Al Arabiya ( ar, العربية, transliterated: '; meaning "The Arabic One" or "The Arab One") is an international

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

news television channel, currently based in

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, wikt:دبي, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the List of cities in the United Arab Emirates#Major cities, most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 ...

, that is operated by the

media conglomerate A media conglomerate, media group, or media institution is a company that owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises, such as music, television, radio, publishing, motion pictures, theme parks, or the Internet. According t ...

MBC. The channel is a flagship of the media conglomerate and is therefore the only single offering to carry the name as simply "Al Arabiya" in its branding.

History

Launched on 3 March 2003, the channel is based in

Dubai Media City Dubai Media City (DMC), part of Dubai Holding, is a tax-free zone within Dubai, United Arab Emirates. History and profile The Dubai Media City was established and built in 2000 and inaugurated in January 2001 by the government of Dubai to boo ...

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (Middle East, The Middle East). It is ...

. An early funder, the production company Middle East News (then headed by Ali Al-Hedeithy), said the goal was to provide "a balanced and less provocative" alternative to

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazee ...

, which had already found widespread success by then. A

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscripti ...

channel, Al Arabiya broadcasts standard newscasts every hour, as well as talk shows and documentaries. These programs primarily cover current affairs, business, stock markets, and sports. It is rated among the top pan-Arab stations by Middle East audiences.Peter Feuilherade (25 November 2003).
Profile: Al-Arabiya TV
. '' BBC Monitoring''. Retrieved 4 September 2009. The news organization's website is accessible in Arabic, English,

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Persian. As of March 2018, the website's number-one consumer by country was Saudi Arabia, with 20% of the entire viewership. On 26 January 2009, U.S. President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

gave his first formal interview as president to Al Arabiya,Al Arabiya anchor: how we got Obama exclusive
. Al Arabiya. 28 January 2009. delivering the message to the

Muslim world The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is practiced. I ...

that "Americans are not your enemy", while also reiterating that "Israel is a strong ally of the United States" and that they "will not stop being a strong ally of the United States".Obama tells Al Arabiya peace talks should resume
". Al Arabiya 27 January 2009. The White House contacted Al Arabiya's Washington Bureau chief, Hisham Melhem, directly just hours before the interview and asked him not to announce it until an official announcement was made by the administration. Mamdouh Al-Muhaini is the general manager of the Al Arabiya Network since October 2019, succeeding former manager Nabil Al-Khatib. On 24 April 2020, Al Arabiya introduced a new graphics and audio package and studios as well as a new modified logo in the network's first major rebrand since its launch in 2003. On 30 August 2021, Al Arabiya Network began plans to shift operations out of Dubai and to

Riyadh Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the ...

, with the stated goal being to "produce 12 hours of news programming from the Saudi capital by early January". The move came amid orders by the Saudi government to multinational companies to move their regional hubs to the kingdom by 2024.

Content and Al Jazeera rivalry

As a response to

's criticism of the Saudi royal family throughout the 1990s, relatives of the

Saudi royal family The House of Saud ( ar, آل سُعُود, ʾĀl Suʿūd ) is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. It is composed of the descendants of Muhammad bin Saud, founder of the Emirate of Diriyah, known as the First Saudi state (1727–1818), ...

established Al Arabiya in Dubai in 2002. It became a "fierce competitor;" Al Arabiya is said to be the second most frequently watched channel after Al Jazeera in Saudi Arabia.''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' in 2008 described the channel as working "to cure Arab television of its penchant for radical politics and violence". Al Arabiya broadcast the email messages of Syrian president Bashar Assad in 2012 that were leaked by opposition hackers. The channel's English language website also obtained emails which revealed that PR agency BLJ were behind the infamous positive profile of the Syrian first lady, Asma Assad, in ''Vogue'' magazine while her husband's regime was responsible for the crushing of peaceful demonstrations in 2011.

