industryterm:satellite channel

  • Yemen How the Houthis Became “Shi‘a” | Middle East Research and Information Project

    http://www.merip.org/mero/mero012718

    by Anna Gordon , Sarah E. Parkinson | published January 27, 2018
    On December 4, 2017, Houthi rebels in Yemen killed ‘Ali ‘Abdallah Salih, their erstwhile ally and the country’s former president. It was a dramatic reversal: Parts of the national army loyal to Salih had fought alongside the Houthis for nearly three years in Yemen’s ongoing civil war. But shortly before his death Salih turned against the Houthis, making overtures to their opponents, the Yemeni administration-in-exile led by President ‘Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi and its backers in the wealthy Gulf Arab monarchies, primarily Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In remarks broadcast on Saudi-funded satellite channels on December 3, Salih accused the Houthis of intolerable “recklessness.” If the Saudis and Emiratis were to lift their blockade on Yemen, he continued, then “we will turn the page.” The next day, Salih was killed.

    The Houthis’ history with Salih is far more complex than this concluding episode would imply. Until Salih’s ouster from the presidency in late 2011, it was his regime that had confronted Houthi rebellions, in six rounds of combat beginning in 2004. But another legacy of the wars of the 2000s is particularly salient for its influence upon global understanding of the current, catastrophic Yemen conflict—the Salih regime’s invention of the claim that the Houthis are “Iranian-backed Shi‘a.”

    False Coding
    The first problem with calling the Houthis “Shi‘a” is that, technically, they are not Shi‘a, at least not in the way that most people understand contemporary Shi‘ism. Shi‘ism is distinguished from Sunnism, the other main branch of Islam, primarily by the Shi‘i belief that Muhammad’s rightful heirs as religio-political leaders, or Imams, of the Muslim community are the Prophet’s son-in-law ‘Ali and his progeny. Most Houthis are Zaydis, that is, members of a Shi‘i denomination that split off from the main body in the eighth century because of a dispute over recognition of the Fifth Imam. Zaydis do not believe, as most Shi‘a do, that the imamate must be handed down through a particular line of ‘Ali’s descendants. Today about 85 percent of Shi‘a worldwide, including the vast majority of Iranian and Iraqi Shi‘a, and the Shi‘a of Lebanon, follow what is called Twelver Shi‘ism: They believe that the Twelfth Imam was the last legitimate successor to Muhammad and ‘Ali, and that one day he will return from occultation, or hiding, to restore just rule and battle evil. Erasing the distinction between Zaydis and Twelvers—something akin to calling the Copts Roman Catholics—may not seem terribly consequential. But it has profound political consequences for the war in Yemen, given evolving alliance structures and the ambitions of regional powers, particularly the Saudis.

  • Hack, fake story expose real tensions between Qatar, Gulf
    https://apnews.com/f5da3293be18401a954d48249f75394e

    While Qatar quickly denied the comments attributed to ruling emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Saudi-owned satellite channels repeatedly aired them throughout the day Wednesday. The incident revived suspicions that exploded into the open three years when several Gulf nations pulled their ambassadors from Qatar over similar worries about its politics.

    The alleged hack happened early on Wednesday morning and hours later, the website of the Qatar News Agency still was not accessible.

    The fake article quoted Sheikh Tamim as calling Iran an “Islamic power” and saying Qatar’s relations with Israel were “good” during a military ceremony.

    Online footage of Qatari state television’s nightly newscast from Tuesday showed clips of Sheikh Tamim at the ceremony with the anchor not mentioning the comments, though a scrolling ticker at the bottom of the screen had the alleged fake remarks. They included calling Hamas “the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people,” as well as saying Qatar had “strong relations” with Iran and the United States.

    “Iran represents a regional and Islamic power that cannot be ignored and it is unwise to face up against it,” the ticker read at one point. “It is a big power in the stabilization of the region.”

    The hackers also purportedly took over the news agency’s Twitter feed and posted alleged quotes from Qatar’s foreign minister accusing Arab nations of fomenting a plot against his country. A series of tweets said Qatar had ordered its ambassadors to withdraw from Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates over the plot. The tweets were later deleted.

