Al Mayadeen is a pan-Arabist satellite television channel launched on 11 June 2012 in Beirut, Lebanon. Its programming is predominantly news. It has news reporters in most Arab countries. In the pan-Arab TV news market it competes against Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, and also against Sky News Arabia and BBC Arabic Television. At its founding in 2012, many of Al Mayadeen's senior staff were formerly correspondents and editors at Al Jazeera. Al Mayadeen is viewed as pro-Hezbollah and pro-Syrian government. The channel is part of Al Mayadeen satellite media network, including a production company, a radio station, a website, an advertising company and other media-related projects. Besides the headquarters in Beirut, Al Mayadeen has a wide-ranging news network and three regional offices, one in Tunisia, another in Cairo with three reporters and a big studio, and a third in Tehran.
Staff
Ghassan bin Jiddo is the head of the board of directors and program director of the channel. He is the former head of Al Jazeera’s Iran and Beirut offices and a former talk show host in the channel. He resigned from the Qatar-based Al Jazeera in 2011, criticizing its reporting of the Syrian civil war. Jiddo seemingly accused Al Jazeera of deviating from "professional broadcasting standards", emphasizing that Al Mayadeen would remain objective and unbiased. Nayef Krayem, the owner of the Lebanon-based Al Ittihad TV and former director of the Hezbollah-affiliated Al Manar TV, was designated as the general manager of the channel, but he resigned one month before its launch. The staff of the channel include Lebanese journalists such as Sami Kulaib, Ali Hashem, the former Al Jazeera war correspondent, who resigned from the Qatari channel for stated that it refused to broadcast footage of militants on the Lebanese Syrian borders in the early days of the Syrian uprising, Zahi Wehbe, Lina Zahreddine, Lana Mudawwar, Muhammad Alloush, Ahmad Abu Ali and Dina Zarkat. Additionally, two Syrian journalists, Ramia Ibrahim and Futoun Abbasi, and two Palestinian journalists Kamal Khalaf and Ahmad Sobh as well as Yemeni Mona Safwan are also among its staff. Like Jiddo, most of the channel's staff are the former Al Jazeera correspondents and editors. George Galloway, a former British MP, is a presenter for the channel. The channel has a network of reporters in Palestine and also, in Jerusalem. Their task is reported to provide the channel with a daily news section in the news broadcast entitled “A Window Into Palestine.” In addition, there are reporters of the channel in Amman, Tripoli, Rabat, Khartoum, Mauritania and Comoros. The correspondent of the channel in Damascus was withdrawn in April 2014. Omar Abdel Qader, a Syrian cameraman working for Al Mayadeen, was killed by a sniper during clashes in Deir Ezzor on 8 March 2014.
Programming
Al Mayadeen is on air for 24 hours daily. As of September 2013, the channel had ten daily news reports and nearly 17 distinct programs. One of its programs is A Free Word, a show hosted by George Galloway. The channel had formerly aired a program, namely Hadeeth Dimashq, focusing on the Syrian civil war, until April 2014, when it was discontinued.
Political alignment
The name of the channel, Al Mayadeen, means "the squares" in English, indicating its objective "to provide coverage for the Arab popular actions on the squares of change in the context of the Arab spring revolutions". The channel argues that it provides journalism, which is “committed to nationalist, pan-Arab and humanitarian issues within the template of professional journalistic objectivity.” In addition, it presents itself as a “free and independent media project” with 500 staff and reporters in Arab and Western capitals. Its slogan is “Reality as it is” and its editorial policy emphasizes that Palestine and resistance movements wherever they are found are its point of reference. It was also stated that the Palestinian cause is the channel's centerpiece. France 24 and Mohammed Al Jazairy of Asharq Alawsat state that Al Mayadeen represents the latest expansion of Iran, Syria and Hezbollah in the field of media. It is further said by Zeina Karam of the Associated Press that the channel's close ally in Lebanon is the powerful Shiite group Hezbollah. Joe Khalil, the author of a book about television in the Arab world, told the Telegraph newspaper that the station is undoubtedly supportive of the Assad regime. Al Mayadeen prefers to refer to the rebels in Syria as "terrorists," and to the actions of the Syrian government against the rebels as "cleansing" when reporting the Syrian civil war. Following its first year of broadcast the channel began to be known by Matthew Keys as "anti-Al Jazeera". On 6 November 2015, the Saudi-controlled Arabsat satellite TV organization suspended and banned Al-Mayadeen from broadcasting on Arabsat's satellite system. The motive was the editorial stances of Al-Mayadeen news programs, including the spirit of Al-Mayadeen's coverage of the Saudi military intervention in the ongoing civil war in Yemen.
Ownership
It is stated that the owners of the channel are anonymous Arab businessmen. There are speculations about the funding of the channel. Western media reports that the channel is a propaganda platform for Iran and Hezbollah and is funded by them. Omar Ibhais, a freelance Lebanese TV producer, stated that the channel is a joint venture between the Iranians and Rami Makhlouf, cousin of Syrian PresidentBashar Assad. According to the Telegraph, it has been alleged that its head of news is married to a former adviser to Assad. However, Ghassan bin Jiddo, director of the channel, denied this and stated that the channel is funded by Arab businessmen whose identity he would not disclose.
