Middle East Focus: Saudi Princes Love for Media Control Continues……..

Arabia Deserta

Saudi Princes Love for Media Control Continues……..

Rattlesnake Ridge

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“Bahrain is to host the headquarters for Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's new international Arabic news network, despite months of unrest. Alwaleed's channel, dubbed Alarab, will be based in the capital Manama's new Media City office complex. The network is expected to be launched next December with an initial staff of about 300 people. The channel aims to focus "on the important shifts taking place across the Arab world, with an emphasis on freedom of speech and freedom of press," Prince Alwaleed has said. The new channel will compete against older pan-Arab news networks bankrolled by wealthy Gulf backers, including Qatar's Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, which is funded by Saudi investors but based in Dubai……….”

The Saudi prince is trying to give a media and financial and political shot in the arms to the despotic al-Khalifa ruling clan of Bahrain, reeling from the continuing popular uprising for most of the year.
Prince al-Waleed al-Saud is continuing in the tradition of his royal kin, in the tradition of his own business interests. The prince already owns and operates and controls several Arab networks, mainly in the entertainment, in addition to being a partner of Rupert Murdoch in NewsCorp (as in Fox News). The Saudi royal family own and control such dominant Arab media outlets as: Alarabiya (managed by a son of the late King Fahd and the favorite Arab network of Bush and Obama officials), Alsharq Alawsat (owned by Defense Minister Prince Salman and headquartered in London and Riyadh), Al-Hayat (owned by Prince Khaled Bin Sultan and headquartered in London and Riyadh). In addition they control a gaggle of local Saudi newspapers and other Arab newspapers and television outlets.
All these networks, and the major newspapers, are located outside the Kingdom without Magic. That is because no media is supposed to compete with official Saudi media inside the country, not even these semi-official princely-owned outlets.
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