Abdulaziz Al-Sayed

Abdulaziz Abdullah Al-Sayed is a Qatari broadcaster from the first generation of television professionals. Beginning as a freelance announcer at Qatar Radio in the mid-1970s, he became a broadcaster and producer at Qatar Television, Assistant Head and then Head of Announcers, and Head of News and Documentary Programmes. He was a member of the Arab States Broadcasting Union, chaired the Television Content and Quality Committee at Al Rayyan Television and served as Director-General of Al Rayyan Satellite Channels, contributing to programme development, restructuring and the recruitment of new talent. His radio and television documentaries received bronze, silver and gold awards, and he built a supportive family as a husband, father and grandfather.

He was born in Doha in 1959 and experienced a simple, spontaneous childhood. His early years coincided with an important period in Qatar’s history, beginning in the late 1950s, and he witnessed the social and educational transformation alongside his peers. He belonged to a generation moving confidently towards the future.

From his earliest years, he was surrounded by a stable and supportive family of eight. Despite modest means, his father worked hard to provide a decent life and devoted time and effort to educating and raising his children. He first worked in Qatar’s oil operations in Dukhan and later in the Engineering Department, which became the Ministry of Public Works after the formation of the first cabinet. He taught his children family solidarity, love of country, sincerity, patience and perseverance in education. Their mother devoted most of her time to their care, encouraging learning while preserving Qatari and Islamic values.

His childhood role models came from both family and school. His grandfather Ahmed was an imam and reciter of the Qur’an, while his uncle Ibrahim bin Khalil Al-Sayed—may God have mercy on him—inspired his love of poetry, literature and grammar. Arabic teachers Ghazi Badwan and Abdul Hamid Al-Siddiqi—may God have mercy on them—were virtuous educators, guides and supporters during primary school. They taught him Arabic and its grammar. He followed Badwan’s commentary at school celebrations with particular interest, passion and admiration; from that period, his enduring love of the microphone began.

The Qatar House of Books became an important outlet. Abdulla Abdul Rahman Qutba, Hassan Al-Sharif and Hosni Shehadeh—may God have mercy on them—encouraged him to visit, read magazines and borrow books. Their support planted a love of reading and learning and helped him refine his abilities in expression and writing.

His education began a few years after Qatar’s educational renaissance, when growing public engagement brought hundreds of pupils into Doha’s limited number of schools. In the mid-1960s, his father enrolled him at Khaled bin Al-Walid Primary School for Boys in Old Al Ghanim, where the family then lived. During summer, he attended the kuttab to study recitation, reading and memorisation of the Qur’an. Among his best-known teachers was Mulla Abdulaziz Hamid Al-Marwani—may God have mercy on him—under whose guidance he memorised, recited and completed the Qur’an. He continued at Doha Preparatory School, Qatar Preparatory School and Al-Istiqlal Secondary School for Boys. Social and family circumstances prevented him from continuing beyond two years of university study, but he kept developing his educational and cultural abilities through Arab and other media courses.

By the beginning of preparatory school, his interests included media, radio, literature, theatre, scientific hobbies and writing short stories, poetry and reflections for Al-Orouba magazine. He received encouragement from the late Abdulla bin Hussein Nimah, a leading figure in Qatari journalism, and from Mohammed Al-Fawal, known as Bujasim, and Ali Al-Hail on the readers’ page. His father also supported him, setting aside part of his modest salary to buy a recorder on which the young he developed his broadcasting talent with children from the freej.

His media personality began to form through the school radio at Doha Preparatory School in 1972 under the supervision of Thabet Najm Al-Din. A further important stage came at Al-Istiqlal Secondary School in 1976, with encouragement from headteacher Tawfiq Al-Qaisi and teachers Ahmed Al-Efrangi, Mohammed Dhiyab, Abdulla Al-Nour Al-Jili, Naeem Al-Sawaf and Kamal Ghazawi—may God have mercy on those who have passed away.

In high school, his interest in school journalism and theatrical acting emerged, and he participated, along with his fellow writer Sinan Abdul Rahman Al-Muslimani, in performing major roles in two plays: Al-Maw’id (The Appointment) and Tariq Bin Ziad, directed by Mahmoud Hassanein. The two plays won first prize in the School Theater Festival in the years 1976–1977.

At Al-Istiqlal School, he joined his cousin Mohammed Yaqoub Al-Sayed and colleagues including Saad Al-Dabbagh in designing and operating Qatar’s first school-based wireless radio station. Its limited signal covered daily school activities and events. Working with modest equipment, he used the station to present interactive interviews with prominent cultural, artistic and media figures visiting the school and the country. The project became a notable feature of a secondary school already recognised for its administration, teaching and extracurricular activity.

The school station was his first step, but joining Qatar Radio in 1977 gave his media identity its decisive shape and launched his professional path with the support of officials. Fawzi Al-Khamis guided him from Al-Istiqlal Secondary School to the radio and television studios, where the next stage of his journey began.

