Her Royal Highness Princess Rym Ali
Pro-Chancellor, distinguished friends, colleagues, graduands and guests.
Her Royal Highness Princess Rym Ali is the founder of the Jordan Media Institute, a non-profit organisation whose aim is to establish an Arab center of excellence for journalism education. She has also been member of the Board of Commissioners of the Royal Film Commission for Jordan since July 2005.
Born in Cairo in 1969, the Princess’ background has meant that she has always been fascinated by different cultures. She is the daughter of Lakhdar Brahimi, the former Algerian Minister for Foreign Affairs, and her mother is half Croatian and half Armenian. She was raised in London and Algeria, experiencing both the wonders of a major international city and the peacefulness of the desert. Travelling was a large part of her childhood experience.
As a child she had an interest in archaeology, but as she grew up she became increasingly interested in more recent history. She has always enjoyed reading the newspapers, as a child she would sometimes read them out aloud for her parents. Her father would tell her anecdotes about his experience of some of the key moments in the history of her region of the world, and this encouraged her awareness of the importance of the media in reporting people’s lives as their histories unfolded around them.
Her parents had many friends in the media, and through listening to them and to their stories she became interested in the media profession. She remembers one particular family friend, Alexander Joannides, who worked for Reuters covering many events around the Mediterranean. He was especially encouraging and supportive from her first interest in the media through to the start of her career.
A graduate of Columbia University’s School of Journalism, the Princess also holds a Master of Philosophy in Political Science from the Institut d’Études Politiques in Paris (1991) and a Master of Arts in English Literature from the Sorbonne. Her time in France brought her into contact with one of the other important influences in her career, the French journalist Francoise Chipaux, who worked for Le Monde for over forty years.
Francoise has been a mentor and a close friend since the Princess’s student days right through to spells on assignment together for different media providers in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Prior to marrying His Royal Highness Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein in 2004, Princess Rym worked extensively for international broadcasters, including CNN, where she began as a producer in 1998 and later worked as a Baghdad correspondent from 2001 until 2004. She also developed her portfolio working for the BBC World Service, Dubai TV, Bloomberg TV, Radio Monte-Carlo Moyen-Orient and United Press International-UPI.
In 2007, the Princess set up the Jordan Media Institute. Its goal is to become a Centre of Excellence in journalism education in Jordan and the region. The Institute provides two strands of services – a one year practical masters course in Journalism and journalism training programmes, both in Arabic. The goal is to offer the best standards of journalistic practice with an emphasis on the traditional aspects of journalism such as writing and reporting, ethics and community issues. This, combined with new media courses, will enable its graduates to compete regionally and internationally. The Jordan Media Institute has also been one of the partner organisations in The Majid AlSadi Changing Lives Programme.
Princess Rym Ali received a prestigious Alumni Award from the Columbia University School of Journalism in April 2011. In July 2011, she was also awarded the ‘Best International Journalist’ prize at the 32nd Ischia International Journalism Awards Ceremony, one of the most renowned journalistic awards in Italy. In September 2011, the Princess was decorated with the award of French Knight of the Legion of Honor by the French Ambassador to Jordan. In October 2012, she received the Excellence in Media Award from the Global Thinkers Forum.
She and Prince Ali live in Amman with their two children. In the midst of her busy professional life, she still finds great comfort from her family, from her hobbies, and from the wonderful natural beauty of her country.
In recognition of her outstanding contribution to the field of Journalism and Media and as founder of the Jordan Media Institute, Coventry University, by decision of the Academic Board, has the privilege of conferring the Degree of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, on Her Royal Highness Princess Rym Ali.