The 91Èȱ¬ in the Arab world
Features
- Interview with Salah Negm, News Editor, 91Èȱ¬ Arabic
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Salah Negm is the News Editor for 91Èȱ¬ Arabic. He oversees all news output on radio, bbcarabic.com and the new 91Èȱ¬ Arabic television channel.
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Here, he discusses the plans for the channel and highlights the different style the 91Èȱ¬ are bringing.
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Can you tell us how 91Èȱ¬ Arabic is currently available?
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For the last 70 years there has been 91Èȱ¬ Arabic radio, which is the most trusted news and current affairs service in the region. Over the years, competitors have started up but people in the Middle East always tuned to the 91Èȱ¬ to clarify events and to find out how things happened.
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The 91Èȱ¬ image was always that of being the reference point and today 91Èȱ¬ Arabic radio is the only 24-hour news, current affairs and information station that is broadcasting to the region on FM and MW.
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bbcarabic.com is one of the premier websites dealing with news and it has certainly become a port of call for anyone wishing to keep up to date with local and international affairs.
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Together, 91Èȱ¬ Arabic radio and online are also participating in interactive programmes which are proving to be very popular and crucial to the region.
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What is the plan for a 91Èȱ¬ Arabic television channel?
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91Èȱ¬ Arabic will be providing the audience in the Middle East with a comprehensive offer across all platforms in media that complement each other. We will actually be delivering the audience the service they want – anywhere, anytime. So whether you are in the office, in the car or at home, you can tune to the 91Èȱ¬ via online, radio or television.
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The 91Èȱ¬ needs to be on television as anyone will tell you – satellite television is a phenomenon in the Middle East.
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There are only two reliable 24-hour news channels in the region and the perception is that they are representing certain points of views and certain governments. For a viewer in the Middle East, they have to watch the two stations and draw their own conclusions. I think the 91Èȱ¬ can come along and immediately offer a service that the audience know and can trust. The 91Èȱ¬ has 70 years of experience in providing accurate and impartial reports.
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We will have faster news coverage, better newsgathering sources and a more comprehensive agenda than what is currently on offer in the media marketplace. We will be dealing with topics that really touch the lives of people.
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How would the 91Èȱ¬'s approach to news differ from your rivals?
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For instance, we are considering doing a programme on a project in Libya called The Great River Project. It's a project to obtain water from the south to the north – it cost $25 billion, I think – and it is supposed to change the lives of the people around the area and they would benefit from that.
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In the region, the topic was dealt with as just news reports in the region. Every stage that is opened from this project has a little three-minute report on other stations.
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We would be looking much deeper. We would investigate how it affects the people. We would ask, is it a viable project or not? And, if it is viable, how important is it? We would investigate who benefits and who loses.
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What is your role in 91Èȱ¬ Arabic?
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I'm the news editor of 91Èȱ¬ Arabic radio, television and online. And, of course, I'm participating in launching the Arabic television service. My job is to guarantee a smooth work flow as well as a coherent editorial message coming from the three platforms. At the same time, it is important to keep the distinction between each platform and what it provides to its audience.
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How will the style of the television station differ from others in the area?
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The 91Èȱ¬ is bringing the world to the region. The news agenda from the 91Èȱ¬ is much wider than the agenda of a regional station. In politics, current affairs and information, world news is as important as regional news because anything that happens in the world will affect you one way or another.
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We will be providing perspective on the news. How significant is the news in the region vis-Ã -vis the world news agenda? One thing that might be perceived as the most important event in a regional station might occupy the third or fourth important slot in the world news agenda. This is something that the current regional stations do not reflect.
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We'll be different in the style of presentation as well. We will be authoritative but, at the same time, not very formal. It will be dynamic and modern. We are preparing a few programmes and talk shows that are totally new for the region – new in format, new in content, new in ideas. One of the main targets for these is to reach conclusion, not just to put opinions forward.
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We'll be providing a real service of truthful eye-witness reporting, high-quality information, sharp analysis and insightful expertise. We hope it will be a way forward for the viewers.
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What is your aim for this multimedia 91Èȱ¬ Arabic channel?
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I would like to see that it is a source of news that no one can exist without using it. Everyone has to use it to make sure that they are up-to-date with what is happening in the world.
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It has to be the major news provider in the region and the most trusted. It also has to be the fastest in breaking news.
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It has to tackle subjects that are ignored or overlooked by other regional stations. Environment issues, for example, they affect the day-to-day life but they are not dealt with properly by the regional news stations. Therefore, we will aim to bring high quality information, expert analysis and insightful debate to those big issues that have an impact on your everyday life better than anyone else.
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Taking a step back from it all, how do you see 91Èȱ¬ Arabic television fitting into the wider 91Èȱ¬?
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The new TV channel will enhance the 91Èȱ¬'s coverage of the Middle East. It works well for everyone in two ways. The Arab world benefits by having access to all the 91Èȱ¬ newsrooms from all around the world. This means they will get the best international news.
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And we will feed back our stories from the region to the rest of the world through the 91Èȱ¬ network. It means the world hears more about the things that matter to the people of the region. It means that Arab voices, Arab opinion, Arab lives will be well reflected on the world stage.
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91Èȱ¬ Arabic television is establishing its newsgathering network, which is present in every capital in the 22 Arab countries. With that high exposure and high newsgathering ability it will obtain a lot of material – social, economic, sports, culture, arts and news stories from the region – which will be used in the wider 91Èȱ¬.
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How will the viewers be able to interact with the new television channel?
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91Èȱ¬ Arabic has television, radio and online and there will be interactive programmes which will run across all three platforms – which will involve phone-ins, emails, and text messages.
