The BBC has confirmed details of its new Arabic TV channel.

BBC Arabic has launched on March 11 at 10am GMT, initially broadcasting for 12 hours each day to North Africa, the Middle East and the Gulf. It will extend to 24 hour broadcasting this summer.

There will also be a major relaunch of bbcarabic.com, with embedded video and a new media player added, and changes to BBC Arabic radio schedules.

Hosam El Sokkari, head of BBC Arabic, part of the World Service, said he wanted it to carry a range of content about "more than just conflict and politics".

"BBC Arabic aims to continue to broaden the news agenda for audiences in the region," he said. "It will reflect the breadth of the Arab audience's interests."

The TV channel will carry news headlines every 15 minutes and a full news summary every half hour. There will also be news features, current affairs shows, debating and selected BBC documentaries.

World Service chief Nigel Chapman said Arab audiences saw the BBC as the most trusted and impartial news provider.

"BBC Arabic is renowned for broadcasting impartial and accurate news and information which is strong on analysis and expertise," he added.

"This enhanced multimedia service meets the needs of an audience with a very strong appetite for news and debate."

The channel is funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office rather than TV Licence proceeds and comes as several World Service radio stations elsewhere in the world are closed down.




all trusted media are welcomed

from the post: since bbc arabic is yet to be, it is hard to understand bbc arabic as being renowned for anything

but aside from that, bbc's commitment to impartial and accurate news has one failing, bbc is neither impartial nor accurate.

concerning bias we have the bbc admitting to it:

BBC admits: We are biased on religion and politics

Internal corporation memo on ‘impartiality’ summit leaked to British media exposes truth on BBC bias
Hagit Klaiman

LONDON – The British Broadcasting Corporation has been struggling for several years against criticisms and claims of biased reporting concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and distorted coverage of the global fight against terror.

Following a diplomatic incident with Israel, the BBC appointed an editor known for his objective reporting, however, the true stance of the corporation’s editors remained the same.

An internal memo, recently discovered by the British media, revealed what the BBC has been trying to hide. Senior figures admitted in a recent 'impartiality' summit that the BBC was guilty of promoting Left-wing views and anti-Christian sentiment.

Most executives admitted that the corporation’s representation of homosexuals and ethnic minorities was unbalanced and disproportionate, and that it leaned too strongly towards political correctness, the overt promotion of multiculturalism, anti-Americanism and discrimination against the countryside.

Okay to trash Bible, not Quran

A truly shocking revelation to come out of the summit was expected to invoke a storm in Britain, which has already reached the boiling point with regards to the treatment of Muslims and the issue of the veil.

For the purpose of illustration, the executives were given a scenario in which Jewish Comedian Sasha Baron Cohen would participate in a program titled ‘Room 101’, a studio program where guests would be asked for their opinions on different issues, and allowed to symbolically throw things they hated in a garbage bin.

The executives were asked what they would do if Cohen decided to throw ‘Kosher food’, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bible, and the Quran in the garbage bin.

The executives said they would allow everything to be thrown in the garbage bin, save the Quran, for fear of offending the British Muslim community.

According to the ‘Washington Times’, the BBC also reportedly revealed that its executives favored interviewing terrorist leader Osama bin Laden if the opportunity arose.

Among other issues raised in the summit was the question of whether or not veiled women should be allowed to read the news. The BBC’s diversity editor said that since news anchors were allowed to wear crosses, any news anchor should be permitted to wear anything they wished, including the veil.

One senior BBC executive admitted to the ‘Daily Express’, "There was a widespread acknowledgement that we may have gone too far in the direction of political correctness. Unfortunately, much of it is so deeply embedded in the BBC's culture, that it is very hard to change it."
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taking aim at the bbc's accuracy:

A Jan. 28th article on BBC's Web site, "Fresh efforts to seal Gaza border" explained Israel's blockade on Gaza as follows:


Israel began tightening its blockade of the Gaza Strip after an increase in rocket attacks by militants targeting its settlements near the border.

Israel withdrew its military and civilian settlements from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Sderot--the prime target of Palestinian rocket and mortar fire--is a city in the western Negev, well within Israel's pre-1967 borders. Yet it is still a "settlement" to BBC journalists who consistently label Israeli settlements "illegal under international law". Does this mean that BBC now considers all of Israel to be "illegal under international law"?

source

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now let me end with this headline:

BBC pays £200,000 to 'cover up report on anti-Israel bias'

source

the obvious question to be asked is why would the bbc squelch this report?

obviously,
I was listening to BBC Arabic radio station since approximately 10 years,
I didnt find any aligning and no one of the audience have complained of BBC ARABIC performance !!!
During the Iraqi war ,, we have realized and discovered the media coverage of BBC is completely impartial ,, According to Arabic media statistics ,, BBC'S taken the first place ,, for aknowledge BBC Arabic Radio station broadcasting abroad U.k in the most Arab countries 24/7 via FM ,, what's your explanation !! what arab people are satisfied !! I think cause of reputation of BBC isn't it!
in my opinion BBC is an independent informative source

peace ....

