زعيمة الصحف العالمية .. معلم الصحافة والإنشاء

Leader of international newspapers

The British newspaper The Times was rightly considered the leader and most influential of the European press, because it followed the principles we mentioned above and was not the most widely circulated newspaper. In 1788, it announced its plan as follows:

1 - One of the most important tasks of newspapers is ensuring accuracy and honesty in news of all kinds. For this purpose, The Times was established and at its service are a group of editors, writers, correspondents, and informants, “each in the newspaper’s topics assigned to him.”

2 - Parliament’s research is published in the utmost correctness and without partisanship, with the utmost clarity possible and avoiding everything that might mislead the public in its expression. Political incidents, whether internal or external, are published to inform the public of the most accurate and up-to-date news. The same applies to publishing commercial news, because trade is the highest source of national wealth, as well as what concerns theatre, fashion, and other news in the newspaper sections.

3 - There is no place in the Thames for expressions that carry a meaning other than what they were intended for, and their expressions involve the utmost politeness and decency and are far from everything that comes from the ear, which lowers the gaze and makes the face turn red with shame.

The Thames put this plan into practice, and its fame grew. John Walter began working on this newspaper in the year 1785, and he continued to follow the path of improvement until he left it - after realizing his weakness in the year 1796 - to his youngest son, John Walter II, a graduate of Oxford University, and the number of newspapers distributed was This is many times more than what any other morning newspaper distributes. The boy followed his father's path, and was even more assertive and bold than him, until he attained a significant level of strength, which led some to say: It had become the largest force in the country. John persevered in adopting two main principles for him: the first was government. The second is that the public has the right to know the news without delay. For the sake of these two principles, he often exposed himself and his newspaper to danger, until the government considered him a stubborn opponent, according to Tawfiq’s leadership of public opinion: because of the principles he followed throughout forty years of his life after the efforts made by his father. He constantly improved the newspaper's printing presses, and spared no effort in relying on the strongest informants, writers, and delegates to maintain its strength and authority. Therefore, with its overwhelming popularity, it was able to establish ministries whenever it wanted and to topple them whenever it wanted, and its authority extended to other foreign countries, with kings and governments counting on it. In all of this, she tries to follow the path of fairness, no matter the sacrifices and risks it costs her, even if that means opposing her audience on issues in which she sees herself as right.

In the year 1929, the British government granted her a shield of nobility, and on the shield there is an image of an arm from which lightning bolts are thrown, in appreciation of her integrity, sacrifices, and steadfastness in principle. During the last war, it was published in six pages, and it had an interesting section for letters from readers, and on the first pages there were various advertisements with precise lettering, and it was not full of large headlines that carried little underneath them. This is the only newspaper that is considered a national institution. Its owners wanted to ensure that a commodity would not be sold to the highest bidder in the future and fall into the wrong hands, so they placed the right to sell it in the hands of a good group whose members were the chief justice, the president of the Royal Society, and the director of the Bank of England. By doing this, they taught the world's newspapers one of the deepest lessons in appreciating the message of the great art of journalism.