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We are planning to do some programmes from town halls and universities. We have run some tutorials with the universities and have been interacting with the students in the schools. There will be many events that we will do major coverage for that will have audience participation such as elections and debates.
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Do you think the general public in the Middle East have high expectations of what the 91Èȱ¬ can offer on TV?
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Yes. The public have turned to the 91Èȱ¬ Arabic service for 70 years to find out the truth and to keep updated. We have the responsibility of continuing to do that and I think there is interest in how a major player like the 91Èȱ¬ can raise the overall standard of news reporting in the Middle East.
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I also hear that there is a real buzz of excitement about the interactivity and the new technology we are bringing. I can assure you that the staff at the 91Èȱ¬ have set very high standards for themselves. I want everyone in the Middle East to tune into 91Èȱ¬ Arabic television and join in this new era of information in the region.
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- The 91Èȱ¬ As A Global Voice – Richard Sambrook, Director, 91Èȱ¬ Global News
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The world is shrinking. We all live in a global village nowadays, a place where technological developments in media such as the internet and the world wide web allow people around the world to communicate and connect with each other practically instantaneously.
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The rapid spread of communication and information technology has transformed the way the 91Èȱ¬ provides news, how our audiences receive it and how they contribute to it themselves.
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Audiences are demanding a greater say in what is transmitted. They want to know what is going on, and they also want to have a say and comment on what is broadcast.
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The 91Èȱ¬ is responsible for programmes in 33 languages, broadcast to 240 million people each week. The 91Èȱ¬ has the widest-reaching newsgathering network of any broadcaster – operating in 112 countries.
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There is a huge and growing appetite for international news, and for debate on issues like terrorism and climate change, that were hardly on the radar 10 years ago.
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And, almost every month, a new global competitor appears on the scene. Recently, France, Iran, the Arab world, Italy and Russia have all opened up new international broadcasting operations, resulting in an explosion in competition to provide news with differing judgements and differing editorial priorities.
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This presents the 91Èȱ¬ with a massive challenge – how to stand out and be easily identifiable in an ever more crowded, constantly developing, marketplace.
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How do we achieve this? The 91Èȱ¬'s impartial approach to covering news has become a feature of public service broadcasting around the world and the Corporation continues to be seen as the most trusted and objective international news provider.
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In March 2006, independent public opinion research organisation GlobeScan carried out a series of questions on trust and the media. It polled over 10,000 people in 10 countries. The 91Èȱ¬ rated higher than any other organisations when it came to trusting global media brands.
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People get their news in different ways in different parts of the world. In the Middle East and large parts of Asia, television is the dominant medium.
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In areas of Africa and the Far East, where people are more likely to have mobile phones than computers, mobiles are the preferred distribution platform. And more and more people are using the internet and bbc.com or bbcarabic.com rather than radio to access their news.
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TV is the dominant medium in the Arab world with more than 300 cable and satellite channels available across the region. The 91Èȱ¬ is joining them; launching 91Èȱ¬ Arabic television, part of a multi-platform Arabic offer across television, radio and online. Dozens of new staff have been recruited, and a new multimedia centre has been created at Broadcasting House in Central London.
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The 91Èȱ¬'s brand is strong in the Arab world. In repeated surveys in some 20 major cities, an average of 85 per cent said they would watch 91Èȱ¬ Arabic television.
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Everything broadcast by the 91Èȱ¬ is now effectively global. During the outcry in September 2005, about cartoons in a Danish newspaper that depicted the Prophet Mohammed in an allegedly blasphemous way, there were riots in Pakistan over rumours that Newsnight, the 91Èȱ¬'s domestic late-night current affairs programme, was going to show the cartoons in full.
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It wasn't, but the story was out there, spread around the world by email and mobile phone. Newsnight is only available in the UK, so the riots were about something that didn't happen on a channel that wouldn't even be seen in Pakistan. It's an example of how cultural sensitivities cross national and broadcast boundaries.
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In today's complex world, the 91Èȱ¬ strives to achieve impartiality by representing as full and diverse a range of views as possible. These have to be weighted according to who, or how many, or how authoritative a view they represent.
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The leader of the 91Èȱ¬, Director-General Mark Thompson, says the Corporation aspires to offer "a view of the world which is as uncoloured at it can be by prejudice or sectional interest ... providing common ground in which different perspectives and different value systems can debate with each other, and be independently scrutinised and assessed."
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The 91Èȱ¬ is dedicated to building trust between countries, cultures and communities. Transparency, accountability and independence are central to fulfilling that purpose.
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Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan described the 91Èȱ¬'s international news services as "probably Britain's greatest gift to the world", because of the impact of its journalism.
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To those who oppose the building of open and peaceful societies, free media pose a dangerous threat – precisely because of their potential to empower by increasing understanding and inspiring free debate. That has led to attacks on 91Èȱ¬ programmes and the people who make them.
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Our services in China and Iran are effectively blocked. Not because they are anti-Chinese or anti-Iranian but because they are simply seeking to make high quality impartial news available to people who want it.
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In Burma, as news of the military crackdown on protests spread via the internet, the junta closed it down. And, in Pakistan, one of the first moves under the recent State of Emergency was to take international news channels off the air.
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In June 2004, 91Èȱ¬ cameraman Simon Cumbers died after being shot by gunmen in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, an incident in which our security correspondent Frank Gardner was badly injured.
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In February 2005, 91Èȱ¬ producer Kate Peyton was shot and killed in Mogadishu, a city where the only source of reliable news is the 91Èȱ¬'s Somali service.
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And 91Èȱ¬ correspondent Alan Johnston was kidnapped and held hostage for 114 days in Gaza, where he had reported from for three years.
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It is well to remember that there's sometimes an unacceptable cost to keeping world society informed while promoting openness, fairness, economic and political development.
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