New Bahrain-Based Channel Suspends Service After Opposition Leader Gets Airtime http://t.co/gwF2aM1uB2
— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) February 2, 2015
There is something darkly humorous about this. They spent years putting Alarab News Channel together, staffing people all over the world, getting ten years of funding lined up (from a Saudi prince with close ties to Bahrain’s monarchy), and hyping it. It went off the air in less than a day.
In an interview before the debut of Al Arab, the general manager [and veteran reporter], Jamal Khashoggi, said the channel would seek to steer a middle path.
“We are going to be neutral; we are not going to take sides,” he said. “We are going to bring in all sides in any conflict because right now we have a conflict in almost every Arab country.”
Oops.
Bahrain may not have been the best choice for a “middle path” free speech channel.
