. for the script see arabic alphabet . al arabiya launched 3 march 2003 2003 03 03 owned by mbc group picture format 1080i hdtv 576i sdtv country arab countries language arabic tv channel and the website ; english persian and urdu the website only broadcast area the main version in literary arabic tv website for the middle east and north africa ; the english version website is for the international community ; the persian version website is for the west of the middle east and the northern most of south asia ; the urdu website is for the northern most of south asia headquarters dubai united arab emirates sister channel s mbc 1 mbc 2 mbc 3 mbc 4 mbc drama mbc action mbc max mbc persia wanasah mbc bollywood website alarabiya.net arabic english.alarabiya.net english farsi.alarabiya.net persian urdu.alarabiya.net urdu availability satellite nilesat 102 11727 v 27500 5 6 1 arabsat badr 4 11919 h 27500 3 4 2 hot bird 9 11747 h 27500 3 4 3 asiasat 5 3760 h 27500 3 4 4 sky italia channel 562 sky uk & ireland channel 855 osn middle east & north africa channel 453 hd bein middle east & north africa channel 203 cable naxoo switzerland channel 280 fukushima tv 50 ziggo netherlands channel 780 iptv ptcl smart tv pakistan 107 al arabiya arabic transliterated al arabiyyah or al arab yah ; meaning the arabic one or the arab one n 1 is a saudi owned pan arab 5 television news channel broadcast in modern standard arabic . contents 1 history and profile 2 content and al jazeera rivalry 3 programs 4 investment and ownership 5 track record and controversies 5.1 slain reporters 6 barack obama appearance 7 online 8 references 9 further reading 10 external links history and profile edit launched on 3 march 2003 6 7 the channel is based in dubai media city united arab emirates and is owned by saudi broadcaster middle east broadcasting center mbc . the current general manager of al arabiya is adel al toraifi who took over that post from abdulrahman al rashed on november 22 2014 . 8 a free to air channel al arabiya broadcasts standard newscasts as well as talk shows and documentaries . these programs cover current affairs business and financial markets and sports . it is rated among the top pan arab stations by middle east audiences . 9 the channel has been criticized for having a pro saudi agenda 10 and it was once banned in iraq by the us installed governing council for incitement to murder after broadcasting audio tapes of saddam hussein . 9 on 26 january 2009 american president barack obama gave his first formal interview as president to the television channel . 11 content and al jazeera rivalry edit some according to whom believe that al arabiya was created to be a direct competitor of the qatar based al jazeera . 9 as a response to al jazeera s criticism of the saudi royal family throughout the 1990s relatives of the saudi royal family established al arabiya in dubai in 2002 . 12 13 14 according to a 2008 new york times profile of al arabiya director abdul rahman al rashed the channel works to cure arab television of its penchant for radical politics and violence with al jazeera as its main target . al arabiya is said to be the second most frequently watched channel after al jazeera in saudi arabia . 15 al arabiya broadcast the email messages of syrian president bashar assad in 2012 that were leaked by opposition hackers . 16 the channel s english language website also obtained emails which revealed 17 that pr agency blj were behind the infamous positive profile of the syrian first lady asma assad in vogue magazine while her husband s regime was responsible for the crushing of peaceful demonstrations in 2011 . 18 programs edit al arabiya reporter in jerusalem special mission is al arabiya s longest running investigative journalism current affairs television program . it broadcasts on the al arabiya pan arab channel based in dubai . premiered on 19 october 2003 it is still running . the special mission team founding the program did much to set the ongoing tone of the program . based on the investigative panorama concept the program addresses a single issue in depth each week showing either a locally produced program or a relevant documentary stories from many areas in the world . the program has won many awards for investigative journalism and broken many high profile stories . a notable early example of this was the show s expos on the appalling living conditions endured by many children living in rural africa east asia etc. special mission is presented in a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest often involving crime political corruption or corporate wrongdoing . special mission is an investigative program that aims to uncover the truth about puzzling topics which are unclear to the public by taking them step by step into the investigative process and build the momentum accordingly . issues like politics economy and even religion are addressed . the atmosphere of secrecy and caution builds the intensity of the program . presented by correspondents and reporters . edaat arabic meaning spotlights hosted by turki al dakhil airs every thursday at 2 00 pm saudi arabia time and lasts one hour . 19 the show consists of one on one interviews with influential regional figures such as journalists writers activists politicians etc. the programme is currently off air rawafed arabic meaning affluents directed and hosted by ahmad ali el zein and broadcast once a week wedenesday at 5 30 pm . 