20 years ago I was a fresh-faced high school graduate leaving Dubai and bound for Beirut to start college. It seems a lifetime ago, an entirely different world in so many respects. That same year, 2002, also marked the beginning of CNN Arabic. Inaugurated at the freshly opened Dubai Media City and visited pre-launch by Queen Rania of Jordan, this was the vision of Rani Raad, now President of CNN Worldwide Commercial, and Caroline Faraj, who oversees CNN’s Arabic services to this day. At the heart of CNN’s new Arabic language, digital service was an ambition to reach, engage, better represent and understand those of us who speak one of the world’s most popular languages.
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