Interview by: Mohammed Jameel Khader
\nLooking through the career of Jordanian media figure Mustafa Salameh, who has worked between Cairo and Dubai, one finds a long list of achievements he began accomplishing early on. His journey is filled with awards and recognitions, many of which he received while still a student. He earned over 500 certificates of appreciation from various entities, became the youngest teaching assistant at the Faculty of Arts he graduated from in 1990, and won the Best Theater Direction Award in 1991. He was also the first media professional in the Arab world to produce a live cartoon TV program, broadcasting 75 episodes on Dubai TV in 1999 titled \u201cModhesh: The Surprise Master.\u201d
\nHe was one of the founders of City Line competitions, the first TV-based telecom service company in the UAE, and worked as a media consultant for major government and private entities in the UAE starting from 1997. He also founded the \u201cWhite Hands\u201d campaign in 2008, one of the largest media campaigns supporting women\u2019s issues, launched the \u201cI Love UAE\u201d campaign, managed the Arab Producers Forum held at the League of Arab States in 2008, and founded 11 satellite TV channels, including Infinity TV, Deira TV, Arab Travel TV, and Sham TV. He also received an honorary PhD in media from the American University of Science and Technology in 2011.
\nAfter all these achievements, Salameh, who is the Secretary-General of the Arab Producers Union (Television Sector) under the League of Arab States and President of the Arab Tourism Media Council under the Arab Tourism Organization, achieved a unique Arab milestone by entering the Guinness World Records as the first media professional to broadcast one program simultaneously on 61 Arab TV channels. The program, titled \u201cThe Ideal Woman,\u201d first aired on April 7, 2010, and later expanded to 70 Arab channels, including major government and private broadcasters, all aimed at supporting women and their issues.
\nIn response to a question about the channels broadcasting the program, Salameh said that the number reached 70 Arab channels, starting with 61 in April 2010, and is expected to grow in the future as the Arabian Media Network expands, potentially reaching 100 channels. He added that the focus is on quality channels that serve society, rather than simply increasing the number of participating channels.
\nWhen asked about how he entered the Guinness World Records, Salameh explained that the idea originally came from a journalist. At the time, when the Arabian Media Network was launched, around 50 channels had joined. The journalist published a headline asking whether Mustafa Salameh would enter Guinness through joint Arab broadcasting. This sparked the idea of achieving a record in joint broadcasting, especially since becoming the first Arab media figure to enter Guinness was a new challenge he wanted to pursue and make distinctive from the start.
\nSpeaking about his future ambitions, Salameh said that his goals are big, and that joint Arab work is at the top of his priorities. He expressed his strong belief in the potential of the Arab world, which led him to focus his media projects over the past ten years on this direction. He added that holding positions such as Secretary-General of the Arab Producers Union and President of the Arab Tourism Media Council comes with great responsibility, and he hopes to succeed in fulfilling it.
\nHe also shared that his biggest ambition in the coming phase is to present a positive image of the Arab world, rich in history and achievements, to the global audience. He revealed that he is currently working on a new project aiming to create a global joint broadcast, where audiences worldwide can watch one unified production in different languages. He described this as a long-time dream: turning joint Arab broadcasting into global broadcasting.
\nRegarding the value of his achievement, Salameh stated that any success by a Jordanian is a source of pride for Jordan first, and for the Arab world as a whole. He expressed pride in bringing Arab media into the Guinness World Records and said he is honored to represent Jordan and reflect the ambitions of creative Jordanian youth. He added that the success of Jordanian media professionals has helped establish their presence on both Arab and international stages.
\nAs for the challenges facing Arab youth in achieving unified and independent media, Salameh said there are many obstacles, especially in the media field. He explained that building a unified Arab media system is difficult because each Arab country has its own policies and media direction. Despite this, he remains optimistic about a new generation of Arabs who understand their responsibilities and can use modern media and communication tools to serve their causes, values, and identity.
\nWhen asked about his beginnings and how he moved from theater directing into the wider and demanding field of media, Salameh said that everything started with words, as words are the foundation of media work. He began by writing his thoughts at a very young age, contributing to the UAE\u2019s \u201cMajid\u201d magazine when he was no more than ten years old. His passion for media and art started early, and he developed his theatrical talent while studying at Al Khawarizmi College, where he produced more than 25 plays during his two years there. He also won the Best Theater Director award for his play \u201cThe Departing Justice\u201d and for \u201cDemons and the Dream,\u201d which he presented at the Jordanian Children\u2019s Theater Festival. After that, he moved into television, working on TV commercials, documentaries, and various programs and campaigns where he applied his vision shaped by his culture and personal experiences.
\nSpeaking about the impact of the Arab Spring on media, he said that Arab media needs a \u201crevolution\u201d in thinking while still preserving core values of Arab societies. He believes that the changes brought by the Arab Spring created an opportunity to build strong, unified Arab media by learning from past experiences. He added that these developments could lead to a more free, powerful, and youth-driven media that better represents Arab societies.
\nRegarding the role of women in the Arab world and in media, Salameh said that Arab women have achieved great success, especially as professionals in the media field. However, he noted that Arab media has often misrepresented women by presenting unrealistic images. This is why he co-founded the \u201cWhite Hands\u201d campaign with Dr. Rehab Zein El Din, aiming to create programs that reflect the true image of Arab women. Through this initiative, they launched programs like \u201cThe Ideal Woman\u201d and are working on creating a specialized news agency focused on women\u2019s issues.
\nWhen asked about returning to Jordan, Salameh said that it is a big dream of his to settle there and bring his media projects back to his home country. However, due to his responsibilities as Secretary-General of the Arab Producers Union and President of the Arab Tourism Media Council, his work requires him to be mainly in Cairo and Dubai. Despite that, he expressed a strong desire to return to Jordan in the future and continue his work from there, hoping that this dream will come true soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Interview by: Mohammed Jameel Khader Looking through the career of Jordanian media figure Mustafa Salameh, who has worked between Cairo and Dubai, one finds a long list of achievements he began accomplishing early on. His journey is filled with awards and recognitions, many of which he received while still a student. He earned over 500<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,78,76],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-news-ar-ar-en","category-photography-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubaiamn.com\/Eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubaiamn.com\/Eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubaiamn.com\/Eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubaiamn.com\/Eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubaiamn.com\/Eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7428"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dubaiamn.com\/Eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8604,"href":"https:\/\/dubaiamn.com\/Eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7428\/revisions\/8604"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubaiamn.com\/Eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubaiamn.com\/Eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubaiamn.com\/Eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubaiamn.com\/Eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}