Dubai: Saira Menezes Bids Goodbye to 'Evening Post'
by Walter Nandalike
Editor-in-chief
Dubai, Feb 20: Saira Menezes, who joined UAE's The Emirates Evening Post (EPP) as editor in 2005, has decided to quit the region's first afternoon daily.
Under her stewardship, the Evening Post underwent a series of editorial changes, including making the switch from broadsheet to tabloid size.
Speaking to daijiworld.com, Saira Menezes said, " After over a year with the Evening Post as editor, I have decided to move on. I had joined the paper in October 2005 to relaunch it on January 1, 2006 in tabloid format. That process of reorientation, transition and makeover is finally complete and the task given to me at that time has been accomplished. I can confidently say that the UAE's only eveninger and its editorial team are well on their way to take other challenges head on."
"February 25 is my last day with the paper. I will not be joining any organization immediately. After returning from my vacation, I will consider the few projects that I have on hand and will be open to any new challenge offered to me."
Saira is one of the few prominent women journalists the Mangalorean community has produced. She made her name at the national level, and was featured among the 50 rising stars, according to 'The Week' survey.
She was earlier the editor of Savvy, a women's magazine and Sunday Mid Day, the weekend edition of the Mumbai-based noon paper, Mid Day.
Walter Nandalike, Editor-in-Chief of daijiworld.com spoke to Saira Menezes on the truth behind her exit from Emirates post. Here are the excerpts:
1. What is your opinion on press freedom in UAE?
On the day I first landed in the UAE, Sheikh Zayed Road was blocked because several hundred labourers were agitating for better working conditions. It made headlines in all the mainline newspapers, including the freshly launched, authority-owned Emirates Today. To me, it was a sign that things were changing in the UAE. In the time I have spent in the Evening Post, I realized that it is possible to do "real" journalism and that often, most journalists fight shy of taking a stand because they impose a kind of self-censorship on themselves. On the flip side, there were times when one had to forgo top-rate stories because information was inaccessible. I think that one way of leaping across that hurdle would be by learning to speak Arabic. One really can't hope to understand a people or a system without knowing the language that runs the system.
2. In what way EEP is different than daily regular newspapers (Khaleej Times, Gulf News etc)
The Evening Post is the UAE's only afternoon paper. Given that, it enjoys an unbeatable time advantage over the morningers because it provides the reader with the same day's top stories. Throw in the tabloid size and you have a winner on your hands.
3. What made you to leave your job so soon from EPP?
When I first joined, I came in with the clear mandate of revamping the Evening Post. To my mind, the job is done. What lies ahead is building on what has been created while remaining true to the systems that have been institutionalised. The senior members of the editorial team have the capability and the experience to steer the paper through the new set of challenges.
4. Where would you prefer to continue your journalism mission - India or abroad?
Doing journalism in India has special meaning for me because of a heightened sense of ownership and belonging one has in one's own country, which cannot be matched anywhere in the world. Both of these aspects are crucial to doing any kind of meaningful journalism. Having said that, given my experience in restructuring papers, if there is an opportunity to start up, stream line or realign systems in a news organization in any other part of the world, it would undoubtedly interest me.