Programming

* ''Special Mission'' is Al Arabiya's longest-running

investigative journalism Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years res ...

current affairs Current affairs may refer to: News * ''Current Affairs'' (magazine) a bimonthly magazine of culture and politics. * Current affairs (news format): a genre of broadcast journalism * Current Affairs, former name for Behind the News Politics * An ...

television program. It broadcasts on the Al Arabiya Pan Arab Channel based in Dubai. Premiering on 19 October 2003, it is still running. The Special Mission team contributed in setting the tone of the program early on, and has since maintained it. Based on the investigative ''

Panorama A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word was originally coined i ...

'' concept, the program addresses a single issue in depth each week, showing either a locally produced program or a relevant documentary, in the form of stories from many areas around the world. The program has won many awards for investigative journalism, and broken many high-profile stories. A notable early example of this was the show's exposé on the appalling living conditions endured by many children living in rural Africa and East Asia. Issues like politics, economy, and religion are addressed. * ''Eda'at'' ( ar, إضاءات, meaning "Spotlights"), hosted by Turki Al-Dakhil, airs every Thursday at 2:00 PM ( Saudi Arabia time) and lasts one hour. The show consists of one-on-one interviews with influential regional figures, such as journalists, writers, activists, politicians, etc. (the programme is currently off air) * ''Rawafed'' ( ar, روافد, meaning "Affluents") is directed and hosted by

Ahmad Ali El Zein Ahmad Ali El Zein (born 1956) is a Lebanese novelist, documentary film maker and television journalist. He is best known for his trilogy of novels, ''The Edge of Oblivion'' (2007), ''Suhbat al-Tayer'' (2010) and ''Barid al-Ghouroub'' (2014). He l ...

, and broadcast once a week (Wednesday at 5:30 PM). Rawafed is a series of documentaries/interviews devoted to the world of arts and culture. Guests have included writers

Tahar Ben Jelloun Tahar Ben Jelloun ( ar, الطاهر بن جلون; born in Fes, Morocco, 1 December 1944) is a Moroccan writer. All of his work is written in French although his first language is Darija. He became known for his 1985 novel ''L’Enfant de Sable ...

Gamal El-Ghitani Gamal al-Ghitani, ( ar, جمال الغيطانى, ; 9 May 1945 – 18 October 2015) was an Egyptian author of historical and political novels and cultural and political commentaries and was the editor-in-chief of the literary periodical '' Akh ...

, poets Adunis,

Ahmed Fouad Negm Ahmed Fouad Negm ( ar, أحمد فؤاد نجم, ; 22 May 1929 – 3 December 2013), popularly known as el-Fagommi الفاجومي (), was an Egyptian vernacular poet. Negm is well known for his work with Egyptian composer Sheikh Imam, as well a ...

Joumana Haddad Joumana Haddad ( ar, جمانة حداد) ( Salloum; born December 6, 1970 in Beirut) is a Lebanese author, public speaker, journalist and human rights activist. She has been selected as one of the world’s 100 most powerful Arab women by Arabi ...

, musicians, Marcel Khalifa, Naseer Shamma. Many key principle artists, writers and politicians in the Arab world have also appeared on the show. * ''From Iraq'' is a socio-political, humanitarian program which strives to uncover the realities inside of

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

. The program is broadcast Sundays and presented by Mayssoun Noueihed. * ''Inside Iran'' is a series which focuses on investigative reporting, primarily on political, social, and economic issues inside

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. * ''Death Making'' is a weekly broadcast which airs Fridays, focusing on global terror. The show provides analysis on global terror attacks around the globe, shining a spotlight on religious, social, economic, and political factors. It also provides interviews with well-known figures. It is hosted by Mohammed Altoumaihi. * ''Business Profiles'' is a monthly program which provides an in-depth portrait of regional business leaders. The program typically follows an influential business person, including outside of their office, in order to better understand their ways of thinking. It is presented by Fatima Zahra Daoui, and has been on air since June 2013. * ''Point of Order'' is a weekly program, broadcast on Fridays, which conducts live interviews focusing on socio-political topics. It is known be hard-hitting and has also been known to invite controversial figures, such as

Jean-Marie Le Pen Jean Louis Marie Le Pen (, born 20 June 1928) is a French far-right politician who served as President of the National Front from 1972 to 2011. He also served as Honorary President of the National Front from 2011 to 2015. Le Pen graduated fro ...