20 rawafed is a series of documentaries interviews devoted to the world of arts and culture . guests have included writers tahar ben jelloun gamal el ghitani poets adunis ahmed fouad negm joumana haddad musicians marcel khalifa naseer shamma . many key principle artists writers and politicians in the arab world have also appeared on the show . investment and ownership edit according to unconfirmed reports the original investment in al arabiya was 300 million by the middle east broadcasting center mbc lebanon s hariri group and other investors from saudi arabia kuwait and the persian gulf states . 9 through mbc abdulaziz bin fahd and his maternal uncle waleed bin ibrahim al ibrahim own and have control over al arabiya . 15 in march 2012 the channel launched a new channel al hadath which focuses exclusively on prolonged extensive coverage of political news . 21 track record and controversies edit al arabiya was started in response to qatar s pan arab satellite channel al jazeera but has languished behind in audience popularity surveys according to reports by university of maryland professor shibley telhami . 22 23 al arabiya has been criticized for being an arm of saudi foreign policy or what the united states would term public diplomacy as it is seen as being part of a concerted saudi attempt to dominate the world of cable and satellite television media in the arab world and steal the thunder of egypt . 24 25 over the past couple of years several journalists and editors have been dismissed because of their coverage ; in 2011 al arabiya fired hafez al mirazi for criticizing the channel s coverage of the egyptian uprising 26 while in 2009 courtney c. radsch claimed to have lost her job the day after publishing an article about safety problems on the national emirates airline . 27 al arabiya had been banned from reporting from iraq by the country s interim government in november 2004 after it broadcast an audio tape on november 16 purportedly made by the deposed iraqi president saddam hussein . 9 the iraqi government had also banned the channel on 7 september 2006 for one month for what it called imprecise coverage . al arabiya journalists and staff have come under constant pressure from iraqi officials to report stories as dictated to and in 2014 pm nouri maliki threatened again to ban al arabiya in iraq shut down its offices and websites . for his part al arabiya s general manager at the time abdulrahman al rashed vowed 28 in a statement that the news channel and its sister channel al hadath will continue reporting the story in iraq despite maliki s threats as well as other threats from the likes of isis . our two channels al arabiya and al hadath have caused much embarrassment to nouri al maliki after they aired a large number of videos and eyewitness accounts following the rapid collapse of his forces in mosul and tikrit over the past few days prompting wide criticism against his government said al rashed in his statement . 28 on 14 february 2005 al arabiya was the first news satellite channel to air news of the assassination of rafik hariri 29 one of its early investors . on 9 october 2008 the al arabiya website was hacked . 30 on 2 september 2008 iran expelled al arabiya s tehran bureau chief hassan fahs the third al arabiya correspondent expelled from iran since the network opened an iran office . 31 on 14 june 2009 the iranian government ordered the al arabiya office in tehran to be closed for a week for unfair reporting of the iranian presidential election . seven days later amid the 2009 iranian election protests the network s office was closed indefinitely by the government . 32 in a column published citation needed on al arabiya s english website citation needed hassan fahs set the record straight in his own words citation needed as to why he has left iran revealing that he has received direct threats of arrest and killing from senior iranian officials as well as alarming attempts to censor and control the channel s coverage . 33 despite some making accusations that al arabiya is tied to the saudi government some of the channel s harshest critics are in saudi arabia mostly attacking the channel s critical coverage of religious hardliners and other social issues in the kingdom . al arabiya is reported to be referred to as al abriya proper transliteration al ibr yah by saudi religious conservatives which means the hebrew one in arabic . 15 slain reporters edit in september 2003 al arabiya reporter mazen al tumeizi was killed on camera in iraq when a u.s. helicopter fired on a crowd in haifa street in baghdad . 34 in february 2006 three al arabiya reporters were abducted and murdered while covering the aftermath of the bombing of a mosque in samarra iraq . among them was correspondent atwar bahjat an iraqi national . in 2012 al arabiya s asia correspondent bakir atyani was abducted in the philippines by an armed militia . he was released 35 after 18 months 36 barack obama appearance edit on 26 january 2009 president of the united states barack obama gave his first formal interview as president to al arabiya 37 delivering the message to the muslim world that americans are not your enemy while also reiterating that israel is a strong ally of the united states and that they will not stop being a strong ally of the united states . 11 the white house contacted al arabiya s washington bureau chief hisham melhem directly just hours before the interview and asked him not to announce it until an official announcement was made by the administration . 37 online edit the al arabiya internet news service alarabiya.net was launched in 2004 initially in arabic and was joined by an english language service in 2007 and persian and urdu services in 2008 . the channel also operates a business website that covers financial news and market data from the middle east in arabic alaswaq.net . the al arabiya news channel is available live online on jumptv and livestation .