PRO-ISRAEL MURDOCH’S ENTRY INTO ARAB MEDIA VIEWED WITH SUSPICION AND HOSTILITY
March 18th 2010 04:23
“Murdoch's Arab foray seen as a Trojan horse,” trumpets a Middle East Online headline.
The tie-up between Arab entertainment giant Rotana and pro-Israel media mogul Rupert Murdoch is viewed in Egypt not only with suspicion but as signalling the decline of Arab film and art heritage, claims Middle East Online.
The news site added, “In a country where film and television attract some of the largest audiences in the Arab world, the tycoon's foray into the Middle East is widely seen in cultural circles as a ruse to benefit Israel.”
Murdoch's News Corp last month acquired a 9.09-percent holding in the Rotana Group of Saudi royal and business tycoon Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, with an 18-month option to double the stake.
Rotana is one of the largest film producers in Egypt and also owns the rights to hundreds of Egyptian motion pictures.
In Egypt, which signed a 1979 peace treaty with Israel but has resisted a warming of cultural ties, there has been wide suspicion that the tie-up with Rotana is part of a Murdoch scheme to thaw frosty Arab views of Israel.
Scriptwriter Osama Anwar Okasha wrote that Murdoch's stake in Rotana was a "Trojan horse" designed to stealthily penetrate Arab culture.
Murdoch's leading US news outlets like the strident Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, and his British holdings such as the Times, Sky TV and the Sun, are often accused of an anti-Arab, pro-Israel bias.
Egypt's state-owned film company has already threatened to stop working with Rotana, whose free-to-air satellite channels target an Arab audience in the Middle East that is equally opposed to Murdoch's politics.
Murdoch has made no bones about his unabashed support of Israel for decades, and has received a number of awards from Jewish groups amid debate over his own Jewish roots.
On the other hand, Alwaleed, known in his country as a progressive, is a strong supporter of Arab causes, though not stridently vocal against Israel.
He said last month that he hoped the partnership could help moderate the widely-perceived anti-Arab bias of some of News Corp's most strident outlets, such as Fox News.
"It's not only Fox that in general is against the Arab world. It's an American syndrome," he said at a news conference in Riyadh when the deal was announced.
"We will always do our best to lower that tone.”
Outside of financial markets where his Kingdom Holdings is known as the biggest individual shareholder of Citigroup, Alwaleed is best known for his rejected offer of $10 million to New York City for disaster relief after the September 11 attacks.
At the time Murdoch's news outlets lambasted the Saudi prince, and Fox called his offer "an egregious, outrageous, unfair offence" because the money came with a letter asking Americans to consider how US Middle East policy might be linked to the attacks.
But Fox has since run in trouble with its supporters for allegedly bending to pressure from Alwaleed.
When the Murdoch-Alwaleed partnership was announced, it stirred speculation Fox News would launch an Arabic news channel to compete with rivals Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya.
Murdoch has denied such a plan.
The tie-up between Arab entertainment giant Rotana and pro-Israel media mogul Rupert Murdoch is viewed in Egypt not only with suspicion but as signalling the decline of Arab film and art heritage, claims Middle East Online.
The news site added, “In a country where film and television attract some of the largest audiences in the Arab world, the tycoon's foray into the Middle East is widely seen in cultural circles as a ruse to benefit Israel.”
Murdoch's News Corp last month acquired a 9.09-percent holding in the Rotana Group of Saudi royal and business tycoon Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, with an 18-month option to double the stake.
In Egypt, which signed a 1979 peace treaty with Israel but has resisted a warming of cultural ties, there has been wide suspicion that the tie-up with Rotana is part of a Murdoch scheme to thaw frosty Arab views of Israel.
Scriptwriter Osama Anwar Okasha wrote that Murdoch's stake in Rotana was a "Trojan horse" designed to stealthily penetrate Arab culture.
Murdoch's leading US news outlets like the strident Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, and his British holdings such as the Times, Sky TV and the Sun, are often accused of an anti-Arab, pro-Israel bias.
Egypt's state-owned film company has already threatened to stop working with Rotana, whose free-to-air satellite channels target an Arab audience in the Middle East that is equally opposed to Murdoch's politics.
Murdoch has made no bones about his unabashed support of Israel for decades, and has received a number of awards from Jewish groups amid debate over his own Jewish roots.
He said last month that he hoped the partnership could help moderate the widely-perceived anti-Arab bias of some of News Corp's most strident outlets, such as Fox News.
"It's not only Fox that in general is against the Arab world. It's an American syndrome," he said at a news conference in Riyadh when the deal was announced.
"We will always do our best to lower that tone.”
Outside of financial markets where his Kingdom Holdings is known as the biggest individual shareholder of Citigroup, Alwaleed is best known for his rejected offer of $10 million to New York City for disaster relief after the September 11 attacks.
At the time Murdoch's news outlets lambasted the Saudi prince, and Fox called his offer "an egregious, outrageous, unfair offence" because the money came with a letter asking Americans to consider how US Middle East policy might be linked to the attacks.
But Fox has since run in trouble with its supporters for allegedly bending to pressure from Alwaleed.
When the Murdoch-Alwaleed partnership was announced, it stirred speculation Fox News would launch an Arabic news channel to compete with rivals Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya.
Murdoch has denied such a plan.
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