, Syrian President

Bashar al-Assad Bashar Hafez al-Assad, ', Levantine pronunciation: ; (, born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician who is the 19th president of Syria, since 17 July 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the ...

, and others. It is hosted by Hasan Muawad. * ''Political Memoirs'' is a weekly program which focuses on historical events, serving as a platform to discuss different views on single events, while comparing these different vantage points to recorded history. It is presented by Taher Barake, and is broadcast on Fridays. * ''Diplomatic Avenues'' is a monthly program focusing on the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

. It is broadcast live from Al Arabiya's studios in the

United Nations headquarters zh, 联合国总部大楼french: Siège des Nations uniesrussian: Штаб-квартира Организации Объединённых Наций es, Sede de las Naciones Unidas , image = Midtown Manhattan Skyline 004.jpg , im ...

, and features interviews with high-level UN officials and diplomats. The program focuses on political, social, scientific, and humanitarian issues before the UN, with an emphasis on the Arab and Islamic worlds. It is hosted by Talal al-Haj, and broadcasts on the last Friday of each month. * ''Studio Beirut'' is a weekly discussion program, broadcast on Sundays, which features prominent guests from the Arab world. it is hosted by

Giselle Khoury Gisele Khoury ( ar, جيزيل خوري; born 1961) is a Lebanese-French journalist and talk show host on BBC Arabic. Her show is called Al Mashhad where she interviews prominent figures and high-profile guests from the Arab World. She is the wid ...

. * ''The Big Screen'' is a weekly program which focuses on the film industry, and serves as an entertainment show, focusing on celebrities and film. It provides coverage on industry news, upcoming films, film festivals, and interviews with industry leaders, as well as celebrities. It is hosted by Nadine Kirresh.

Investment and ownership

According to unconfirmed reports, Al Arabiya was founded through investment by the Middle East Broadcasting Center, as well as other investors from

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the Ara ...

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Ku ...

, and the Persian Gulf states. Through MBC, Saudi Prince Abdulaziz bin Fahd and his maternal uncle Waleed bin Ibrahim al Ibrahim own and have control over Al Arabiya. In March 2012, the channel launched a new channel,

Al-Hadath Al-Hadath ( ar, الحدث) literally "The Event" is an Arab news interactive channel focusing on political events in the Arab region. It is available on the British Freeview service via the Vision TV streaming service and from 28 March 2022, it ...

which focuses exclusively on prolonged extensive coverage of political news. In March 2022, Al Arabiya acquired its own Freeview channel in the United Kingdom, after being available on Freeview via the

Vision TV VisionTV is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel that broadcasts multi-faith, multicultural, and general entertainment programming aimed at the 45 and over demographic. VisionTV is currently owned by ZoomerMedia, a company ...

streaming service, with both channels being available on Freeview channel 273.

Track record and controversies

Al Arabiya has been criticized as an arm of Saudi foreign policy, or what the United States would term public diplomacy, as it is seen as being part of "a concerted Saudi attempt to dominate the world of cable and satellite television media in the Arab world and steal the thunder of Egypt". On 14 February 2005, Al Arabiya was the first news satellite channel to air news of the assassination of Rafik Hariri, one of its early investors. On 9 October 2008, the Al Arabiya website was hacked. In 2009, Courtney C. Radsch claimed to have lost her job the day after publishing an article about safety problems on

Emirates Emirates may refer to: * United Arab Emirates, a Middle Eastern country * Emirate, any territory ruled by an emir ** Gulf emirates, emirates located on the Persian Gulf ** Emirates of the United Arab Emirates, the individual emirates * The Emirat ...

airline, while Al Arabiya claimed it was restructuring the English department. On 2 September 2008,

expelled Al Arabiya's Tehran bureau chief Hassan Fahs, the third Al Arabiya correspondent expelled from Iran since the network opened an Iran office. On 14 June 2009, the Iranian government ordered the Al Arabiya office in Tehran to be closed for a week for "unfair reporting" of the Iranian presidential election. Seven days later, amid the

2009 Iranian election protests After incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared victory in the 2009 Iranian presidential election, protests broke out in major cities across Iran in support of opposition candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi. The protests c ...