[quote=magedsy;460221]obviously,
QUOTE]

sorry for mistake
its actually

BBC may have its bias, but it's better than Al Jazeera so I'll consider this a good thing.

perhaps one should consider it the least worst when compared with al jazeera.

another word for bias is prejudice. a public trust should not be about bias/prejudice. an example is the bible/koran issue. has the bbc taken sides in the present christian/moslem tensions? or is the bbc subject to intimidation in a similar way the germans were when they cancelled the mozart opera, Idomeneo?

what is the bbc's bias vis a vis israel/palestinians and what are the effects of that bias on world opinion.

bbc is a public trust receiving public monies and it has violated the very charter it says it stands for and then spends a large sum trying to bury investigatory results dealing with the depth and reach of that violation.

BBC seeks to suppress bias report - Israel News, YnetnewsYnet News: Network asks High Court to overturn decision that it publishes report into bias in coverage of Middle East conflict.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...319064,00.html - 40k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Al-jazeera and BBC Arabic both of them dont have biases in my mind ,,
Trust me i'm a good viewer for these media 24/7

Al-hurra arabic news channel which is supported by U.S government never been trusted by arab audience,, I hope that the next american presidant turn this biased channel off,,

__________________
Live free Or Die

Except that they have admitted they are biased. Mainly against USA and christianity, but you would probably like that so whatever.

bbc is on a continuum of bias/falsehoods against israel

BBC admits inaccuracies in coverage


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
jonny paul, the jerusalem post, London , THE JERUSALEM POST Mar. 22, 2008

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LONDON - The BBC has apologized for significant errors in two recent news reports on Israel.

In a news item on March 7, following the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva attack, the BBC showed a bulldozer demolishing a house, while correspondent Nick Miles told viewers: "Hours after the attack, Israeli bulldozers destroyed his family home. Later, mourners set up Hamas and Islamic Jihad banners nearby."

The house, however, was not demolished; the BBC was embarrassed when news reports from other broadcasters showed the east Jerusalem home intact and the family commemorating their son's actions.

Last week, the BBC apologized live on its news program, admitting it had used footage of another house being demolished.

News anchor Geeta Guru-Murthy said: "Now, we would like to clarify a report we heard at this hour last Friday about the attack by a Palestinian gunman on a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem. In the report, the day after the attack, BBC World said that the gunman's home in east Jerusalem had been demolished by the Israeli authorities. That was not correct, and the images broadcast were of another demolition."

The fabrication was exposed by Boston-based media monitor CAMERA, which revealed that the images used by the BBC were similar to photos taken by the Palestinian news agency Maan from the demolition of the house belonging to Islamic Jihad leader Muhammad Shehadeh in Bethlehem on March 7.

In a second incident, in a news item entitled "Israel jets strike northern Gaza" on March 14 on their News Web site, the BBC reported that Israel was deliberately targeting civilians in an operation targeting Kassam rocket launch sites in Gaza, and claiming that the United Nations secretary-general had described it as an attack on civilians.

"The Israeli air force said it was targeting a rocket firing team... UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned Israel's attacks on Palestinian civilians, calling them inappropriate and disproportionate," the report said.

In a letter to the BBC, Manchester Jewish community member Jonathan Hantman wrote,

"It is one-sided for the report to describe Israel's operations as 'attacks on civilians' while not describing the Palestinian rocket attacks, to which Israel was responding, as 'attacks on civilians' or 'acts of terrorism.'"

Hantman also pointed out that Ban's attributed comments were made weeks earlier to the UN Security Council and not in reference to that particular attack. He added that it was also wrong to mention the UN secretary-general's condemnation of Israel without mentioning his condemnation of Palestinian rocket attacks in the same statement.

"Ban's statement, made some two weeks ago, did not refer to yesterday's attack and did not describe Israel's operations on Gaza as 'attacks on civilians,'" Hantman noted. "He did, however, describe Palestinian rocket attacks as 'acts of terrorism.'"

In his statement to the UN Security Council on March 1, Ban said: "While recognizing Israel's right to defend itself, I condemn the disproportionate and excessive use of force that has killed and injured so many civilians, including children... I condemn Palestinian rocket attacks and call for the immediate cessation of such acts of terrorism."

Apologizing for the error, the BBC said in its response, regarding the speech: "We accept we should have made reference to what [Ban] said about Palestinian rocket attacks as well as to the 'excessive use of force' by Israel. We have amended the report, also removing the reference to Israeli 'attacks on civilians.'"