Saudi prince’s Al-Arab news channel goes off air hours after launching

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/02/saudi-prince-alarab-news-channel

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Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s wealthiest men, faced acute embarrassment after his new TV channel was forced to halt broadcasting just hours after launch.

Al-Arab television channel, which is based in Manama, capital of the Gulf island state of Bahrain, was suspended on Sunday after airing an interview with a prominent local opposition activist.

Al-Arab said it had stopped for “technical and administrative reasons” and promised it would be back soon.

Jamal Khashoggi, its general manager and a prominent Saudi journalist, had believed that Bahrain, though politically close to Saudi Arabia, would prove to be a more liberal environment than Riyadhand that the new channel would be able to cover “all views”.

Bahrain’s information ministry said the station had been temporarily suspended and that it was working with Al-Arab management to resolve the matter. Akhbar al-Khaleej, a pro-government paper, reported that the suspension was due to the channel “not adhering to the norms prevalent in Gulf countries”.

The offending interview was with the Bahraini opposition activist Khalil al-Marzooq, who was discussing the Manama government’s decision at the weekend to revoke the citizenship of 72 people, including Turki al-Binali, one of the leading ideologues of the Islamic State (Isis), as well as several Shia activists who live in exile.

The decision was taken without prior notice or legal process. Of the 72, about 50 were journalists, bloggers, religious figures, doctors, political and human rights activists, the opposition said. The remaining 20 are suspected of or known to have left Bahrain to join Isis in Iraq and Syria.

Al-Arab journalists were dismayed by the news, but it seemed to be potentially good publicity for a newcomer in a crowded media market that is dominated by the Qatari-owned channel Al-Jazeera, the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiyya and Sky News Arabia. The Qataris have also recently launched another satellite TV channel called, confusingly, al-Arabi.

Al-Waleed was reportedly promised that he could run the channel without political interference. His Kingdom Holding Co investment firm has stakes in several well known companies, including Citigroup, Apple, News Corp and Twitter, as well as large holdings in Bahrain.

Analysts said it was unlikely that he had not known in advance of the controversial Bahraini item, suggesting that the ban reflected disagreement between King Hamad of Bahrain and his hardline prime minister, Prince Khalifa bin Salman, about the limits to free expression.

Saudi opposition activists speculated that the decision might have been taken under pressure from Riyadh rather than from Bahrain, indicating a more hardline media stance under King Salman.

Al-Waleed is a nephew of the late King Abdullah, a grandson of Abdelaziz Ibn Saud, the first king of Saudi Arabia. In December 2013, Arabian Business estimated his wealth at $31.2bn (£20.8bn), while it also ranked him as the most influential Arab in the world.

Al-Marzooq is a former deputy parliament speaker who is a senior member of al-Wefaq, the main Shia political movement in the Sunni-ruled monarchy. He was cleared of allegations of instigating violence and links to a protest faction that the authorities blame for bombings and other attacks.

Bahrain has faced four years of instability following widespread anti-government protests in February 2011 that were dominated by the Shia majority.

Bahraini authorities, backed by security forces from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, easily crushed the initial uprising, but street protests, petrol-bomb attacks and other low-level unrest have continued.

Arab media sources predicted that the channel was likely to resume broadcasting but would need clarification about any constraints that were being imposed by Bahrain on its editorial independence.