A media competition for minds and market share in the Middle East is evolving as a crowd of Western news organizations prepares to deliver headlines -- and geopolitical views -- in the language of the Koran.
Backed by government financing, Germany's public international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, is poised to beam 24 hours of daily news programming in Arabic this autumn. France's yet-to-be-named CNN-style channel is in development for a year-end opening, along with a Web site in Arabic and later in 2007 an Arabic television version. And Russia Today has similar plans for an Arabic Web site and television presence.
From the US, CNN is watching the development of its Arabic Web site, which attracts more than 300,000 unique visitors monthly, before it decides whether to pursue television plans.
"I'm losing track," said Jerry Timmins, head of the BBC World Service's operations in Africa and the Middle East. "There's pretty much of an announcement a week."
The BBC World Service itself is also in the fray, with US$35 million from the British government for an autumn debut of an Arabic news broadcast, starting with 12 hours of daily programming and expanding to 24 hours.
The headlong rush of these national news organizations reflects the view that conflicts can be influenced by story-telling and information as well as by missiles and pinstriped diplomats.
But a debate is beginning about whether these foreign broadcasts will create understanding or lead to more bitter conflict.
The potential risks were apparent last week when about 500 Iraqi followers of a radical Shiite cleric attacked the Iranian consulate in Basra, Iraq, in anger over talk show commentary on al-Kawthar, an Iranian satellite television channel that broadcasts in Arabic.
For countries like Denmark and Spain, where Arabic news efforts are beginning, the benefits may well outweigh the hazards. Both nations have confronted geopolitical tensions, with the terrorist bombings in Madrid in March 2004 and the furor over the publication last year of cartoon caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper.
In late March, the state-owned Spanish agency EFE started an Arabic service with financing from the Foreign Affairs Ministry. The service offers information to newspaper and media outlets and an Arabic Web site that eventually will be available in part for free to general readers.
"We want to be a piece of the big puzzle and try to offer a bridge between civilizations," said Javier Martin, head of EFE's Arabic news services. "It's one of our aims. The other one is a commercial aim, and we're trying to sign up subscribers."
With a newly hired staff of 14 Arabic editors and translators in Cairo, Egypt, the news agency is concentrating on reaching African media outlets in some of the countries closest to Spain: Tunisia, Mauritania and Morocco, the latter being the home country of several terrorists involved in the Madrid bombings. The move has important policy implications.
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