  • Are Twitter Bots on Yemen and Bahrain Hashtags linked to News Broadcaster Saudi 24? | Marc Owen Jones
    https://marcowenjones.wordpress.com/2016/07/12/are-twitter-bots-on-yemen-and-bahrain-hashtags-linked-to-ne

    This morning, some fellow Tweeps alerted me to the use of similar bots on the #Yemen hashtag, so I did some preliminary tests. Sure enough, the same bots on the #Bahrain hashtag are using the Yemen hashtag to promote the idea of Iranian influence in Yemen, a common trope in Gulf politics. The accounts are indeed the same, and some have changed from Tweeting about Bahrain to tweeting about Yemen. Many still continue to tweet on the #Bahrain hashtag. The most common Tweets on the Yemen hashtag are;

    العوين:مجئ الخوميني هو بداية الشر و اشعال الحروب في المنطقة https://t.co/wkYWbGT3eG#الشيخ_عيسي_قاسم #ايران #Iran #حزب_الله #yemen #Iraq

    (translation: The appearance of Khomeini was the beginning of evil and the spread of wars in the region #Shaykh_Isa_Qasim, #Hezbollah, #Yemen, #Iraq, #Iran

    توجيهات خادم الحرمين بايصال رسالة المملكة للعالم كله ومنها برنامج الإمامة في الخارج https://t.co/QZif2VH3PP#ايران #Iran #حزب_الله #yemen (The custodian of the holy mosques sends a message to the whole world….)

    Of the 11,541 Tweets pulled from the Twitter API over an approximately 48 hour period, around 2,493 appear to be from bot accounts. In the sample, there were approximately 1172 individual bot accounts engaged in polluting the Yemen hashtag with the above tweets. You can see the spreadsheet data here. I have used the same methodology as in previous posts, but have not got into it here (happy to answer questions though)

    The role of Saudi24?
    What is interesting about virtually all the videos analysed on the #Bahrain and Yemen hashtag is that they contain links almost exclusively to the YouTube channel Saudi 24. Saudi 24 is a satellite channel that I am still trying to find more information on. Their Twitter account was set up in July 2012, before the automated Twitter activated seemed to begin. Their live link can be found here. Their website can be found here. The email address given on their Twitter bio is Info@saudi24.tv. They joined YouTube in January 2015, after many of the bot account had been created (On Youtube they have 12,501 subscribers and over 3,743,929 views ). This appears to be the Twitter account of the main presenter, Mohammad Rashid. Their rhetoric seems loosely aligned with state rhetoric. They are anti Islamic State, but antagonistic towards Iran, and sectarian towards the Shia. At the moment the link is speculative, but it does seem unusual that the bots should almost exclusively choose news clips from Saudi 24, when there are plenty to choose from that broadcast a particularly anti-Shia, anti-Iran, sectarian agenda.

  • Le tout nouveau président du CNS (opposition en exil, principale composante de l’opposition dite de Ryadh) qui vient d’être élu est Anas al-Abdeh. Celui-ci est le fondateur du Mouvement Justice et Développement :
    http://www.rfi.fr/moyen-orient/20160306-cns-coalition-syrie-anas-al-abdeh-nouveau-chef-opposition-exil
    Il a cofondé ce mouvement avec son frère Malik al-Abdeh :
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movement_for_Justice_and_Development_in_Syria
    A la même époque (vers 2006-2011) Malik al-Abdeh, frère du nouveau président du CNS donc, a aussi été le directeur de la chaîne Barada TV, chaîne anti-Bachar et basée à Londres, dont un câble Wikileaks traité par le Washington Post nous a révélé qu’elle, ainsi que le Mouvement cofondé avec son frère, avaient été financés secrètement par le State Department :
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/us-secretly-backed-syrian-opposition-groups-cables-released-by-wikileaks-show/2011/04/14/AF1p9hwD_story.html

