Every few years, an event comes along that forces a newspaper to take a stand on a matter of principle. The newspaper has to decide how to report the event (or even choose to ignore it). Handling such moments effectively is vital to the spirit of the organisation and helps build a wider legacy for society. Francis Matthew, Editor-at-Large, recalls four such events

Covering the Sharjah coup

On a quiet day in June 1987, Gulf News was preparing for a normal round of news, when a phone call from a reporter shattered the routine: "There are tanks on the streets in Sharjah and there seems to have been a coup to overthrow Shaikh Sultan!"

The ruler, His Highness Shaikh Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Qasimi, had been away in Britain on a short private visit since June 11, when his brother Shaikh Abdul Aziz Bin Mohammad Al Qasimi, who was head of the Sharjah Amiri Guard and Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, declared himself ruler.

A hectic afternoon followed as reporters and photographers went to Sharjah to find out what was happening on the ground. At such a time a newspaper has two distinct strands of work, both of which are important for its readers. The first essential of any news operation is to find out the facts, and the second is to analyse the politics of what is going on. Both are important for the readers' eventual understanding of events in the next day's newspaper.

Over the afternoon the facts on the ground became clear. The police and other security forces in Sharjah had taken control of the city and Shaikh Abdul Aziz had indeed announced himself as the new ruler in his brother's place. The wider political implications were not so easy to sort out. The take-over was not done with any consensus within the ruling family in Sharjah, and was vigorously disputed by Shaikh Sultan, so the move was not seen as a normal internal succession.

Secondly, Sharjah is a constituent emirate of the United Arab Emirates, and in these circumstances the positions of the other emirates become very important. Over the afternoon it emerged that the government of Abu Dhabi favoured the take-over, and as a consequence of the Abu Dhabi position, the federal ministries moved to support Shaikh Abdul Aziz.

However, the attitude of the rest of the UAE was not clear at all, and it was vital for Gulf News to know the position of the other emirates on this issue.

At such a time the editorial department has to work closely with the owners of a newspaper, and the editors had kept Obaid Humaid Al Tayer, the Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief, informed of events all through the day, liaising with him on how the coverage might eventually run.

Difficult position

All through the long evening, the federal government kept making clear its view that the new ruler of Sharjah was Shaikh Abdul Aziz, but Gulf News had to insist that it reserved its options on how to cover the events in Sharjah. This was not an easy position for the newspaper to maintain.

Eventually, well after midnight, it became clear that the government of Dubai did not support the coup, and it considered the rightful ruler of Sharjah to be Shaikh Sultan. This meant that Gulf News went ahead and published a paper that did not announce any change in the leadership, and when Shaikh Sultan returned from London the story was front page.

Until the coup was resolved, Shaikh Sultan stayed in the Dubai Ruler's guest palace in Jumeirah, and Gulf News published pictures of him being greeted by leading members of the ruling familes of other emirates and senior citizens.

On June 20, the Supreme Council met in Al Ain and reinstated Shaikh Sultan as ruler, after hearing a report from a committee made up of their Highnesses the rulers of Ras Al Khaimah, Ajman and Fujairah and Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

Gulf News' banner headline ‘Sultan is Ruler of Sharjah' led the report the next day.

Over the following days the newspaper reported further meetings of the Supreme Council and events in Sharjah. Shaikh Sultan returned to his emirate as the UAE returned to normality, and Sharjah's tumultuous week started to fade into history.

Reporting the Kuwait invasion

On August 2, 1990, the world was stunned when Saddam Hussein's Iraqi army invaded the peaceful GCC nation of Kuwait. This outrageous aggression was committed without provocation.

It was widely reported all over the world in the international media, but the practice at the time in the Gulf states was for local media to wait for government confirmation.

Unfortunately, this was not forthcoming as the UAE authorities were focusing on how to respond to the invasion of their GCC ally.

Gulf News spent most of the day of the invasion gathering reports from Kuwait. The brutality of the invasion was shocking, as the Iraqi army stormed into Kuwait destroying and looting. But as the day moved into evening, there was still no formal confirmation from the UAE government that the invasion had happened, and it was appearing quite possible that the newspaper would be forced to ignore the most important news event in the region for decades.

Late in the evening, Gulf News called the authorities and indicated that the news was too large to be ignored and it had to be printed.

The next morning Gulf News was the only newspaper in the Gulf to carry the news. By doing so, it had helped to establish a new standard of openness, which the authorities and society were happy to continue and build on.

By having the courage to take such actions, the newspaper has built a relationship of trust with its readers and with all sections
of society.

Gulf News goes to court

In 1999, Gulf News had to go to court to defend a basic right, which is to be able to report a dispute as long as it is done fairly and accurately. This is fundamental for any newspaper since nearly all stories involve some kind of dispute somewhere. But at the time in the UAE, to report an allegation including the names of the parties tended to be treated as supporting the charge, rather just reporting an allegation, which was no more than that, and would have to be proved in court later.

In June 1999, Gulf News reported a dispute between a patient of the American Hospital who was dissatisfied with the treatment he had received to his knee, and alleged that he had suffered permanent damage from the operation. The hospital denied this, pointing out in detail what they had done to make the operation a success.

It was important that Gulf News ran a story that included comments from both the patient and the hospital, and that the newspaper was careful to follow the requirements of the UAE Press and Publication Law, which insists on balanced reporting.

Nonetheless, the American Hospital took the view that this story damaged its reputation and it launched a civil case for damages. It also referred the case to the Public Prosecutor's office, which investigated and agreed to launch a parallel criminal case. Gulf News defended itself vigorously at the Court of First Instance and won both the civil and criminal cases. The Public Prosecution dropped its charges at this stage, but the civil case ran all the way through the Appeals Court and 18 months later to the ultimate Court of Cassation in December 2000, where Gulf News won again.

Gulf News had to fight this case to maintain its self respect, but the case was important for all media organisations in the UAE, since it was a crucial affirmation of the media's right to work. What was at stake was any newspaper or other media organisation's right to report a dispute, which is a vital part of any reporting function. There was nothing wrong with the story, which fulfilled the law completely, carried both sides of the argument, and was balanced, and factually correct. The only reason to attack the story was anger from an organisation at having one of its disputes publically aired.

The importance of the case was that all media organisations report disputes, and if this case had been lost, it would have set a dangerous precedent in favour of silence, which in time would have reduced the ability of the media in the UAE to be able to operate as a guardian of the public interest.

Splashing the Saddam capture

On December 14, 2003, the American forces announced that they had caught Saddam Hussein hiding in a small hole in the earth under a trap door in a mud shack.

Gulf News faced the major challenge of how to present such a startling event, making sure that the pages showed the readers that the newspaper thought this was a major turning point in what was happening in Iraq.

Saddam's capture was a crucial success for the Americans, since they had invaded Iraq on March 20, 2003 to remove him from office, and their failure to find him after nine months had become a major embarrassment, not least because they had also failed to find Osama Bin Laden, their other major target in the concurrent war on terror.

Visually striking

Saddam's capture was a defining moment in the process of occupying Iraq, and Gulf News needed to do something very dramatic.

The editors worked with the designers to come up with the most effective front page which, in the end, broke all the normal rules and used a single picture of Saddam's face filling the front page, using one dramatic word: Captured.

The full page close-up image of the former dictator showed emotions of defeat and failure in his exhausted face, very far removed from the arrogant and confident man who had dominated much of the Arab world for decades.

The use of his face to tell the story helped to shift thousands of readers' perceptions of Saddam, forcing them to realise that he was not a hero or victim, but a horrifying ruler who had abused his position and was going to be brought to justice.