During this period, he learned from senior radio professionals. Adnan Al-Sharif first introduced him to listeners as a trainee announcer during the live programme “We Are With You”, which later developed into “My Beloved Homeland, Good Morning”. The journalist and poet Mohammed bin Ibrahim Al-Sayed, then Head of Announcers, provided further training and opportunities to join live programmes. Other mentors included the late Mohammed Sultan Al-Kuwari and radio engineer Adnan Al-Habbash.

His time at Qatar Radio gave him a rich practical education in conducting interviews and speaking effectively through the microphone. He presented segments on youth, sport, literature and other subjects and continued as a freelance contributor until mid-1978, when he moved to the next stage of his media career at Qatar Television.

The broadcaster Fawzi Turki Al-Khamis—may God have mercy on him—strongly influenced this stage of his career. Al-Khamis was a complete professional school for him and other media practitioners of his generation and played an important role in developing male and female presenters’ radio and television skills. He learned delivery, interviewing, documentary and recorded-programme preparation, and commentary on events in the field. He also closely observed the production of live programmes including “Open Day” and “Amateur Club”, as well as Al-Khamis’s celebrated programme “Al-Mada’in”.

In June 1978, he began his official work at Qatar Television as a broadcaster and producer after passing a brief camera test administered by Abdul Wahab Al-Mutawa, then Head of Announcers. His first appearance on air—and his first news bulletin—was with broadcaster Dhahabia Jabi. He later worked with Laila Al-Atrash, Kawthar Matar and Abdul Wahab Al-Mutawa. Other colleagues included Ahmed Al-Rashed, Mohammed Jassim Al-Ali, Ali Al-Mir, Amin Al-Tarifi, Ahmed Abdul-Malik, Ali Al-Hail, the late Ali Abdul-Rahman Al-Abbasi, Ghalib Al-Hadidi—may God have mercy on him—the late Jassim, Mohammed Ibrahim, Youssef Ibrahim, Talal Al-Sada and Talaat Mousa. Together, they presented live programmes for holidays and national occasions and delivered field coverage.

During his television career, he progressed from broadcaster and programme presenter to Assistant Head and then Head of the department responsible for male and female announcers. For more than twenty years, he was entrusted with recruiting and training broadcasters and programme presenters for radio and television. He later became Head of News and Documentary Programmes at Qatar Television, serving until 2016. In that role, he helped develop programmes and coverage of news, conferences and events alongside the late journalist Rajai Al-Alami, under news controller Mohammed Al-Kuwari and his assistant Mohammed Al-Sahlawi.

At Qatar Television, he presented documentaries, talk and news programmes and field coverage, and distinguished himself as a newsreader. Early encouragement came from Issa bin Ghanem Al Kuwari, Minister of Information; Mohammed Abdul Rahman Al Khulaifi, Undersecretary of the Ministry—may God have mercy on him; Mani’ Abdul Hadi Al Hajri; and Abdul Rahman Saif Al-Maadadi—may God have mercy on him. Support continued from Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani, Chairman of Qatar Media Corporation; Saad Al-Rumaihi, Director of Television; and Mohammed Al-Kuwari, who later held the same directorship. His Excellency Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Hamad bin Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, Minister of Culture and former Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation, asked him to recruit and develop broadcasting staff. His Excellency Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Thani Al Thani, Director of Television and later Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation, also entrusted him with developing television news personnel at the beginning of a new phase of modernisation.

Throughout his career, he presented news bulletins, broadcast official statements and participated in broadcaster-exchange programmes with Gulf and other Arab channels. He also delivered national coverage, including annual live commentary on the national procession from the Doha Corniche, and covered Gulf, Arab and Islamic summits for Qatar Television and Radio. He was among the first GCC television broadcasters to cover the inaugural Gulf summit in Abu Dhabi. Colleagues there included Majid Al Shatti of Kuwait, Suleiman Al-Issa of Saudi Arabia, Dhiyab Sakhr Al-Amiri of Oman, Ahmed Hussein of Bahrain and Ahmed Salem of the United Arab Emirates.

In recognition of his professional and media experience, he was seconded in 2016 to help develop the content of Al Rayyan’s satellite channels. He initially chaired the Content and Quality Committee and the Marketing Committee and, alongside media professional Hessa Al Suwaidi, trained male and female broadcasters. In 2020, he was appointed General Manager of Al Rayyan Satellite Channels. Until his contract ended in 2022, he worked to advance both channels by reorganising their structure, developing programmes and attracting a new generation of Qatari media professionals.

In 2001, he returned to radio to present the live weekly political and interactive programme “Hot Issues” with journalist Jassim Mohammed, continuing until 2018. He also presented “Islamic Personalities”, directed by Ali Al-Bahr, and, at the time documented by the source edition, hosted the live weekly programme “Opinion Trends” on Tuesdays alongside coverage of various events.