    The State Department has secretly financed Syrian political opposition groups and related projects, including a satellite TV channel that beams anti-government programming into the country, according to previously undisclosed diplomatic cables.
    [...] Barada TV is closely affiliated with the Movement for Justice and Development, a London-based network of Syrian exiles. Classified U.S. diplomatic cables show that the State Department has funneled as much as $6 million to the group since 2006 to operate the satellite channel and finance other activities inside Syria. The channel is named after the Barada River, which courses through the heart of Damascus, the Syrian capital.[...]
    It is unclear when the group began to receive U.S. funds, but cables show U.S. officials in 2007 raised the idea of helping to start an anti-Assad satellite channel.People involved with the group and with Barada TV, however, would not acknowledge taking money from the U.S. government.
    “I’m not aware of anything like that,” Malik al-Abdeh, Barada TV’s news director, said in a brief telephone interview from London.

    Via twitter Pichon

    • En plus d’être un (ancien ?) agent américain, le nouveau président du CNS est, selon Angry arab, un sectaire anti-chiite, et pour cela apprécié des Saoudiens :
      http://angryarab.blogspot.fr/2016/03/the-new-leader-of-syrian-national.html

      The new leader of the Syrian National Coalition
      This new leader, Anas Al-’Abdah, is prefect for the Qatari and Saudi regimes. He is an expert in anti-Shi`ite Islamist agitation and is the author of the famous report on the Shi’itization of the Syrian Sunni population. Media of Saudi princes was quite happy with his elevation. Having said that, please continue to follow the lead of Liz Sly and refer to Syrian National Coalition as “secular”.

  • A confrontation between the Interior Ministry and angry policemen | Mada Masr
    http://www.madamasr.com/sections/politics/confrontation-between-interior-ministry-and-angry-policemen

    A crisis between Egypt’s Interior Ministry and police forces escalated this week, with seven leaders of a coalition of police sergeants and personnel who are critical of the ministry arrested on their way to a television appearance. 

    The detained personnel face charges of incitement, obstructing work and illegal strikes, as well as forming a “banned group” that aims to influence and harm the work of a state authority — the Interior Ministry.

    They were arrested while en route to appear on a television show on a satellite channel, and their detention was extended on Sunday for 15 days pending investigations.

    The Facebook page “Officers of Egypt,” which has since been taken down, claims to speak in the name of the sergeants’ coalition. Founded by low-ranking police in the aftermath of the 2011 revolution, the page alleges state security officers fabricated charges of possession of drugs and weapons against the arrested police personnel. A statement on the page pledges that the group will “expose corruption” and that they refuse to be “scapegoats for the corruption of others.”

  • Jérusalem-est: affrontements sur l’esplanade des Mosquées (police)
    ats / 13.09.2015
    http://www.romandie.com/news/Jerusalemest-affrontements-sur-lesplanade-des-Mosquees-police/629449.rom

    Des affrontements ont éclaté dimanche matin sur l’esplanade des Mosquées dans la vieille ville de Jérusalem entre la police israélienne et des musulmans. Ces heurts ont eu lieu à quelques heures de la célébration de la nouvelle année juive.

    Selon des témoins musulmans, les policiers israéliens sont entrés dans la mosquée Al-Aqsa, troisième lieu de l’islam, et provoqué des dégâts. Une porte-parole de la police, Luba Samri, a démenti cette information, en précisant que les forces l’ordre s’étaient contentées de fermer la porte d’accès.

    Ces affrontements sont survenus au moment où la tension est montée autour de l’esplanade des Mosquées (le Mont du Temple pour les juifs) à la suite de la décision du ministre israélien de la Défense Moshe Yaalon, qui a déclaré mercredi « illégal » le mouvement des « mourabitoun », un groupe musulman en grande partie informel qui affirme défendre l’esplanade des Mosquées.

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    Israeli forces storm Al-Aqsa Mosque, assault worshippers
    Sept. 13, 2015 10:53 A.M. (Updated: Sept. 13, 2015 2:05 P.M.)
    http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=767579

    The clashes came with tensions running high after Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon last week outlawed two Muslim groups that protect the mosque, and confront Jewish visitors to the compound, which is holy to both faiths.

