Al Akhbar

Al Akhbar (, literally "The News") is a daily Arabic language newspaper published in a semi tabloid format in Beirut. The newspaper's writers have included Ibrahim Al Amine, As'ad AbuKhalil, Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, Sharmine Narwani, Pierre Abi Saab, and Amer Mohsen. Until 2015, it also had an English version published on the Internet. History and profile The newspaper began to be published and distributed in 2006, and is registered with the same license of the paper of the same name, established in 1953, owned by Akhbar Beirut S.A.L. (News of Beirut). It was established by the late Joseph Samaha (a leftist intellectual and former editor-in-chief of As-Safir) and Ibrahim Al Amin (also a leftist journalist and political analyst). A 2009 survey by Ipsos Stat established that the daily is among the five most popular newspapers in Beirut. In December 2010, Al Akhbar received and published an advance copy of the US State Department cables by WikiLeaks, after which the newspaper's website was hacked. Following this attack, the paper shut down its website for a while. It has since continued to partner with WikiLeaks, and translate Arabic cables. The paper's online version was the 12th most visited website for 2010 in the MENA region. On 18 July 2011 the paper together with As Safir, another daily published in Lebanon, was banned in Syria.