Bahrain has been picked to host the headquarters for Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's new international Arabic news network despite months of unrest, according to the tiny Gulf kingdom's media oversight authority.
Alwaleed's channel, dubbed Alarab, will be based in the Bahraini capital Manama's new Media City office complex, Sheik Fawaz bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, a member of the Bahraini royal family and head of the country's Information Affairs Authority, said in a statement late Tuesday.
The network is expected to be launched next December with an initial staff of about 300 people, according to the Bahraini statement.
Alwaleed's office in the Saudi capital Riyadh has not itself said where the channel will be based.
Officials there declined to comment Wednesday.Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist hired to lead the network, said by email Wednesday that he expects a deal on the station to be finalized later in the day.The channel aims to focus "on the important shifts taking place across the Arab world, with an emphasis on freedom of speech and freedom of press," Alwaleed said in September.
Alarab will compete against older pan-Arab news networks bankrolled by wealthy Gulf patrons, including Qatar's Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, which is funded by Saudi investors but based in Dubai.
Alwaleed has signed a deal with business news service Bloomberg LP to provide content for Alarab. That could potentially put it in competition with Dubai-based business news channel CNBC Arabiya as well.
The Saudi prince, through the Kingdom Holding Co. investment firm he controls, has major stakes in Citigroup Inc., Apple Inc. and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.He and the investment company last week invested a combined $300 million into microblogging site Twitter
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Alwaleed's channel, dubbed Alarab, will be based in the Bahraini capital Manama's new Media City office complex, Sheik Fawaz bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, a member of the Bahraini royal family and head of the country's Information Affairs Authority, said in a statement late Tuesday.
The network is expected to be launched next December with an initial staff of about 300 people, according to the Bahraini statement.
Alwaleed's office in the Saudi capital Riyadh has not itself said where the channel will be based.
Officials there declined to comment Wednesday.Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist hired to lead the network, said by email Wednesday that he expects a deal on the station to be finalized later in the day.The channel aims to focus "on the important shifts taking place across the Arab world, with an emphasis on freedom of speech and freedom of press," Alwaleed said in September.
Alarab will compete against older pan-Arab news networks bankrolled by wealthy Gulf patrons, including Qatar's Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, which is funded by Saudi investors but based in Dubai.
Alwaleed has signed a deal with business news service Bloomberg LP to provide content for Alarab. That could potentially put it in competition with Dubai-based business news channel CNBC Arabiya as well.
The Saudi prince, through the Kingdom Holding Co. investment firm he controls, has major stakes in Citigroup Inc., Apple Inc. and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.He and the investment company last week invested a combined $300 million into microblogging site Twitter
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