His father, Ghassan Tueni, was born into a prominent Lebanese Greek Orthodox family from Achrafieh, Beirut for more than 3 centuries, and was a veteran journalist and politician.

His paternal grandfather was Gebran Tueni, a famous journalist and an Arab Renaissance figure who founded Al Ahrar and later on An Nahar.

At age 18, Gebran Tueni experienced the horror of sectarian intolerance with the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war.

[6] Tueni's journalism career started when he became the general manager, editor in chief and editorialist for the weekly magazine An Nahar Arab and International that he and other journalists launched in Paris in 1979 and that was published until 1990.

[10] In March 2005, he contributed to the Cedar Revolution demonstrations during which he gave the speech, "In the name of God We, Muslims and Christians, Pledge that united we shall remain to the end of time to better defend our Lebanon".

[11][12][13] Tueni was a staunch advocate for freedom of speech and promoted critical discourse regarding the regime of Hafez al-Assad.

He viewed Bashar al-Assad as a "new generation" leader and harbored hopes that his leadership would finally herald a transformation in Syria's political dynamics concerning Lebanon.

[7] However, as Bashar al-Assad aligned himself with then-Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, instead of backing Lebanon's "democratic forces", Tueni's optimism gradually waned.

After the assassination of Rafic Hariri, he learned that he was on the top of a hit list and started taking preventative steps, like switching cars every other day.

However, Syrian authorities denied responsibility or complicity and stated that the crime was aimed at directing fresh accusations against Syria.

[15] Commentators stressed that the explosion occurred only a few hours before the UN investigating commission was due to submit an update of its report on the Hariri assassination to then-UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

[15] In response, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora announced that he would ask the United Nations Security Council to investigate Syrian complicity in the deaths of Tueni and other prominent anti-Syrian figures.

Before his death, Tueni was campaigning for an international probe into recently discovered mass graves in Anjar next to the main Syrian intelligence headquarters.

The Fellows were planned to undertake a major research project focusing on the areas of freedom of speech, arbitrary detention, or discrimination against minorities, displaced populations, or other vulnerable groups in one or more countries in the Middle East.