jordan pulse -

Interview by Atef Abu Hajar
In an age when technology is accelerating and print journalism is receding before digital media, the name Ibrahim Al-Satari stands out as one of the lovers of Jordanian journalism who chose to make the archive a cultural and human mission.
His relationship with newspapers and magazines was never that of a passing reader. It was a passion that has spanned decades, beginning in the 1980s, when newspapers were a wide window onto thought, literature and politics.
From the beginning, Al-Satari understood that between the pages of newspapers lie stories worth preserving, names worth reviving, and subjects valuable enough to deserve to endure.
Over many years, he has gathered a rich print archive of Jordanian and Arab newspapers and magazines, which he kept out of love and care, not merely for the sake of collecting.
His passion did not stop at acquisition. It extended to researching and digging into different subjects that reveal unfamiliar sides of the lives of writers, politicians and journalists.
He has also helped bring journalistic memory back to life by supplying writers and journalists with old material of their own, which returned to them memories of their work and professional experiences.
This initiative has made his archive a bridge between past and present, bringing back into the light material that may have been lost to its authors and to readers' memory.
Al-Satari is distinguished by a refined journalistic sense and a deep understanding of the importance of the printed document in recording cultural, political and social life.
His experience is not just a personal story with journalism. It raises an important question about the responsibility of cultural and media institutions to protect the national press archive.
In this interview, we look closely at Ibrahim Al-Satari's experience, exploring the beginnings of his passion, the secrets of his journey with newspapers and magazines, and his vision for the future of Jordan's press memory.
Q1: How did your relationship with print journalism begin, and when did your interest turn into a real passion?
A: My relationship with journalism began with my love of reading, especially newspapers. In 1984, I worked at the Jordanian newspaper Sawt Al-Shaab, which handled distribution of Kuwaiti newspapers to the markets. That experience let me see a variety of newspapers, and I was struck by their headlines, supplements and distinctive topics. From then on I began keeping some of them, and the interest gradually became a passion that has stayed with me for many years.
Q2: What led you to keep newspapers and magazines rather than just reading them?
A: I found in newspapers and magazines material worth keeping, whether for their subjects or for the information and stories they contained. I also realized that some press material can become hard to find with the passage of time. So I made a point of keeping whatever issues came into my hands, believing in their value as knowledge and as documentation.
Q3: How did you move from collecting newspapers to journalistic writing, and what were the main subjects that interested you?
A: I moved into writing after a period of reading and study, and I began publishing in the Jordanian magazine Al-Ithnayn during the 1980s. I was looking for topics with a different flavor from what was traditionally published, so I focused on the other face of writers, politicians and journalists, and on the hidden or unfamiliar aspects of their lives and experiences.
Q4: Your topics were distinguished by their variety and sometimes their strangeness. What kinds of issues were you looking for?
A: I tended toward topics that required research and digging, and that revealed sides many people didn't know. I wrote about writers who were announced dead while still alive, writers who refused prizes and honors, journalists who paid the price for their positions, and doctors who left medicine for literature. I also took an interest in politicians' relationships with their families, the lives of presidents' wives, journalists' beginnings, writers' last wills, and other subjects that combine documentation with intellectual intrigue.
Q5: You mentioned that writing before modern search engines required great effort. How did you gather information and verify it?
A: The topics I wrote about required consulting multiple references, searching old newspapers and magazines, and comparing information to arrive at the right material. At that stage, electronic search wasn't available the way we know it today, so getting information took time, effort and constant follow-up. My habit of collecting and keeping print material helped me find much of what served my topics.
Q6: What are the main sources of your press archive, and how did you manage to gather this many publications?
A: I relied on buying Jordanian and Arab newspapers and magazines, including Palestinian publications such as Kul Al-Arab and Al-Sinnara, along with magazines and newspapers from Kuwait, the UAE, Lebanon, Egypt and elsewhere. My friends also played an important role in enriching my collection. They knew how attached I was to newspapers and magazines, and some would call me when they wanted to get rid of old issues because of travel, moving or life circumstances, so I would go collect them and keep the valuable material in them.