    Witnesses told Ma’an that Israeli forces stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound Sunday morning, firing rubber-coated steel bullets and stun grenades and injuring several worshipers.

    Witnesses said Israeli forces stormed the compound through the Chain and Moroccan gates shortly after dawn prayer.

    The forces then surrounded worshipers inside Al-Aqsa Mosque and closed its doors with “chains and bars” before they started to fire rubber-coated bullets inside the mosque, witnesses said.

    Israel ’has taken over’ Aqsa compound, says official

    Sept. 13, 2015 9:56 P.M. (Updated: Sept. 13, 2015 9:58 P.M.)
    http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=767592

    • Des soldats et des colons israéliens attaquent la mosquée Al-Aqsa (vidéo)
      Par Ziad Medoukh
      http://www.ism-france.org/temoignages/Des-soldats-et-des-colons-israeliens-attaquent-la-mosquee-Al-Aqsa-video-

      13.09.2015 - Ce matin, la police israélienne a fermé la porte d’accès de la mosquée. Il y a beaucoup de blessés palestiniens, et beaucoup de dégâts. Les forces de l’occupation israélienne poursuivent leurs attaques sanglantes contre les Palestiniens à Jérusalem, en Cisjordanie et dans la bande de Gaza.
      La Palestine résiste, existe et persiste.

    • PCHR Condemns Israeli Forces’ Raid on al-Aqsa Mosque and Deliberately Damaging its content PDF Print E-mail
      Sunday, 13 September 2015
      http://www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11266:pchr-condemns-israeli-f

      According to information collected by PCHR from the city, at approximately 05:45 on Sunday, 13 September 2015, when worshipers finished performing the dawn (Fajr) prayer in al-Aqsa Mosque and started getting out of the mosque, large numbers of special Israeli forces stormed al-Aqsa Mosque firing sound bombs and rubber-coated metal bullets. Israeli forces immediately closed the Qibli (southern) mosque while dozens of Israeli soldiers topped the roof of the mosque. They surrounded the young men staying inside and sprayed pepper spray over them. Officers from the special forces evacuated all al-Aqsa Mosque’s yards. In the morning, Israeli forces smashed the windows of al-Qibli Mosque and fired sound bombs and tear gas canisters at young men trapped inside, due to which the carpets caught fire. Moreover, Lo’ai Abu al-Sa’ed, one of the mosque’s guards, sustained a bullet wound to the chest; Jad al-Ghoul, a civil defense officer in al-Aqsa Mosque, sustained a bullet wound to the left arm; Anas Siyam (14) sustained a bullet wound to the chest; and Lewa Abu Ermaila, a journalist at Palestine Today satellite channel, and Sabreen Ebeidat, a photojournalist at Quds news network, both were injured by shrapnel from a sound bomb. An eyewitness stated that Israeli forces attacked and pushed Arab members of the Israeli Knesset, who could entered al-Aqsa Mosque, namely Ahmed al-Tibi, Osama al-Sa’di and Talab Abu ’Arar.

      This attack coincided with banning students of al-Aqsa Shari’a schools located inside the mosque (Riyadh al-Aqsa, al-Aqsa School for Boys and al-Aqsa School for Girls), who are about 500 female and male students, from entering the mosque and joining their schools. In addition, Israeli forces denied the administrative and educational employees entry by attacking and pushing them while being present by Hetta and al-Selsela gates. Israeli forces have also prevented worshipers below 45 years old from entering the mosque since the predawn.

      Afterwards, groups of Israeli settlers led by the Minister of Agriculture, Uri Ariel, stormed the mosque through al-Maghareba gate. They performed biblical rituals in al-Hersh area near al-Rahma gate. It should be noted that the (Temple Groups) invited their supporters through media websites and social media to participate in the largest raid on al-Aqsa Mosque on Sunday, coinciding with the beginning of the Jewish holidays.
      (...)