, the network's office was "closed indefinitely" by the government. In a column published on Al Arabiya's English website, Hassan Fahs says why he has left Iran, revealing that he has received direct threats of arrest and killing from senior Iranian officials as well as alarming attempts to censor and control the channel's coverage. In 2016, Al Arabiya dismissed 50 staff members, including journalists. Citing financial problems stemming from low oil prices, the dismissed individuals were offered salaries and benefits for six months as a severance package. In April 2017, Al Arabiya was found in breach of UK broadcasting law by the UK media regulator,

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

, for broadcasting an interview with an imprisoned Bahraini torture survivor. Ofcom concluded that it infringed on the privacy of imprisoned

Bahraini opposition The Bahraini opposition refers to a group of political groups who are opposed to the Cabinet of Bahrain government and the ruling monarch of the Sunni House of Khalifa. Currently, the Bahraini opposition can be divided into the officially registere ...

leader and torture survivor Hassan Mushaima, when it broadcast footage of him obtained during his arbitrary detention in Bahrain. Ofcom eventually sanctioned the licence holder Al Arabiya News Channel FZ-LLC by fining them , broadcasting an on-air apology in accordance with pending instructions from their side, and never to repeat the broadcast of infringing material for the offence in January 2018, after considering the channel's defence for alleged deficiencies in Ofcom's ruling. The channel then surrendered its license to broadcast in the following month after additional complaint against it were filed, this time by

Qatar News Agency Qatar News Agency () is a state-run Qatari news agency.Qatar diplomatic crisis The Qatar diplomatic crisis was a diplomatic incident in the Middle East that began on 5 June 2017 when Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic relations with Qatar and banned Qatar-registered planes and ships ...

through suspected states-sponsored hacking in concert with

Sky News Arabia Sky News Arabia (stylised as Sky News عربية) ( ar, سكاي نيوز عربية ') is an Arabic 24-hour rolling news channel broadcast mainly in the Middle East and North Africa. It is a joint venture between UK-based Sky Group and Abu Dha ...

and others based in the jurisdictions of anti-Qatar parties to the conflict, according to the QNA's representative Carter-Ruck.

Arab criticism

Al Arabiya had been banned from reporting from

by the country's interim government in November 2004 after it broadcast an audio tape on 16 November purportedly made by the deposed Iraqi President

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...

. The Iraqi government had also banned the channel on 7 September 2006 for one month for what it called "imprecise coverage". According to the station itself, Al Arabiya journalists and staff have come under constant pressure from Iraqi officials to allegedly "report stories as dictated to" and in 2014, PM Nouri Maliki threatened again to ban Al Arabiya in Iraq, shut down its offices and websites. For his part, Al Arabiya's General Manager at the time, Abdulrahman al-Rashed, vowed in a statement that the news channel and its sister channel al-Hadath will continue reporting the story in Iraq despite "Maliki's threats" as well as other threats from the likes of ISIS. However, al-Arabiya is widely perceived in Iraq as a pro-Saudi and anti-Shia sectarian channel. Due to post-coverage of

assassination of Rafic Hariri On 14 February 2005, former Prime Minister of Lebanon Rafic Hariri was killed along with 21 others in an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon. Explosives equivalent to around 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) of TNT were detonated as his motorcade d ...

