Middle East: The BBC is to launch a 24-hour Arabic-language news channel for broadcast across the UK, Europe and the Arab world.
The channel will compete with Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, both of which have been accused of sensationalism and an anti-Western bias.
The idea was presented to the BBC by the Foreign Office of the UK government, but no final plans have been made, according to a BBC spokeswoman.
The BBC already broadcasts an Arabic-language radio channel through the BBC World Service, but this would be the first full-time foreign-language television channel created by the corporation. BBC World, its global 24-hour news and current affairs channel, is an English-only channel.
Funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the new channel's main challenge will be convincing Arab speakers that it is not an organ of government propaganda.
US-based Arabic-language satellite channel Al-Hurra has been viewed with suspicion by some of its target audience.
The BBC did run an Arabic-language channel in the past in association with satellite broadcaster Orbit. It was on air for eight hours per day between 1994 and 1996, but was closed down when Orbit withdrew its support over editorial disagreements.
Many of the journalists from that project made up the core of Al Jazeera's news team when it launched soon afterwards.
Also in broadcasting, Al Jazeera has announced its intention to float on the Doha stock market within three years as it aims to break its dependency on cash from the Qatar government.
"The board of directors have commissioned a specialist outfit to do a feasibility study about going private," said Al Jazeera spokesman, Jihad Ballout. "It is possible there could be a flotation. We are still awaiting the results."
© Gulf Marketing Review 2004