  • The destructive legacy of Arab liberals | Joseph Massad http://electronicintifada.net/content/destructive-legacy-arab-liberals/14385

    Ironies abound. Terrified by the popular Arab schadenfreude expressed in massive demonstrations across the Arab world in solidarity with Iraq, demonstrations that did not sympathize with Kuwait and other oil-producing Gulf countries, the illiberal Saudis launched pan-Arab newspapers and satellite channels that bombarded the Arab world with pro-Saudi and pro-US liberal propaganda to reverse this Arab anti-imperial nationalist tide that also opposed the Arab regimes allied with US imperialism.

    Intellectuals from across the Arab world joined the effort, abandoning old leftist, communist, Nasserist and Islamist positions and adopted the much, much more profitable pro-US and pro-Israel liberal line politically, and the neoliberal economic order being globalized. By the dawn of the new century, the Saudis and the Americans issued new orders to their media and agents to spread an unprecedented sectarian campaign against Shiites inside and outside the Arab world.

    The campaign would be first articulated in 2004 by the new and neoliberal King Abdullah of Jordan, a self-styled “liberal” monarch who possesses absolute and unchecked power. The king expressed his and others’ fear of the rise of a “Shiite crescent” in the region.

    It is in this regional context that Syrian liberals joined the fray. Upon the long-awaited death of President Hafez al-Assad in 2000, they launched what they called a “Damascus Spring” from intellectual salons and from the halls of the US embassy in Damascus, whose cultural attaché was a main sponsor of their “Spring.”

    While they would soon be suppressed by the authoritarian regime of Bashar al-Assad, Syrian liberals would re-emerge in 2011 claiming to speak for “revolutionary” forces that have, with the full participation of the repressive Assad regime, caused the death of hundreds of thousands and destroyed the country.

    The US ambassador would also aid in their efforts by making appointments and assigning roles within the Syrian exile opposition. Not unlike their Iraqi counterparts, the Syrian liberals — secularists and Islamists alike — called for imperial intervention in the name of democracy and to end the Syrian dictatorship. They got what they wished for in the form of the draconian Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS — also known as ISIL or just “Islamic State”).

    Not to be outdone, Lebanese liberals and former Lebanese leftists, communists and Arab nationalists would also have their own “Spring” following the assassination of the corrupt and corrupting neoliberal billionaire, Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri in 2005. They would help launch a local sectarian anti-Shiite campaign in the country and would call for more imperial intervention to save them from their powerful Syrian, but not their more dangerous Israeli, neighbor. They would also relaunch anti-Palestinian campaigns by cheering the Lebanese army’s destruction of the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared in 2007. While their country was under heavy Israeli bombardment in 2006, many of these liberals cheered on the Israelis privately and publicly and prayed for the destruction of Hizballah fighters to restore a “liberal” Lebanese order that they longed for.

  • #Lebanon Issues Arrest Warrant for #Al_Jazeera #journalist After Court No-Show
    http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/lebanon-issues-arrest-warrant-al-jazeera-journalist-after-court-n

    Lebanese prosecutors have issued an arrest warrant for #Faisal_al-Qassem, news presenter at Qatar-owned satellite channel Al Jazeera, claiming that he insulted the army and promoted sectarian strife, a Lebanese judicial source said Wednesday. Al-Qassem, for his part, claimed on Facebook that the arrest warrant was provoked by an episode of his controversial show broadcast Tuesday night, which asked: “Why does the #lebanese_army treat Syrian refugees fascistically?” since the warrant came one day after the episode was aired. read more

    #syria

  • Update: Prosecutor accuses MB of faking leaked SCAF recording |
    Friday, December 5, 2014 Mada Masr
    http://www.madamasr.com/news/update-prosecutor-accuses-mb-faking-leaked-scaf-recording

    Audio recordings of a purported phone conversation between Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) members Mamdouh Shahin and Osama al-Gendy were circulated on the Islamist Mekameleen (We shall continue) channel and the pro-Brotherhood Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr satellite channel.

    In the conversation, Shahin tells Gendy that the criminal charges against ousted President Mohamed Morsi could be dismissed, because he was illegally detained by the Armed Forces between July 3 and July 7, 2013 as the military announced his deposition from power.

