The other air war over Iraq

By IAN URBINA*

The war in Iraq is surely not only a contest for oil, but also a competition for television viewers as al-Jazeera's corner on this market could be up for grabs.

With the airing of the footage of the United States prisoners of war, al-Jazeera once again seems poised - much as it did during the Afghanistan war - for broadcast supremacy in the coverage of the conflict.

But a number of upstart stations, everywhere from London to Abu Dhabi, have their hopes set on claiming a piece of al-Jazeera's 35 million audience. But in truth, there is only one competitor who has any chance of pulling it off.

Al-Arabiya, a new Dubai-based Arab satellite news channel, offers around-the-clock transmission with news, documentaries, interviews and political talk shows.

The $300 million in seed money for the channel comes from an array of Saudi, Kuwaiti and Lebanese investors, but the day-to-day running of the station is overseen by the Middle East Broadcasting Center (MBC), owned by the brother-in-law of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd.

With 32 news bureaus across the world, including in Iraq, Israel, the Palestinian territories and the United States, MBC is headed by Salah Nejem, a BBC veteran and chief editor of al-Jazeera until 2001.

In short, al-Arabiya could prove to be a real heavyweight in the fight for access to a growing media market.

Al-Arabiya is billing itself as the less provocative alternative to al-Jazeera, which airs controversial live talk shows allowing viewers to call in to vent their anger at their own leaders, Israel and the United States. Since all of al-Arabiya's interviews are pre-recorded, it seems clear that the station has no intention of opening such a wide margin for discussion and debate.

Consequently, many wonder whether the station will be able to accurately provide the diversity of opinion - truly the good, the bad, and the ugly of the Arab world - to the same extent that al-Jazeera does. And they are watching to see if al-Arabiya is willing to run critical pieces which invite the ire of regional governments.

So far, the upstart station seems to be marketing itself along the opposite lines, claiming that it will provide a more polished and less sensationalist product.

In an interview in a specialist journal published by the American University in Cairo, Nejem outlined al-Arabiya's offerings: "News with quality production and editorial values, as well as ... the provision of opinions that respect the reason and mentality and dignity of both the audience and our guests and provides a broad range of opinions, rather than going for the easy solution."

Salah Kallab, a former Jordanian information minister who serves as al-Arabiya's director-general, expressed a similar vision: "We are not going to make problems for Arab countries. We'll stick with the truth, but there's no sensationalism."

Still, the real race is for Iraq. Much as the 1991 Persian Gulf War made a name for CNN, and the war in Afghanistan put al-Jazeera on the map, the present conflict is the make-or-break moment for broadcasters.

So far, many viewers are most likely channel surfing toward the new station, if only out of curiosity. But to succeed, al-Arabiya will need a considerable amount of journalistic aggressiveness, since polish alone will not land the breaking stories that cause viewers to tune in and stay put.

In the weeks to come, the measures of merit will be credibility, broad and breaking news coverage, speed in broadcasting news, and rigorous investigation as well as politically tough stands when it comes to the freedom to inform.

As of yet, al-Jazeera has kept its edge on the competitors. This was especially true with the landing of the footage of the US prisoners of war. Most Arabic and non-Arabic-speaking viewers (English subtitles are available) still turn to al-Jazeera to get the breaking stories.

Some smaller competitors are in the mix. Abu Dhabi TV, which has 25 correspondents, already broadcasts eight hours of news and has several correspondents in Baghdad. An Algerian company, Khalifa TV, has been transmitting for 12 hours a day since last November and has intentions of expanding into a 24-hour all-news channel. Owned by a wealthy Algerian businessman, Abdul Muneim Khalifa, the station focuses mainly on North Africa.

Saudi-funded Al-Majd 2 is being billed as the first English-language Islamic satellite television channel. It began transmissions last November from studios in Dubai Media City, Riyadh and Cairo. The channel is devoted to presenting an Islamic perspective for non-Arabic speakers.

There is also a new and noteworthy player in Newsroom Ink, a new partnership between the London-based pan-Arab daily newspaper al-Hayat and the Lebanese Broadcasting Company, mainly an entertainment channel. al-Hayat is owned by Prince Khalid bin Sultan, Fahd's nephew, who invests $12 million a year in the project.

The collaboration is run by Jihad Khazen, a former al-Hayat editor and columnist, and draws from the newspaper's 69 correspondents to supply news for LBC's three half-hour daily bulletins. However, some sources claim that cracks are already forming in this partnership, with the Lebanese and Saudi sides locked in argument over the editorial line.

But with larger staffs and budgets, al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya will mostly be battling each other. While al-Jazeera has more of a track record, it has also picked up a few enemies, not least among Arab governments. In the past year alone, its correspondents have been expelled from Kuwait, Jordan and Algeria.

The Bush Administration is not among al-Jazeera's fans. After the World Trade Centre attacks, the State Department called the station "inflammatory" for airing a 1998 interview with bin Laden. In November 2001, US forces bombed its Kabul office. The Pentagon said it was an accident, but some at al-Jazeera were not so convinced. But this time the station is not taking chances.

"We're giving the Americans the coordinates of our office in Baghdad and also the code of our signal to the satellite transponder," an al-Jazeera correspondent remarked. "We will try to give the Americans the whole information about where we are in Baghdad, so there will be no excuse for bombing us. But we are worried."

Though it is al-Jazeera's mark of pride, the station's rough-and-tumble approach could prove an Achilles heel in the race with al-Arabiya. Gulf Arab countries have refused or delayed accrediting al-Jazeera journalists, and the channel's journalists are banned in Kuwait, a key American base for the war. Al-Arabiya does not suffer this handicap.

Nevertheless, with more than 50 per cent of the news audience in the Arab world, strong correspondents and sources inside Iraq, and having already interviewed the Iraqi leader, al-Jazeera is still ahead of its rivals in covering the war.

At the same time, the station seems to be staying one step ahead of the game. The English-language counterpart to its Arabic website is now online, and the channel also announced that next year it will begin putting $20 million annually toward producing English-language TV broadcasts.

* Ian Urbina is a journalist based at the Middle East Research and Information Project in Washington, DC.

Herald Feature: Iraq