When inveterate letter writer Francis Andrew left the Eastern Province for Jordan in December 2001, it was thought that the pages of Arab News might finally be freed from his contentious commentary. As all of you know, that never happened. For better or worse, Andrew’s letters still appear. Like so many other former expatriates, Andrew discovered arabnews.com. Thus he has been able to continue torturing liberal thinkers from his perch out in cyberspace.

From the moment the Internet came to Saudi Arabia, there was a push to get Arab News online. Within months of the website’s launch, the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001 was upon the world. Arabnews.com was inundated by a global audience searching for answers. Since that time the website’s importance has never diminished. During the recent war in Iraq we struggled to cope with more than two million hits daily. Each time there is another Middle East tragedy the number of visitors to the website increases. It seems that for millions of our readers around the world, satellite news sound bites are simply not enough.

Through our online presence, Arab News has in many ways become a strong voice for the Kingdom. Since most of the world cannot read Arabic, much of the press from Saudi Arabia finds no favor with audiences outside the Middle East. Arabnews.com has endeavored to fill a growing thirst for information and provide firsthand, comprehensive news and analyses that help people form their own conclusions about events in the Kingdom and the region. When people in other lands are trying to create a complete picture about events in the Middle East, arabnews.com is there to give a local viewpoint. As everyone knows, much of the information posted out on the Internet is suspect. Fact and fiction are frequently difficult to tell apart. But as a well established news organization, Arab News is a trusted source and arabnews.com has inherited that legacy.

Most readers don’t know that the news appears each day on arabnews.com largely through the efforts of one man. Ammar Mangorangca is our Online Editor. A Filipino national, Mangorangca joined the Arab News family in December 2000, three months before the launch of arabnews.com on March 1, 2001. Quiet and unassuming, he is the driving force behind our online edition. After all the articles are written and the newspaper is rolling off the presses, Mangorangca begins his job. He is the last man to leave the office each day at 4 a.m., after all the fresh content has been posted on our website.

When arabnews.com was first launched it was hard to imagine what it would become. The informative side of it was clear. However, no one would have thought that our online edition would help create a community and that is exactly what has happened. Daily we receive e-mail from people who used to work and live in the Kingdom. Many have quite a fondness for the Middle East and are pleased that even from a distance they can stay up to date on happenings here. More than a few have written to tell us that their years in the Saudi Arabia have been some of the happiest of their lives.

Arabnews.com has definitely made the editorial team more aware that our planet is nothing more than a global village. Local stories receive as many comments from readers in the US and Asia as they do from readers here in the Kingdom. Since word of arabnews.com has spread, at times we have had to cope with an enormous onslaught of unpleasant e-mail. After being shocked by the first few thousand ugly missives, we now take the good and the bad in stride. One thing is certain. We no longer consider Arab News to be simply a newspaper. Now we are an organization on a mission; a mission to promote understanding and tolerance for all peoples.

(Molouk Y. Ba-Isa, Editor, Gulf, is a Saudi national of American heritage. Her column Local View anchors Compunet every Tuesday in Arab News.)