Pan-Arab news channel off air hours after launch

Programming at a pan-Arab news channel owned by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal was unavailable on Monday, hours after its first transmission from Bahrain.

The satellite feed of Alarab News Channel showed only promotional material, and an Alarab executive declined to comment.

The channel later said on its Twitter account that the broadcast has "stopped for technical and administrative reasons and that it will be back soon."  

The channel took to the air at 1300 GMT on Sunday.

One of its first segments included a Shiite opponent of Bahrain's Sunni rulers, sparking criticism in pro-government Bahraini daily Akhbar al-Khaleej.

The newspaper said it learnt that Alarab was stopped for "not adhering to the norms prevalent in Gulf countries".

In a column in the same newspaper, editor-in-chief Anwar Abdulrahman asked: "Is Alarab really Arab?" He condemned the channel for hosting former member of parliament Khalil Marzouq, who is "radical to the core."

"Resorting to muscle flexing in news coverage, with the hope of proving that you are an independent channel, is not going to work," he wrote.

Alarab entered a crowded field that includes the first regional broadcaster, 19-year-old Al-Jazeera which is subsidised by Qatar.

It will also be a rival for Dubai-based Al-Arabiya, established in 2003 and owned by Sheikh Waleed al-Ibrahim, a brother-in-law of Saudi Arabia's late King Fahd.

Alwaleed also belongs to the Saudi royal family and is a nephew of King Abdullah, who died on 23 January.

In a highly conservative Islamic kingdom, Alwaleed, who holds no government rank, is unusual for his high-profile and periodic comments about economic issues.

Critics have accused the established broadcasters of reflecting their owners' political views, especially during the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings against authoritarian regimes in the Middle East and North Africa.

Both long-running channels deny any slant in their reporting.

Alarab had vowed to be even-handed in its coverage.

"We are not going to take sides," Jamal Khashoggi, the general manager, told AFP in an interview before the launch.

"I think a news channel should not have a political agenda... We should just be a news channel that provides accurate, objective information."

Because Saudi Arabia does not allow "independent" channels, Alarab had to find an alternative location "so Bahrain is appropriate", he said.

Khashoggi is a veteran Saudi journalist who was forced to step down from the helm of Saudi Arabia's Al-Watan daily in 2010 after it ran an opinion column that angered religious conservatives.

He declined to reveal Alarab's budget but said the channel will have about 280 staff, including correspondents in 30 countries. 

Riyadh will be the largest bureau with around 20 employees.

Mohammed El Oifi, a specialist in Arab media at Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris, said Alarab will have difficulty breaking the mould.

Arab viewers need their news channels to take a clear or even militant editorial line, he said, because they fill "a political function" in the absence of other forums for debate.

This is reflected in the marginal role of the "objective" BBC Arabic, he said.

That and similar channels such as Sky News Arabia have failed to develop the viewer loyalty of Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera, Oifi said.

"This is a very competitive market," Khashoggi said.