Why BBC decides to open an Arabic channel?

The US "International Herald Tribune" recently released a news report, saying that the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) has decided to open an Arabic TV news channel and at the same time suspend TV broadcasting programs to the East European region. The newspaper commented that this move indicates that the front of the East-West ideological dividing line is being shifted from the East European region to the two banks of the Euphrates River.

The report naturally reminds people of the Al-Jazeera TV Stations headquartered in Qatar. This "indigenous" media in the Middle East region is run by the Arabians themselves. Since its establishment and operation in 1996, the Al-Jazeera, from its own visual angle, makes extensive reports on hot world news, particularly major events occurred in the Middle East and its surrounding areas, such as the Afghanistan war and the Iraq war, it is quite influential in many parts of the world, especially in the Mideast and Arab region.

However, US and British military and administrative authorities find it hard to deal with this TV station, they frequently attack and oppress it, they not only directly apply pressure on related countries, force them to close this station, forbid the station to release its programs, and even flagrantly harm the staff of the station, they have thus far caused casualty of several working personnel of the station. Personnel of US and British media organizations also regard this Arabic media as an "alien". Therefore, in the opinion of some analysts, the move of BBC is possibly directed at the Al-Jazeera, trying to compete with it to see which is better.

BBC's act is passable if it is purely out of competition between persons of the same trade, but the actual situation is not so simple.

As a matter of fact, the move of BBC is to divert funds for reporting to Eastern Europe to the Middle East through adjusting foreign reporting resources. So some people query why the East European region is given such "unfair" treatment. Head of BBC World Service Nigel Chapman hit the nail on the head when he said: This is because "several countries of the original Soviet Bloc have joined the European Union (EU)". He even praised the channel soon to suspend broadcasting to "the East European region) as having made contribution to the construction of freedom for those countries, we hope that would be their indelible achievement". Thus it can be seen that Western media that always brag about their "objectivity" and "fairness" have actually made their political inclination and political intention quite distinct.

It is already known to all that Western media loudly shout in support of Western countries' foreign policies; and the relations between Western media and Western countries' governments are no secret. For instance, VOA (Voice of America) is run by the US government, Free Europe Broadcasting Station is subsidized by the US government, BBC is not "pure and clean" either, funds for its external department entirely comes from the British Foreign Ministry. Can Western media with such a background really make objective and fair reports on Western countries' foreign policies?

Nowadays, America, Britain and some other countries, out of their anti-terrorism and global strategic consideration, attempt to railroad Western-style democracy in the Middle East region, and for this they have mapped out "political blueprints", not long ago, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice even personally went to the Middle East region for "publicity and mobilization". Taking advantage of this "good opportunity", BBC's decision to open an Arabic news channel is really seen as "born at the right time".

If it is said that BBC decided to suspend broadcasting programs to the East European region after countries in this place acceded to the EU, then, what kind of a look are the Mideast and Arabic region "taught" to take before BBC Arabic news channel and other Western media are willing to stop?

By People's Daily Online