BBC to Launch Al-Jazeera Competitor

[CShine]

LONDON - The British Broadcasting Corp. said Thursday it will launch a 24-hour Arabic-language TV news channel to compete with the Qatar-based satellite station Al-Jazeera. The channel will be broadcast across the Middle East and Europe.

The new channel's $50 million in annual costs will be covered by the Foreign Office, which also provides funding for the BBC World Service's radio network. The BBC is hoping to rival Al-Jazeera, which has aired many of Osama bin Laden's speeches and has been accused of anti-Western bias.

"After discussions about the changing media scene in the Middle East, and in the light of the growing impact of regional satellite TV services in Arabic, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office asked the BBC World Service to develop a proposition for a BBC Arabic television service," the BBC said.

The channel will offer a mix of news, information, discussion programs and documentaries, the network said. Most programs will be broadcast from London but the channel will have staff based across the Middle East. The venture follows the recent launch of the U.S. government-funded Al-Hurra TV station, which has been denounced by some Muslim clerics as "propaganda."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=503&ncid=786&e=1&u=/ap/20040624/ap_en_bu/britain_bbc_arabic_channel

[htuttle]

1. IIRC, didn't most of al Jazeera's staff orginally come from the BBC?

I'm pretty sure I heard that somewhere along the line.

[southlandshari]

2. Yes - here is a good article on BBC/Al Jazeera link

from an unlikely source:

"In Defense of Al-Jazeera"
from MSNBC's Mike Moran, Oct. 18, 2001

http://www.msnbc.com/news/643471.asp?cp1=1

I speak fluent Arabic, and I watched Al-Jazeera daily for the first six years it broadcast on satellite. This channel was a total breath of fresh air for my family - it was so fascinating to see an independent channel in the Middle East, willing to question everything and everyone. I just wish we had one of those here in the U.S.!