Alhurra

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**Alhurra**

Type	Satellite television network
Country	United States
Availability	Middle East
Owner	Middle East Broadcasting Networks (US Government)
Launch date	2004
Website www.alhurra.com

Alhurra (Arabic: الحرّة; strict transliteration al-Ḥurra IPA: [ɛ̈l ħʊrrɛ̈], "The Free One") is a United States-based satellite TV channel, sponsored by the U.S. government. It began broadcasting on February 14, 2004 in 22 countries across the Middle East. U.S. Government sources generally refer to the channel as Al-Hurra. Like all forms of U.S. public diplomacy, the station is forbidden from broadcasting within the U.S. itself under the 1948 Smith-Mundt Act.

1 Development
2 Funding
3 Content
4 Viewership and reception
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Development

Norman Joel Pattiz was the inspiration for Al-Hurra TV. Pattiz is a former member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors which oversees the government’s nonmilitary international broadcasting services, including Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia.

[edit] Funding

The budget for its first year was US$62 million, and $40 million more for an Iraq-specific station. $652 million has been requested for international broadcasting in 2006, which would include specific coverage for European Arabs.

This network is operated by a non-profit organization called The Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc., which in turn is funded by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). The BBG, formerly known as the United States Information Agency (USIA), is primarily known for operating and funding Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, among others.

Alhurra has a staff of about 200 people, most of whom moved to the United States from Arab countries where many had worked for competing television channels.
Other related American-funded projects include the Arabic-language Radio Sawa.

Operations are based in the community of Springfield in Fairfax County, Virginia near Washington, D.C.

[edit] Content

Please help improve this section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

The station claims to be a part of a campaign to reduce the level of anti-American sentiment in Arab countries.^{[citation needed]}

Alhurra broadcasts 24 hours a day, and, similar to other BBG-owned properties and American public broadcasting networks like NPR and PBS, is largely commercial-free. In addition to shows the network produces itself, it has broadcast Arabic-subtitled versions of programs familiar to U.S. (and global) audiences, such as Frontline and Inside the Actors Studio. A dedicated version of the channel called Alhurra Iraq is broadcast on the Nilesat 101 satellite.^[1]

Formerly the top executives at Alhurra did not speak Arabic. ABC News reported: "That left decisions over al Hurra's content in the hands of its reporters and producers, who are, according to [Joaquin] Blaya, hastily-hired Arabic-speaking journalists with insufficient understanding of Western journalistic practices or the network's pro-Western mission."^[2]

Blaya, a member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, was testifying in May 2007 before a subcommitte of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The hearing was prompted by revelations that, on several occasions, Alhurra had broadcast terrorist messages, including "a 68-minute call to arms against Israelis by a senior figure of the terrorist group Hezbollah; deferential coverage of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial conference; and a factually flawed piece on a splinter group of Orthodox Jews who oppose the state of Israel...."^[3] Blaya assured the subcommittee that the problems were being addressed.^[4]

Alhurra has over the years hosted a number of prominent politicians, journalists and intellectuals in one-on-one long format interviews. Guests have included Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, Francis Fukuyama, Palestinian President Dr. Salaam Fayyad, Ahmed Qurea, Silvan Shalom, Meier Shetrit, Tom Friedman, David Brooks, Mary Matalin, Jalal Talabani, Paul Volker, John Bolton, and President Bush.

[edit] Viewership and reception

As of 2005, polling data on Alhurra's viewership levels is somewhat contradictory. A BBG-commissioned, seven-country survey showed that 29 percent of the adult satellite-viewing audience had tuned in to Alhurra during one week in April 2005. However, a Zogby International survey done in June 2004 found that none of the surveyed Arabic audiences turned to Alhurra as a first choice for news, and only 3.8% picked it as a second choice. A poll of satellite users in the greater Cairo area found that over 64% felt Alhurra was not a trustworthy news source, while 86% and 67% considered al-Jazeera and CNN, respectively, to be trustworthy.^[5] (The apparent discrepancy may lie in the difference between Alhurra's success with entertainment-oriented programs and its relative failure in winning over regional viewers to its news programs.) Alhurra recently purchased a one-year package of 45 BBC Worldwide documentary and current affairs programs in an effort to boost ratings.^[6]. Scholars at the Heritage Foundation have argued that Alhurra should be allowed to broadcast within the United States since other Arab television news networks are permitted to broadcast there.^[7]