Across more than forty years, he made substantial contributions to Qatar Television, leaving a programme archive that included “Community Issues” with directors Ahmed Al-Sayed and Khalifa Al-Nisf. He also helped prepare, present and produce dozens of other programmes, notably “Heirs of the Prophets”, a documentary series on Islamic figures. Further work encompassed “Qatar Thirty Years Ago”, prepared and directed by Fawzi Al-Khamis in 1980; political, social, youth and news productions; and rare interviews with Qatari and Arab leaders. He joined delegations covering international visits by His Highness the Father Amir Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani, His Highness the Father Amir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. He provided annual commentary on the opening of the Shura Council, covered national projects and major conferences, managed press conferences for visiting leaders and presented joint Gulf and Arab evenings with regional broadcasters and the GCC Joint Program Production Institution.

In 1983, he became the first presenter of “The Police with You”, produced in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior’s Public Relations Department under the supervision of Marouf Rafiq—may God have mercy on him—Youssef Fakhro and Rashid Al-Atiq.

In 1994, he became the first Arab journalist sent on assignment by Qatar Television and Radio to enter the occupied Palestinian territories with a camera. He travelled through Palestinian towns and villages, Jerusalem and the occupied Golan, filing daily reports on life under occupation for the evening news. Three later visits enabled Qatar Television to produce more than twenty-eight documentary episodes on Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa Mosque and other Palestinian locations, creating a body of material later consulted by researchers and widely watched across the Arab world. His field reporting also covered the Battle of Khafji and the Qatari forces’ role in it; the invasion and liberation of Kuwait; conditions in Iraq; wars in Yemen, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Kosovo; and events in Palestine, Jerusalem, the Golan and Lebanon. He also made “Arabs of the Jahalin”, documenting the lives of Palestinian Bedouins. Accompanied by a media team, he worked in exceptionally dangerous conditions to secure distinctive coverage for Qatar Television.

He continually strengthened his professional abilities through the training opportunities available in a collegial and generous working environment. He completed specialised courses in audio and visual media and in writing for radio and television. His training encompassed live-interview management, field reporting, documentary production and news presentation. He applied those skills across more than thirty-five episodes of “Qatar TV Was There”, as well as in field commentary, documentaries and television news bulletins. He learned from senior media figures at institutions and training centres in Doha, including the Radio and Television Training Centre for the Arab Gulf States, then led by the late journalist Ismail Khaled—may God have mercy on him. Further courses took him to the BBC and to Kuwait, Baghdad, Damascus, Jordan and Tunisia.

He and his colleagues received sustained encouragement from officials at the Ministry of Information and Culture, later represented by the General Authority for Radio and Television and Qatar Media Corporation.

Throughout his media career, the journalist worked to transfer his acquired experiences to his male and female colleagues, based on the spirit of national and professional responsibility and his participation in developing the performance of his fellow male and female broadcasters who were new to Qatar Radio and Television, Al Rayyan Channel, and the Interior Radio Project, and to qualify them for fieldwork and advance them programmatically.

Throughout his media career, he shared his experience with colleagues as a matter of national and professional responsibility. He helped develop new male and female broadcasters at Qatar Radio and Television, Al Rayyan Television and the Ministry of Interior’s radio project, preparing them for fieldwork and improving their programme skills.

Alongside broadcasting, he maintained the interests in electronics and astronomy that had emerged during preparatory school. He was a founder and the first Secretary-General of the Qatar Scientific Club. The idea began in 1976 at Al-Istiqlal Secondary School with a group of Qatari young people under the supervision of teachers including Ali Faraj Al-Ansari, Tawfiq Al-Qaisi and Hamad bin Abdul Rahman Al-Rumaihi, Director of Al-Gharafa Youth Centre—may God have mercy on him. Participants included Dr Ibrahim Saleh Al-Nuaimi, Director of Qatar University; engineer Mohammed Yaqoub Al-Sayed; Yousef Mohammed Al-Kuwari; Abdul-Razzaq Ahmed; Rashid Ibrahim; and others. Their work helped formulate and establish the Club, which was formally launched in 1987 through the Supreme Council for Youth Welfare. He also served as a member of the Arab Federation of Science Clubs and of the Scientific Committee at the General Secretariat of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

For several successive years, he combined these scientific interests with broadcasting by presenting “Youth and Future Sciences”, the first specialist television programme for science enthusiasts.

His work earned the Distinguished Broadcaster and Programme Presenter Award at the 2001 Cairo Festival for “Public Opinion”; “Hot Issues” was also recognised. Both were among Qatar Television and Radio’s best-known Arab talk shows. He also received gold and silver honours for documentary and recorded radio and television programmes, notably “Heirs of the Prophets and Lamps of Darkness”, directed by Mohammed Al-Sumaiti; “Jerusalem in the Time of Occupation”; “Arabs of the Jahalin”, on Palestinian Bedouins living under occupation; “Haifa, Bride of Palestine”; and episodes of “Qatar Was There”, filmed in countries around the world. Collaborators on these productions included camera operators Hassan Youssef—may God have mercy on him—Abdul Hamid Sakuri, Adnan Mustafa, Mohammed Rashid Al-Hajri, Fahmi Farraj and Hussein Al-Tajer, as well as directors Mohammed Al-Sumaiti and Ali Youssef Al-Kuwari.

In 2020, the first season of “Al-Ra’eel in Qatar” won the award for Best Television Programme in Qatar at the Qatar Success Festival after receiving strong support from the public and viewers.