    After massive protests calling for the end of Morsi’s rule on June 30, 2013, the military stepped in to announce his ouster and the appointment of an alternative government on July 4. Since then, Morsi and a number of his aides were held incommunicado at an undisclosed military premise. He only emerged publicly months later, appearing in court to face several charges in different cases, most notably an espionage case and a case of killing protesters near the Ettehadiya Presidential Palace during anti-regime protests in 2012.

  • Six dead in southern Saudi suicide attack: Al Arabiya
    http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/six-dead-southern-saudi-suicide-attack-al-arabiya

    Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television said on Saturday that two suspected al-Qaeda militants who had been surrounded inside a government building in southern #Saudi_Arabia after an attack on a border post with Yemen blew themselves up early on Saturday. The satellite channel gave no further details on casualties from the blast. Saudi security forces had been searching for militants who had fled after the attack, in which six people, including one suicide bomber and two security personnel, were killed. (Reuters)

  • #Saudi_Arabia dismantles group plotting « terrorist » attacks
    http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/saudi-arabia-dismantles-group-plotting-terrorist-attacks

    Saudi Arabia has dismantled a “terrorist organization” that was plotting attacks against government installations and foreign interests, the interior ministry announced Wednesday. Authorities have arrested 62 suspected members of the group, among them three foreigners, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official Al-Ekhbariya satellite channel. Those arrested include 35 Saudis who had previously been detained on security-related allegations and released, it said. read more

    #Top_News

  • Saudi clerics decry „blasphemous” cartoon series
    http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/saudi-clerics-decry-blasphemous-cartoon-series

    Saudi Arabia’s top clerics have declared an Islam-inspired cartoon series, which earned praise from US President Barack Obama, a “work of the devil” that Muslims should not watch. The television version of superhero comic book “The 99” is being aired by Saudi-owned satellite channel MBC3, based in Dubai in the neighboring United Arab Emirates. But in a religious decree carried by Saudi websites on Monday, the clerics ruled the series blasphemous because the superheroes of its title are based on the 99 attributes ascribed to God in the Quran. read more

    #blasphemy #cartoons #medieval_times #Saudi_Arabia #Top_News

  • Algerian forces raid, shut down opposition TV station
    http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/algerian-forces-raid-shut-down-opposition-tv-station

    Algerian private television channel Al Atlas TV, which has strongly criticized the government, said on Wednesday that it had been ordered to stop broadcasting after police raided its headquarters. Al Atlas information director Ghoul Hafnaoui told AFP that the satellite channel went off the air in mid morning, “under orders from the authorities,” a day after police searched its premises and seized equipment. The public prosecutor ordered the search as part of an investigation whose purpose has not been made known, Hafnaoui said. read more

    #Algeria #Freedom_of_the_Press #Top_News

  • Trial for jailed #Al_Jazeera journalists resumes in #Egypt
    http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/trial-jailed-al-jazeera-journalists-resumes-egypt

    A Sudanese journalist carries a placard expressing her support for Al Jazeera television journalists detained in Egypt, during a silent vigil outside the Qatar-based satellite channel’s Khartoum office, on February 27, 2014. (Photo: AFP - Ashraf Shazly) A Sudanese journalist carries a placard expressing her support for Al Jazeera television journalists detained in Egypt, during a silent vigil outside the Qatar-based satellite channel’s Khartoum office, on February 27, 2014. (Photo: AFP - Ashraf Shazly)

    The Egyptian trial resumes Wednesday for Al Jazeera journalists accused of supporting ousted president Mohammed Mursi’s banned Muslim Brotherhood, a case that has sparked a global outcry over muzzling of the press. The (...)

    #Cairo #Freedom_of_the_Press #Top_News

  • Egypt channels to suspend programming for pro-military protests -

    Ahram Online
    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/5/32/77340/Arts--Culture/Film/Egypt-channels-to-suspend-programming-for-promilit.aspx

    A number of satellite channels, including CBC, Dream, Al-Hayah, Al-Mehwer, Al-Kaqera Wel Nas, OnTV, Tahrir TV and MBC Masr, have announced that their entertainment programming on Friday will be cancelled to cover expected mass pro-army demonstrations.

    The channels will suspend their regular Ramadan programming, which features soap operas, religious programmes, sit-coms and a large number of commercials, to broadcast the minute-by-minute events of the day.

  • Channel to bring the best out of Saudi women
    Arab News - 22 July, 2013

    Come Thursday, Saudi Arabia will be boasting of having an exclusive satellite channel for women which will not only serve as a platform for Saudi women to showcase their talent and capabilities but also help clear misconceptions about Arab women abroad.

    Abdullah Al-Nazawi, the board chairman, launched the channel on Saturday in the presence of Information Minister Abdul Aziz Khoja and Riyaz bin Kamal, president of the General Authority to regulate the audio-visual media.

    http://gitm.kcorp.net/index.php?id=657632

  • Egypt to shut hotels if staff sexually harass tourists

    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/3/12/70739/Business/Economy/Egypt-to-shut-hotels-if-staff-sexually-harass-tour.aspx

    "Foreign travel agents have complained about the inappropriate behavior of some hotel staff towards tourists,” Zaazou told Al-Hayat 2 private satellite channel on Saturday. “They threaten to remove Egypt from their list of tourist destinations.” Zaazou told Ahram Online on Sunday that he would meet with members of the Egyptian Hotels Association to discuss the move.

    “I am determined to close hotels where sexual harassment has taken place because this behavior has an impact on the country’s reputation,” Zaazou asserted.

    The tourism ministry has recorded 150 cases of sexual harassment against tourists over the last two years. There have also been three recorded rapes in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.
    Around 4 million Egyptians work in the tourism sector, according to official data.

    #EndSH

  • Explosion des ventes de générateurs - pour ceux qui en ont les moyens

    Electricity expert Hefzy Zayed said in an interview with ONtv satellite channel this month that poor maintenance of power plans and the lack of liquidity to buy raw materials for the plants has caused the electricity shortage.

    Zayed said electricity cuts may occur across the country for up to two hours a day, and some predict rural areas will experiences power cuts lasting four to six hours.

    http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/power-electric-generator-sales-are-rise

  • Syrian Newspapers Emerge to Fill Out War Reporting

    By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
    The New York Times
    Published: April 1, 2013

    “ANTAKYA, Turkey — Absi Smesem became the editor in chief of a new weekly Syrian newspaper hoping to leave behind what he disparaged as the “Facebook phase” of the uprising. The tall tales and outright misinformation that tainted so much reporting from Syria convinced him that more objective coverage was essential to bolster the effort to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad. Too often, he said, he could not believe what passed for news on popular satellite channels, like the Qatari-owned Al Jazeera and the Saudi-runAl Arabiya, both staunch opposition supporters. The two channels relied heavily on unfiltered reports from local activists hired as correspondents, or, failing that, grabbed whatever they , Binnish, in northern Syria, was under siege by the Syrian Army, he said, one activist-cum-correspondent used the local expression “Dabahoona dbah,” which in Arabic literally means “We are being slaughtered” — but which the people of northern Syria use to mean “We cannot breathe.” Within minutes, a breaking-news headline scrolled across the television screen saying Syrian government forces were committing a massacre in Binnish. “There are no objective sources of information on either side, neither with the regime nor the rebels,” said Mr. Smesem, 46, a veteran reporter with graying hair and an easy laugh.” (…)

    Hala Droubi contributed reporting from Antakya, and Sebnem Arsu from Gaziantep, Turkey.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/world/middleeast/syrian-newspapers-emerge-to-fill-out-war-reporting.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0

    #Facebook #Sham_newspaper #Al_Ahd #Free_Syria #Brigades

    • Les médias, comme ceux qui les suivent, auront été mis à rude épreuve pendant la « révolution » puis la « guerre » en Syrie. Dans le suivi médiatique des événements, la palette est large qui va de la rareté de l’information à la désinformation en passant par le « wishful thinking » ou la distorsion. Un bilan de la manière dont les événements en Syrie ont été rapportés des deux côtés reste à faire. En attendant, il aura fallu apprendre à aimer puis à se distancier des actions de l’Armée libre syrienne, se gausser des mails échangés entre la famille Assad et un grand magasin londonien puis se demander si tous étaient authentiques, prendre pour argent comptant des articles qui ne reflétaient que les positions nationales de tel ou tel pays, se demander s’il fallait dire « révolutionnaires » ou « groupes armés, « combattants de l’intérieur » ou « conspiration de l’extérieur », « rebelles » ou « insurgés », « déserteurs » ou « combattants de la liberté ». Fallait-il, faute de temps ou de moyens, reprendre aveuglement les très nombreuses informations que Rami Abdulrahman - responsable de « l’Observatoire syrien des Droits de l’homme »- transmettaient à la presse occidentale depuis son domicile de Coventry ? A-t-on eu raison de ne porter qu’une attention discrète au rapport de la Ligue arabe dont les observateurs, dépêchés en Syrie fin 2011 début 2012, avaient déjà noté des distorsions entre réalité du terrain et image véhiculée dans les médias internationaux ?

  • Jordanian MP threatens rival with gun. #on_reste_calme_et_on_boit_frais
    http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/jordanian-mp-threatens-critic-pistol

    A live television talk show in Jordan produced a torrent of insults, a shoe flying across the studio and a pistol being whipped out, as the host desperately tried to keep two rival politicians apart.

    The show on private satellite channel Jo Sat, aired on Friday, started to spin out of control after MP Mohammad Shawabka accused former deputy Mansur Murad of working as a spy for the Syrian regime.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GFyqKzu2T1Y

  • Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen satellite channel to launch next year
    http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2011/Jul-29/Beirut-based-Al-Mayadeen-satellite-channel-to-launch-next-year.ashx#ax

    A new Beirut-based satellite channel is set to launch early next year, aiming to cover the “reality” of economic and social issues in the Arab world, according to its director.

    [...]

    The project is being undertaken jointly by bin Jiddo and Nayef Krayyem, the owner of Union channel, which will now be called the Union Production Company and will produce content for Al-Mayadeen.

    Krayyem will serve as Al-Mayadeen’s general manager and journalist Sami Kleib, another former Al-Jazeera figure, will be the director of news programs. Zahi Wehbe, a former talk show host at Future TV, is slated to play a similar role at the new network.

    Bin Jiddo said the name Al-Mayadeen, Arabic for “public squares” or “domains,” was chosen to reflect the mounting challenges of people “in social, economic and other domains … and their aspirations for better in the cultural, political and other domains.”

    [...]

    As for the network’s political orientation, bin Jiddo said Al-Mayadeen would promote freedom, reform, social justice and the right to free expression.

    Bin Jiddo added that the Palestinian cause would feature heavily in the network’s content and said it would not host Israeli officials, a decision made in line with the network’s position against the normalization of ties with Israel.

    He stressed that the network was not funded by any Arab regime or state.

  • #Hamas: Al-Jazeera’s papers unveiled plans to liquidate the Palestinian cause
    http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k+cOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO+i1s767xhBIA1qfxfB8FD1gSl3e281RdfG7SLj6GjI+u2ETN3bg/OaclnAjMeS97110XQbwXpvD0U1ddCpOUTG4LqQrTZrKQeV39wrCvNETgDX/4=

    The Hamas Movement said that the confidential documents leaked by Al-Jazeera satellite channel about the peace talks between the Fatah-controlled Palestinian authority (PA) and Israel is very serious poof of the PA’s involvement in attempts to liquidate the Palestinian cause.

    Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told the Palestinian information center (PIC) that these documents revealed the PA’s attempts to undermine the Palestinian people’s rights, especially the right of return and the holy city as well as its cooperation with Israel against the Palestinian resistance and its involvement in the blockade and the last war on Gaza.

    “We consider these documents are further evidence of the security and political decadence which the PA stooped to,” spokesman Abu Zuhri underscored.

    #Palestine_papers