MIDDLE EAST: Israel has launched an Arabic-language satellite channel in a bid to counter the image of a ruthless militaristic state presented to Arab viewers by large Arabic news networks, it says.
"We want to give another image of Israel, to balance the very anti-Israeli Arab programs that do not always give true information," explained Mr Joseph Binia, head of the new Middle East Satellite Channel which was launched late last month.
The new channel is aimed at viewers in the Arab world, long-accustomed to receiving their news primarily from Gulf-based channels like Abu Dhabi television and the well-known Qatar-based al-Jazeera, estimated to have more than 35 million viewers worldwide.
Mr Binia, who is of Egyptian origin, believes Arab viewers have been fed a flawed image of the Jewish state, where he has lived for 45 years.
"People misunderstand this country, they imagine a military state. We show a people like any other, with their internal debates, culture and art."
With a $15m budget for its first year, the 24-hour channel has set up offices in Jerusalem, in the same building that hosts the majority of foreign media organisations.
It replaced a more modest Arabic-language terrestrial channel aimed solely at Israel's Arab minority.
The news bulletin, broadcast every hour, uses the word "terrorist" to designate Palestinian attackers, but refrains from using the word "martyr", which most Arabic channels use to describe Palestinians killed by Israeli troops.
But news readers have been told to say "West Bank" instead of "Judea and Samaria", the official term used in Israel for the region. And the Arab names of Palestinian towns are used: Nablus instead of Shekhem, al-Khalil instead of Hebron, probably in order to not confuse Arab viewers.
Palestinians will be allowed to speak on the channel, says Binia, as long as they do not use the air time to call for a "massacre of Israelis".
- (AFP)