Thursday, June 24, 2004

DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN



"Why didn't they think of that before?" That's what Middle Eastern media commentators will be saying when they read the reports in the FT and the Media Guardian that the BBC is to launch a 24-hour news channel broadcasting in Arabic across the UK, Europe and the Arab world.

Maybe it'll be similar to the arabic language TV station, er....the BBC closed down 8 years ago.

Or maybe it'll be like Al-Jazeera, which was set up mainly by...er...the journalists sacked when BBC Arabic Television folded.

Since BBC Arabic TV was shut a wealth of arabic language satellite channels -- Jazeera, Al-Arabiya, MBC, LBC, NBN, Al-Manar, Sahar and Al-Alam to name just a few -- have moved in to fill the gap -- leaving the BBC to play catch-up almost a decade later.

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