2000, he gained his PhD degree in Journalism from Boston University, US.
While studying at Cairo University, he was selected to head the foreign affairs department at the University newspaper, Sawt Al-Gamea, Arabic for "Voice of the University".
He started his professional career at Al-Ahram when he was a student and continued his career as a Foreign Affairs Editor until he resigned in 2006.

Career

Yasser Thabet was among the main journalists who started a unique experience in Egyptian journalism, called Independent Journalism. The cornerstone of this experience was the widespread newspaper . In 1991, he was among the founders of the first daily business newspaper in Egypt, titled Al Alam Al Youm, Arabic for "World Today". In 2001, he became the managing editor of Sawt Al-Ummah private-owned newspaper, before leaving for Qatar in August 2002 to be Senior Producer of Al-Jazeera Channel.
In March 2007, he travelled to US where he started his new post as the chief editor of Al-Hurra Channel. It was a brief work experience. However, some US writers and researchers praised Thabet's highly revered legacy and outstanding journalistic achievements.
Thabet became Program Editor of Al-Arabiya Channel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, starting November 2007, before joining Sky News Arabia Channel in Abu Dhabi, UAE, as Director of Output, starting June 2011.
Thabet gave presentations on media issues in UK, Austria, Spain, Turkey, Greece, Canada and US. He has been on the faculty panel of the Salzburg Seminars on two occasions. On 11 June 2009, Yasser Thabet was a speaker at a conference titled Civilian Capacity Building and Democratic Consciousness Raising in Security and Human Rights which was organized in Ankara, Turkey by The Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation.

Blogging

Thabet writes regularly in his well-known blog Qabl Al-Tofan, Arabic for Before The Deluge about history, literature and even sports in a distinguished and articulated style.
On 27 November 2008, The Deutsche Welle International Weblog Awards—The BOBs –announced that "Before the Deluge" won the People's Choice prize as the Best Weblog Arabic .
The jury said that "Yasser's entries about historical figures and events tends to be among the Arab blogsphere's most well-researched posts. An established journalist and talented, creative storyteller, he gives his readers a new view on old stories".

Books

Thabet is a leading fiction writer and historian of media, politics and sports in the Middle East.
Preoccupied with the problems of death and suffering, his literary works belong to the fantastic and autobiographical genres.
His list of books includes the following: