Nadim Hasbani, writing at the Huffington Post, looks at the ‘the widespread failure of western-owned Arabic TV channels to establish themselves as credible news sources with Middle Eastern audiences living under dictatorship regimes,’ in light of Obama’s decision to speak to the Arab world on Al Arabiya, a Dubai-based news channel. Hasbani writes:
“Arabs are watching news and entertainment programmes from Arabic satellite channels like Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, MBC, and LBC. But they are not watching the news stations western governments are funding to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a year: BBC Arabic, the American Al Hurra, France 24 Arabic, and Deutsche Welle Arabia.”