It was around 5:30 a.m. when my cameraman Ramil knocked on the door of my room. “We have to go now. Romeo has arrived and is waiting outside the hostel,” he said. I was already up, well prepared for the meeting with one of the leaders of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) in Sulu Island. Romeo was the guide and driver set to take me and my team into the island’s jungle to meet this leader.
The plan was to return within three hours to Jolo, the island’s main city. I had promised Jolo’s mayor to attend the Philippine Independence Day ceremony. This was on June 12, 2012. I was working on a documentary about Mindanao and the Muslims of the southern Philippines, which required me to travel from Manila to Sulu Island.
My Filipino coordinator said he was tied up with his work in Manila but had arranged all the interviews and made all the arrangements for my visit to Zamboanga City and Sulu Island, including the interview with the ASG leader. He kept saying: “My brother, you will be in good hands.”
The night before I was kidnapped, he sent me a text saying the same thing. Something inside me warned me of a lurking threat but I ignored the feeling. My coordinator arranged the accommodation for me and my team at Sulu Students Hostel and insisted that I refuse to stay with the governor of the island or with the mayor of Jolo. “They should not know about our plans to meet with the ASG leader,” he said.
As Romeo drove toward the jungle, I had a feeling I would not return soon. The car crashed three times during the journey; the third time, Romeo left the car on the road and told us (I and my team) to continue on foot. This added to my feeling that something was not right; you cannot just leave the car on the road and continue with your journey unless it is serious.
The journalist in me ignored every sign of threat and kept me going. “You should do this scoop, meet the ASG leader in the jungle and get a first-hand account of the conflict in Mindanao,” I thought to myself. I had interviewed all the other parties involved in the conflict of Mindanao by then.
We were deep inside the Patikol area, ASG’s stronghold. Armed men from every side of the jungle appeared with guns and munitions. Abu Rami, an ASG leader who was later ambushed and killed by the Philippine army, gave money to Romeo, who left us with our kidnappers.
I spent 18 months in captivity, in the heart of the Sulu jungle, living among ignorant people, to say the least. When Sheikh Mohammed Hussein, the grand mufti of Jerusalem, appealed to my kidnappers to release me, they had hardly heard of Jerusalem. One of them asked me about it, to which I said: “Have you heard about Al-Aqsa Mosque?” He said: “Yes, that is in Spain?” I could barely keep myself from bursting into laughter.
I was astonished by their ignorance and could hardly believe what I heard from them in the first six months of my kidnapping. But soon I realized the jungle had its own world disconnected from the outside. I appeared alien to them. During the first month of my kidnapping, all the men, women and children would gather around my hut watching me carefully, as if I was a new creature that landed in their world.
When the mufti of Sulu, Abd Al-Baqi Abu Bakr, contacted them via a local mediator and asked them to release me, denouncing their act, they said about him: “He is not an honest man, he is astray and wants to take ransom money for himself.” I told them: “But is it right for you to deprive me of my freedom and demand to have my money, which you have no right to?”
Five years since my kidnapping, the situation in the southern Philippines does not seem to be getting any better. Kidnappings and executions of hostages continue. Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert Hall were beheaded in April and July 2016, respectively, by an ASG thug named Ben who was an illiterate and former drug addict at best.
The ASG has declared its allegiance to Daesh. In addition to groups that split from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), such as the Maute Group and a faction of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), groups from ASG joined Daesh in the Philippines and formed the State of the Philippines led by Insilon Hapilon, a former ASG leader not very different from Ben.
The Philippine government and armed forces are not innocent. They are part of the problem and their policies over the years have resulted in a sense of anger, grievance and hatred toward the state among the Muslim population in the south.
The ASG element that joined Daesh found its new umbrella very similar in its actions, as both have the same traditions and mindset. These people have been kidnapping, robbing and killing, apparently for the cause of the Moros, and allowed their ignorance to justify their ugly deeds.
People who do not respect their word, they promised to give me an interview but betrayed my team and I. They never kept a single promise they made regarding my release. Even Romeo, whom Shakespeare made a symbol of love and loyalty, turned out to be a traitor by being associated with the ASG.
• Baker Atyani can be reached on Twitter @atyanibaker.
Journalist Baker Atyani looks back on kidnap ordeal in Philippine jungle
Journalist Baker Atyani looks back on kidnap ordeal in Philippine jungle
A look back at how Arab News marked its 50th anniversary
- In a year crowded with news, the paper still managed to innovate and leverage AI to become available in 50 languages
- Golden Jubilee Gala, held at the Diplomatic Quarter in Riyadh, now available to watch on YouTube
RIYADH: In 2025, the global news agenda was crowded with headlines concerning wars, elections and rapid technological change.
Inside the newsroom of Arab News, the year carried additional weight: Saudi Arabia’s first English-language daily marked its 50th anniversary.
And with an industry going through turmoil worldwide, the challenge inside the newsroom was how to turn a midlife crisis into a midlife opportunity.
For the newspaper’s team members, the milestone was less about nostalgia than about ensuring the publication could thrive in a rapidly changing and evolving media landscape.
