BBC Arabic () consisted of the Literary Arabic language

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

which was run by the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...

, as well as the BBC's satellite TV channel, and the website that serves as a Literary Arabic language news portal and provides online access to both the TV and radio broadcasts. The radio service was broadcast from

Broadcasting House London Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast from the building was made on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. T ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

as well as from a BBC bureau in

Riyadh Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the Riyadh Governorate. Located on the eastern bank of Wadi Hanifa, the current form of the metropolis largely emerged in th ...

. The target audience was in the

Arab world The Arab world ( '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in ...

(

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

and

Western Asia West Asia (also called Western Asia or Southwest Asia) is the westernmost region of Asia. As defined by most academics, UN bodies and other institutions, the subregion consists of Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Mesopotamia, the Armenian ...

). In September 2022, the World Service announced the proposed closure of its Arabic radio service as part of a cost-cutting plan, but said that an online service would remain. On Friday, 27 January 2023, BBC Arabic's radio broadcasts ended at 13:00 UTC. The service had been on air since 1938.

History

Origins

In 1936, the BBC helped the

British Colonial Office The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created in 1768 from the Southern Department to deal with colonial affairs in North America (particularly the Thirteen Colo ...

set up the Palestine Broadcasting Service in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, a medium wave radio broadcast. This was created as a way to broadcast British views to the Arab world. This was partly in response to the Italian Literary Arabic language radio broadcasts that were transmitted by medium wave from

Bari Bari ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia Regions of Italy, region, on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy. It is the first most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy. It is a port and ...

, and also in short wave from Rome, beginning in 1934. After the

Second Italo-Abyssinian War The Second Italo-Ethiopian War, also referred to as the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, was a war of aggression waged by Italy against Ethiopia, which lasted from October 1935 to February 1937. In Ethiopia it is often referred to simply as the Ita ...

, these broadcasts became strongly anti-British. In the years leading up to the 1938 establishment of the BBC Literary Arabic language service, there were plans by the

British Foreign Office The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is the ministry of foreign affairs and a ministerial department of the government of the United Kingdom. The office was created on 2 September 2020 through the merger of the Foreign an ...

to set up radio broadcasts based in

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

. Cyprus at the time was a

Crown Colony A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony governed by Kingdom of England, England, and then Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain or the United Kingdom within the English overseas possessions, English and later British Empire. There was usua ...

in the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

, and seen as more stable than

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

, a British

Mandate Mandate most often refers to: * League of Nations mandates, quasi-colonial territories established under Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, 28 June 1919 * Mandate (politics), the power granted by an electorate Mandate may also r ...

. Also during this time, the BBC was insistent that its established news standards not be compromised in the name of broadcasting Arabic-language British

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...

. In 1938, 16 years after the

British Broadcasting Corporation The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public broadcasting, public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved in ...

was founded, the BBC began broadcasting in Literary Arabic. BBC Arabic is considered one of the oldest and longest running foreign-language news services.

Early programming

The BBC Arabic service started in 1938 as 65-minute broadcasts. In 1940 the broadcasts had grown to 1 hour and 25 minutes, and close to two hours by 1942. By the end of World War II, the Literary Arabic language programme was three hours. The first broadcasts in 1938 featured one

news bulletin Breaking news, also called late-breaking news, a special report, special coverage, or a news flash, is a current issue that warrants the interruption of a scheduled broadcast in order to report its details. News broadcasters also use the term ...

. Later, by 1940, a second news bulletin followed the morning reading of the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

. In 1942 a third news bulletin was broadcast at "midday" at 10:45 GMT, 12:45 local time in the Levant. While the news bulletins were essentially translations of the BBC's English-language Empire Service, BBC London was in direct contact with the Foreign Office's diplomatic posts abroad as a source of local news. In 1943 the Literary Arabic Service established a Cairo Office, enabling direct news gathering in the Middle East.

Key figures

First organizer

* Steward Perowne (1938–39)

First editors

*A. S. Calvert (1938) *Donald Stephenson (from 1939)

Director, Near Eastern Services

*Sigmar Hillelson (from 1940)

Director, Eastern Services

*Donald Stephenson (from 1945)

Head, Eastern Services

*Charles Pennethorne Hughes (from 1948)

Head, Eastern Service

*Gordon Waterfeield (from 1949)

Head, Arabic Service

*Gordon Waterfield (from 1959) *James Thomson (from 196) * Charles McLelland (from 1971) *Hamilton Duckworth (from 1976) *Eric Bowman (from 1981) *James Norris (from 1986) *Bob Jobbins (from 1988)

Programming

BBC Arabic broadcast programs and hourly news bulletins 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Radio broadcasts

* Hadeeth as-Saa'a (Hourly Updates) * Tahqeeq (Investigation) * BBC Xtra (Daily program)

Television programmes

* Nuqtat Hewar (Talking Point) *'Alimna (Our World) * 4 Tech (Technology Programme) * Sa'at Hisaab (Tunisia two months after the revolution) * Saba'at Ayyam (Seven Days) * Hasaad al-Yowm (Today's Harvest, news round-up) * Al-Ahamm wa al-Muhimm (The Most Important and the Important) * Barnamaj liqaa' (Interview Programme)

Television

The BBC launched an Arabic-language satellite channel on 11 March 2008.

Web

BBC Arabic radio and television both use the BBC Arabic website as an online news portal. The website facilitates online access to the other two broadcasts.

Phone

A live stream of BBC Arabic is available to listeners in the US by calling 712-432-7877.

Notable people

* Lina Musharbash, TV news presenter * Madiha Rashid Al-Madfai, broadcaster * Salwa Jarrah, broadcaster * Huda al-Rasheed, broadcaster

References

External links

*
BBC Arabic Listen Online
{{BBC Radio Radio stations established in 1938 BBC World Service foreign language stations Arabic-language radio stations