, as of 2007, Syrian politicians on many occasions labeled al-Arabiya "al-Yahudiyya" the Jewish"and "al-'Ibriyya" the Hebrew" for anti-government and perceived pro-US and pro-Israeli bias. However, the label "al-‘Ebriya" ("the Hebrew One") itself is given by many Arabs to the station reaching all the way back to 2003, for what some perceive as relatively sympathetic coverage of Israel (Francis, 2007). In 2013, Saudi scholar Abdulaziz al-Tarefe tweeted: "If the channel ‘Al-Arabiya’ existed in the time of the Prophet uhammadthe

hypocrites Hypocrisy is the practice of engaging in the same behavior or activity for which one criticizes another or the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform. In moral psychology, it is the ...

would only have rallied behind it and the wealth of Banu Qurayza would only have been spent on it." The Algerian Ministry of Communication released a statement on 31 July 2021 saying that it withdrew Al Arabiya's operating accreditation in Algeria, due to what it termed "the non-respect by this channel of the rules of deontology and its recourse to disinformation and manipulation".

Killed and abducted reporters

In September 2003, Al Arabiya reporter Mazen al-Tumeizi was killed on camera in Iraq when a U.S. helicopter fired on a crowd in Haifa Street in Baghdad. In February 2006, three Al Arabiya reporters were abducted and murdered while covering the aftermath of the bombing of a mosque in Samarra, Iraq. Among them was correspondent

Atwar Bahjat Atwar Bahjat ( ar, أطوار بهجت‎; 7 June 1976 – 22 February 2006) was an Iraqi journalist. Initially a reporter for Iraq's state-controlled television under Saddam Hussein, Bahjat became a popular television correspondent for al-Ja ...

, an Iraqi national. In 2012, Al Arabiya's Asia correspondent Baker Atyani was abducted in the Philippines by an armed militia. He was released after 18 months.

Plagiarism

In August 2015, the '' Egyptian Streets'' news website said Al-Arabiya had copied "word-for-word" from two of its articles. Al Arabiya later updated one of the articles and added a note, saying the earlier version had "accidentally" neglected to include a mention and hyperlink to ''Egyptian Street''.

Fake reporters

In 2020, ''

The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...

'' identified a network of false personas used to sneak opinion pieces aligned with UAE government policy to media outlets such as Al Arabiya. They're critical about Turkey's role in the Middle East, as well as

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

and particularly its

state media State media or government media are media outlets that are under financial and/or editorial control of the state or government, directly or indirectly. There are different types of state and government media. State-controlled or state-run medi ...

. Twitter suspended some of the fake columnists' accounts in early July 2020.

Interview with Armen Sarkissian

During the

2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict The Second Nagorno-Karabakh War was an armed conflict in 2020 that took place in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenian-occupied territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh, the surrounding territories. It was a major escalation of ...

, the channel interviewed Armenian President

Armen Sarkissian Armen Vardani Sarkissian ( hy, Արմեն Վարդանի Սարգսյան; also written as Sarksyan and Sargsyan) (born 23 June 1952) is an Armenian politician, physicist and computer scientist who served as the 4th president of Armenia from 9 A ...

about the ongoing war happening between Armenia and Azerbaijan, during which President Sarkissian blasted Turkey and Azerbaijan for inflaming the conflict. In response, Turkish President

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as prime minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to ...

accused Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (owners of the channel) of destabilization in the Caucasus and Middle East, resulting in Saudi Arabian Commercial Chamber's Head Ajlan Al-Ajlan to call for boycott against Turkish goods in response to Turkish meddling and aggression.

Online

The Al Arabiya internet news service (alarabiya.net) was launched in 2004 initially in Arabic, and was joined by an English-language service in 2007 and Persian and

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' JumpTV and Livestation. The English website of Al Arabiya was relaunched in 2013 and now features automated subtitles of the news and programs that appear on the channel. The Al Arabiya website was plagued with numerous technical difficulties during the Egyptian protests at the end of January 2011. The site very often went offline with error messages as such as the following: "The website is down due to the heavy traffic to follow up with the Egyptian crisis and it will be back within three hours (Time of message: 11GMT)".

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Al Arabiya 2003 establishments in the United Arab Emirates Conspiracist media Middle East Broadcasting Center Television channels and stations established in 2003 Emirati news websites Arabic-language television stations 24-hour television news channels Television stations in Dubai Arabic-language television Saudi Arabian news websites State media