Rima Maktabi of Al Arabiya news channel, whose childhood was spent seeking shelter from the Lebanese civil war and who overcame stereotypes about her earlier career as a TV weather girl and game show host, embraced the challenge with bravery and determination to accurately disseminate the horrors of war.

“We saw death close up,” Maktabi told an interviewer for Lebanon’s An-Nahar, adding that her satellite channel obtained more than one exclusive during the 33 days of fierce battles.

Rima Maktabi, who covered the bombardment of the Dahiyeh for Al-Arabiyya news channel, described being a war reporter as "a strange but highly enriching experience. " "When working under tremendous pressure you grasp in few days much more than you learn in months of work at normal times," Maktabi said. Maktabi believes in the strength of covering war zones on the ground.

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