Ghada Karam Owais,[a] also spelledGhada Oueiss, is aLebanese journalist forAl Jazeera. She was born on November 6, 1977, and attended theLebanese University, graduating in 1999.[1] Owais joined Al Jazeera in 2006.[2] She speaks Arabic and English.[3]
Owais was born inBeirut to aMaronite Christian family. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication from the Lebanese University, majoring in Radio and Television in 1999. She worked as an anchor and field correspondent for the LebaneseANB channel from 2004 to 2006. She received a training course with theBritish Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) inLondon in 2004 and a training course with the BBC in Beirut in 2005. She had previously worked as a broadcaster and field reporter forAl-Jadeed TV for a year. From 2001 to 2004, she was a journalist and correspondent forAl-Afkar magazine from 2000 to 2001, in addition to preparing and presenting programs forVoice of Lebanon Radio for the period from 1999-2000.[4]
Owais joinedAl-Jazeera as a news anchor on April 26, 2006. She is noted for her special coverage of several high profile news stories, including:
Ghada was the first broadcaster to enter theGaza Strip withAl-Jazeera channel after the Israeli war on Gaza, there to provide special daily coverage of the situation after the war on Gaza for nearly a month during January–February 2009
She also presented onAl-Jazeera theMaghreb news bulletin fromRabat
She provided special coverage for the referendum on the secession ofsouthern Sudan from Khartoum, during which she conducted a live dialogue with Sudanese PresidentOmar Al-Bashir in January 2011
She covered the presidential elections inYemen in February 2012, where she moderated a dialogue with Lieutenant GeneralAli Mohsen Al-Ahmar, commander of the First Armored Division, who supported theYemeni revolution
She conducted an interview with the Maronite PatriarchBeshara Al-Rai in the summer of 2012 and covered the visit of thePope of theVatican to Lebanon during the same period
In March 2013, she presented in the field from the city ofAleppo in northernSyria, keeping pace with the second anniversary of the outbreak of theSyrian revolution.
Owais has been the target of several harassment, intimidation, and disinformation campaigns by state-sponsored actors due to her reporting, politics, gender, and her Christian faith. In 2020, images from her private smartphone were stolen in a spyware attack by foreign agents. The images were doctored to sexualize them, and disseminated to accuse her of promiscuity and prostitution. In December 2020, Owais sought legal action in a US court against a number of key international political actors, including both the crown prince ofSaudi Arabia and of theUnited Arab Emirates for allegedly coordinating the disinformation and harassment campaigns against her.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11]
In 2013, Owais received the May Chidiac Foundation Award for “Engaged Journalism”. In 2023, Owais weas honored as a ‘World Woman Hero’ by theWorld Woman Foundation inDavos, for demonstrating "the personal courage and professional commitment it takes to be a leading female TV journalist in the traditionally male-dominated Middle East".