“We did not want just to celebrate our past,” said Faisal J. Abbas, editor-in-chief of Arab News. “But more importantly, we were constantly thinking of how we can keep Arab News relevant for the next five decades.”
The solution, he added, came down to two words: “Artificial intelligence.”
For the Arab News newsroom, AI was not a replacement for journalism but as a tool to extend it.
“It was like having three eyes at once: one on the past, one on the present, and one on the future,” said Noor Nugali, the newspaper’s deputy editor-in-chief.
One of the first initiatives was the 50th anniversary commemorative edition, designed as a compact historical record of the region told through Arab News’ own reporting.
“It was meant to be like a mini history book, telling the history of the region using Arab News’ archive with a story from each year,” said Siraj Wahab, acting executive editor of the newspaper.
The issue, he added, traced events ranging from the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war in 1975 to the swearing-in of Donald Trump, while also paying homage to former editors-in-chief who shaped the newspaper’s direction over five decades.
The anniversary edition, however, was only one part of a broader strategy to signal Arab News’ focus on the future.
To that end, the paper partnered with Google to launch the region’s first AI-produced podcast using NotebookLM, an experimental tool that synthesizes reporting and archival material into audio storytelling.
The project marked a regional first in newsroom-led AI audio production.
The podcast was unveiled during a special 50th anniversary ceremony in mid-November, held on the sidelines of the Arab Media Forum, hosted by the Dubai Future Foundation. The event in the UAE’s commercial hub drew regional media leaders and officials.
Remarks at the event highlighted the project as an example of innovation in legacy media, positioning Arab News as a case study in digital reinvention rather than preservation alone.
“This is a great initiative, and I’m happy that it came from Arab News as a leading media platform, and I hope to see more such initiatives in the Arab world especially,” said Mona Al-Marri, director-general of the Government of Dubai Media Office, on the sidelines of the event.
“AI is the future, and no one should deny this. It will take over so many sectors. We have to be ready for it and be part of it and be ahead of anyone else in this interesting field.”
Behind the scenes, another long-form project was taking shape: a documentary chronicling Arab News’ origins and its transformation into a global, digital-first newsroom.
“While all this was happening, we were also working in-house on a documentary telling the origin story of Arab News and how it transformed under the current editor into a more global, more digital operation,” said Nugali.
The result was “Rewriting Arab News,” a documentary examining the paper’s digital transformation and its navigation of Saudi Arabia’s reforms between 2016 and 2018. The film charted editorial shifts, newsroom restructuring and the challenges of reporting during a period of rapid national change.
The documentary was screened at the Frontline Club in London, the European Union Embassy, Westminster University, and the World Media Congress in Bahrain. It later became available on the streaming platform Shahid and onboard Saudi Arabian Airlines.
It was also nominated for an Association for International Broadcasting award.
In early July, a special screening of the documentary took place at the EU Embassy in Riyadh. During the event, EU Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Christophe Farnaud described the film as an “embodiment” of the “incredible changes” that the Kingdom is undergoing.
“I particularly appreciate … the historical dimension, when (Arab News) was created in 1975 — that was also a project corresponding to the new role of the Kingdom,” Farnaud said. “Now the Kingdom has entered a new phase, a spectacular phase of transformation.”
Part of the documentary is narrated by Prince Turki Al-Faisal, the former Saudi ambassador to the US, who in the film delves into the paper’s origins.
The grand slam of the anniversary year was the Golden Jubilee of Arab News gala, held in late September in Riyadh’s Diplomatic Quarter.
Hosted by the Dean of Diplomatic Corps in Saudi Arabia and Ambassador of Djibouti to Riyadh Dya-Eddine Said Bamakhrama, the evening featured a keynote address by Prince Turki, who spoke about Arab News’ founding under his father, the late King Faisal, and its original mission to present the Kingdom to the English-speaking world.
Arab News was established in Jeddah in 1975 by brothers Hisham and Mohammed Ali Hafiz under the slogan to give Arabs a voice in English while documenting the major transformations taking place across the Middle East.
The two founders were honored with a special trophy presented by Prince Turki, Assistant Media Minister Abdullah Maghlouth, Editor-in-Chief Abbas, and family member and renowned columnist Talat Hafiz on behalf of the founders.
During the gala, Abbas announced Arab News’ most ambitious expansion yet: the launch of the publication in 50 languages, unveiled later at the World Media Congress in Madrid in cooperation with Camb.AI.
The Madrid launch in October underscored Arab News’ aim to reposition itself not simply as a regional paper, but as a global platform for Saudi and Middle Eastern perspectives.
The event was attended by Princess Haifa bint Abdulaziz Al-Mogrin, the Saudi ambassador to Spain; Arab and Spanish diplomats; and senior editors and executives.
As the anniversary year concluded, Arab News released the full video of the Golden Jubilee Gala to the public for the first time, making the event accessible beyond the room in which it was held.
For a newspaper founded in an era of typewriters and wire copy, the message of its 50th year was clear: longevity alone is not enough. Relevance, the newsroom concluded, now depends on how well journalism adapts without losing sight of its past.
