Al Arabiya (Arabic: العربية al-ʿArabīyah; "The Arabic One") is an Arabic-language television news channel. Launched on March 3, 2003,[1] the channel is based in Dubai Media City, United Arab Emirates, and is partly owned by the Saudi broadcaster Middle East Broadcasting Center (MBC).
A free-to-air channel, Al Arabiya carries news, current affairs, business and financial markets, sports, talk shows, and documentaries. It is rated among the top pan-Arab stations by Middle East audiences.[2] Al Arabiya says it tries to use neutral, non-supportive language when covering Islamist militant groups.[3]
On January 26, 2009, American president Barack Obama gave his first formal interview as president to the television channel.[4
Al Arabiya was created to be a direct competitor of the Qatar-based Al Jazeera.[2] According to a 2008 New York Times profile of Al Arabiya director Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed, the channel works "to cure Arab television of its penchant for radical politics and violence," with Al Jazeera as its main target.[3] Al-Rashed claims that Arab television's coverage of militant groups was overly friendly. "You have to remember, it was television that made bin Laden into a celebrity," Al-Rashed said. "That made Al Qaeda, and its recruiting, and this is how violence spread throughout the region." Al-Rashed also claims that Al Arabiya works to describe incidents of Islamist violence with neutral, non-supportive language. Al-Rashed says the channel has pushed Al Jazeera to be more critical of the insurgency in Iraq. "Now Al Jazeera is a very soft, reasonable station when it comes to the Iraqis," he claims. Al Arabiya has, in turn, drawn accusations of pro-American or pro-Saudi bias, in part due to MBC's Saudi ownership.[3]
Al Arabiya makes this comment
Saturday, 09 April 2011
Al Arabiya makes this comment
Saturday, 09 April 2011