BBC Arabic ( ar, بي بي سي عربي) may refer to the

Literary Arabic Literary Arabic (Arabic: ' ) may refer to: * Classical Arabic * Modern Standard Arabic Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Modern Written Arabic (MWA), terms used mostly by linguists, is the variety of Standard language, standardized, Literary ...

language

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission 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 radi ...

run by the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

, as well as the BBC's satellite TV channel, and the website that serves as an Literary Arabic language

news portal A web portal is a specially designed website that brings information from diverse sources, like emails, online forums and search engines, together in a uniform way. Usually, each information source gets its dedicated area on the page for displayi ...

and provides online access to both the TV and radio broadcasts. The radio service is broadcast from

Broadcasting House 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. The m ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

as well as from a BBC Bureau in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo met ...

. The target audience is in the

Arab world The Arab world ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western A ...

(

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

and

Western Asia Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a part of the Middle East, and includes A ...

). In September 2022, the BBC announced its plans to close BBC Arabic Radio after 84 years in service, due to financial reasons.

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 to deal with the colonial affairs of British North America but required also to oversee the increasing number of col ...

set up the Palestine Broadcasting Service in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, 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, 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 which was fought between Fascist Italy (1922–1943), Italy and Ethiopian Empire, Ethiopia from October 1935 to February 1937. In Ethio ...

, 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 & Development Office (FCDO) is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Equivalent to other countries' ministries of foreign affairs, it was created on 2 September 2020 through the merger of the Foreig ...

to set up radio broadcasts based in

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ...

. Cyprus at the time was a Crown Colony in the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading post ...

, and seen as more stable than Palestine, 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 ...

. 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 loa ...

. In 1938, 16 years after the

British Broadcasting Corporation #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

was founded, the BBC began broadcasting in

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

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing.: ...

. 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 if 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 broadcasts 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.

References

External links

*
BBC Arabic Listen Online
{{BBC Radio Radio stations established in 1938

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; Walte ...

Arabic-language radio stations