UAE | Media
Unbiased coverage
Reader's 20-year relationship with the newspaper 'is unshakeable'.
- By Nasheet Jaffer Khan, Community Solutions Editor
- Published: 01:18 September 30, 2008
- When I wrote about the pestering advertisements, it was as if someone took notice, as the menace lessened afterwards says Sathia Divakaran
- Image Credit:
Dubai: Irritating advertisements, repeated every five minutes during movies, would ruin the plot for Sathia Divakaran. That was until she decided to write to Gulf News. It was that freedom to write, she said, which "gave her a voice" 20 years ago and helped resolve many other issues - one letter at a time.
She said: "When I wrote about the pestering advertisements, it was as if someone took notice, as the menace lessened afterwards. In another case, I wrote a letter regarding a certain service of the Indian consulate. That led to the consul general calling me and discussing the issue. It felt great."
Sathia, an Indian expatriate and a resident of Dubai for 30 years, first started reading Gulf News when it re-launched as a broadsheet in the 1980s and became a daily paper every day of the week. Today, her relationship with the newspaper is "unshakeable" and built on product satisfaction that has lasted two decades.
She said: "Complimentary copies were delivered for many days when Gulf News re-launched. That's how I chanced upon a piece and got hooked. What struck me was the broad and unbiased coverage - other newspapers were nowhere near."
Aged three and five at the time, her two daughters, Anjana and Manju, have fond memories of the newspaper, too. Now in their mid-twenties, they reminisce about the many contests they won with Gulf News.
"One memorable event, which I really enjoyed was the Russian ballet that had just premiered in the UAE. If not for the complimentary tickets that I won with Gulf News, I would never have bothered to go," Anjana said.
Manju described how she would never miss the opportunity to read Junior News or collect complimentary reader diaries.
She said: "I collected every single Gulf News diary, until 2001. I miss reading Junior News, especially the comic strips. We were very disappointed when it was changed into a youth magazine."
She added that it was impossible to describe her 20-year relationship with the newspaper in one word. "The community service that Gulf News does is commendable. The newspaper has been a part of my life for a long time. It is my doorway to the world," she concluded.
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