Posted on 09/15/2011 7:11:16 AM PDT by bayouranger
Saudi tycoon Prince Alwaleed bin Talal on Tuesday announced plans to launch a pan-Arab news channel in 2012, saying the television network will promote freedom of speech.
“The region is experiencing dramatic changes which will probably continue and cause significant developments” and Alarab “channel will follow up on these changes,” Alwaleed told a news conference in Riyadh.
A company statement said: “Alarab will focus editorially on the important shifts taking place across the Arab world with an emphasis on freedom of speech and freedom of press.”
The Arab world has been rocked a wave of protests that have toppled autocratic rulers in Tunisia and Egypt this year.
Alwaleed also announced an “agreement with Bloomberg LP in which Bloomberg will support the creation of five hours of financial and economic news programming throughout the day on the channel,” said the statement.
The channel, which will rely on a network of reporters from across Arab countries, will enter a field already dominated by tough competition between Qatar-based Al-Jazeera and the Saudi-controlled Al-Arabiya.
The statement said the channel might be based in Manama, Doha, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, or Beirut.
Alarab will be headed by Jamal Khashoggi, a veteran Saudi journalist and editor closely linked to the Al-Faisal wing of the royal family.
In May 2010, Khashoggi was forced out from his position at the helm of the influential Saudi newspaper Al-Watan after the daily published an opinion column that outraged religious conservatives.
Saudi style ... bury your Bibles. Saudi style reminds me of the song ... Silent Running.
you need to add Bloomers picture there .......
” Alwaleed also announced an “agreement with Bloomberg LP in which Bloomberg will support the creation of five hours of financial and economic news programming throughout the day on the channel,” said the statement.”
I see no evidence that this channel will have an islamist slant. Indeed, it seems to be a bid to connect the arab world to western rationality. Your polemics are inappropriate.
Sure thing....
Rationality with Bloomberg's involvement?
This looks like a legitimate attempt to bring freedom of speech to the arab world. The guy who is heading it up was canned for an editorial that was a bit free. Might be interesting to follow it.
Alwaleed is also a 7% owner of Newscorp (Rupert Murdoch).
Muslim Brotherhood Channel
IBD Editorials ^ | September 15, 2011 | Staff
Posted on Thursday, September 15, 2011 6:53:21 PM by Kaslin
Islamofacism: Quick: What would be the biggest casualty of a merger between the Saudis and two of the West’s most influential media moguls? Answer: the truth.
Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal announced this week he will launch a pro-Islamist 24-hour news network with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s privately held news service.
The deal has Bloomberg News providing five hours of financial and economic news programming throughout the day on the new “Alarab” channel, which the prince says will be “right of Al-Jazeera” — that is, even more radical. It will no doubt promote Alwaleed’s notoriously anti-Israel agenda.
After 9/11, he gave a $10 million gift to New Yorkers, but with a string attached: They had to acknowledge our Mideast policies brought on the attacks. Mayor Giuliani famously told the prince to go pound sand.
Gotham’s current mayor, on the other hand, has no qualms about doing business with the creepy billionaire. They seem to see eye-to-eye on many issues.
Take the Ground Zero mosque. Bloomberg gave his blessing to the outrage. In fact, to the shock of many, the mayor actually promoted its construction. His support is said to have been colored by Alwaleed, who happens to be one of the project’s biggest foreign boosters.
More troubling is Alwaleed’s obsession with institutionalizing Shariah finance in the West — and Bloomberg’s receptiveness to the idea. Islamic banking rejects the cornerstone of Western finance: credit and interest rates. It also requires a share of profits go to Islamic charities, which often funnel money to terrorism.
~~Not sure when Infidels will finally catch on but there is no Freedom in islam.
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