February 17, 2003	Monday	Zul Hijjah 15, 1423

DUBAI, Feb 16: With war looming in Iraq, a new television channel named Al-Arabiya enters the battle for Arab opinion on Thursday boasting of a “balanced alternative” to the maverick Al-Jazeera which has offended virtually every Middle East regime.

“We are going to offer Arab television viewers a wise and balanced alternative,” said Ali al-Hedeithy, head of Middle East News (MEN), a Dubai-based production company which operates Al-Arabiya.

The question of “balance” is a sensitive issue in a region where freedom of expression has often been as rare as desert rain.

Al-Jazeera’s willingness to allow anyone to express themselves on air, however controversially, has been at the core of most of the troubles the Qatar-based station faces.

The media world will be closely monitoring how Al-Arabiya, backed by Saudi, Kuwaiti and Lebanese money, treats news and talk shows which are the delight of Arab audiences.

Hedeithy told AFP Al-Arabiya will “offer Arab viewers an alternative, covering news far from any deliberate provocation.”

The new channel will exercise “the freedom to inform”.

“There are no longer any restrictions on this freedom, provided it is a responsible freedom and debate is rational,” he said.

The veiled criticism of Al-Jazeera does not bother executives at the Doha station who have had to fight attempts to have the Qatar government close it down.

Gulf Arab countries have refused to accredit Al-Jazeera journalists, blocked advertising and recalled ambassadors in long-running diplomatic tiffs, particularly Saudi Arabia.

“Attempts to silence Al-Jazeera have been numerous,” director general Mohamed Jassem al-Ali said, proud to have been a “pioneer” of 24-hour televised news in the Arab world.

“We have had some 200 official complaints filed against us,” he added.

Al-Jazeera executives say they welcome a new competitor into the television news market “without fear”.

“Besides credibility concerns, to succeed, a channel needs broad news coverage, speed in broadcasting news, rigourous stands and the freedom to inform,” al-Ali said.

Media experts expect Al-Arabiya to take viewers from Al-Jazeera when it begins broadcasting, if only out of curiosity.

But in the medium and longer term questions of credibility, solid financial backing and politics will take over.

“We intend to give Al-Arabiya a council of wise men who will be responsible for policy and the editorial line at the channel to protect it from the influence of shareholders,” al-Hedeithy said.

He predicted that the newcomer will be strong enough to “resist” in an increasingly crowded market, which, since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, has attracted great foreign interest.

Israel, Iran and US stations, including the Washington-backed Arabic radio SAWA, are all planning to launch television broadcasts to the Arab world.

MEN, set up at the start of the year with initial capital of 500 million dollars, also owns the Arab satellite station Middle East Broadcasting Centre (MBC) and MBC-2, an English-language light entertainment channel transmitting from Bahrain.

The company has 32 news bureaux across the world, including in Iraq, Israel, the Palestinian territories and the United States.

Al-Arabiya will operate 12 hours a day before going 24-hour on March 3 with a mix of news bulletins and debates.—AFP