Khaled Almaeena, a veteran journalist and media legend from Saudi Arabia and Chairman-Executive Board of TECHx, received the World Peace Award for his contributions to the cause of fostering peace in the region.
He was honored at the United Nations International Peace Day celebrations in Dubai’s World Trade Center, which were organized by the Middle East chapter of Japan’s Council for Universal Peace and attended by many peace and religious dignitaries from around the world.
“It was an honor and a pleasure to receive this international peace award from His Highness Dr. Obaid Bin Suhail Al Maktoum at the world peace conference which was organised by Council for Universal Peace at the Dubai World Trade centre, ” said Khaled Almaeena
Addressing the Global Peace Conference Summit – UN Peace Day theme of 2022, “End racism. Build peace,” Khaled Almaeena said, “Interfaith harmony is the need of the hour and to promote the message of tolerance and affinity among people of different faiths to make a peaceful world to live in. Racism and racial discrimination take many forms and impact all aspects of life. Every day, each one of us can stand up against racial prejudice and disrespectful attitudes.”
“Let’s build a world beyond racism and discrimination, where we all exercise our human rights,” he added.
For nearly thirty years, Mr. Khaled Almaeena has held a variety of positions in Saudi media, including Chairman of an Arab Business Media Group, Saudi Television News Anchor, Talk Show Host, Radio Announcer, and Journalist. As Editor-in-Chief of Arab News, the Middle East’s largest English-language newspaper, Almaeena guided the publication through the Gulf Crisis and pioneered the return of newspapers to a liberated Kuwait. Under his leadership, the paper was the first to send a Saudi reporter to Iraq in 2003 to report extensively from the front lines. Khaled is currently the Chairman-Executive Board of TECHx Media.
He was also involved in Palestine reporting, and he was the first Arab English newspaper journalist to interview Palestine Leader Yasser Arafat following the 1982 Beirut invasion. Almaeena has represented Saudi media at Arab summits in Baghdad, Morocco, and elsewhere as a Leading Journalist. He was one of the top four journalists covering the historic resumption of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Russia in 1990. As part of this diplomatic mission, he also visited the United States and China. He has also interviewed world leaders for peace, such as Nelson Mandela, the champion of peace.
Almaeena’s political and social columns appear in Gild News – Dubai, Asharaq Al-Awsat, Al-Eqtisadiah, Arab News, Times of Oman, Asian Age, Al Arabia, Makkah, and the China Post. His interest in sports drew him to the successful promotion of cricket, squash, and tennis tournaments in the Kingdom. Almaeena took over as Editor-in-Chief of Arab News in 1982. He stepped down in 1993 to become the head of Saudi Public Relations (SRPC), a position he held for five years. He returned to the top editorship of Arab News in 1998 and remained there until October 2011. He became Editor-in-Chief of the Saudi Gazette, an English daily published in Jeddah, in April 2012, and held the position until the end of April 2014.
Mr. Almaeena received Pakistan’s highest civilian award, the Sitara-e-Imtiyaz (Star of Excellence), in January 2009. He is a visiting non-resident scholar at the University of Central Florida and received his Doctorate in Humanities from Mindanao University in the Philippines in February 2009.
