An excerpt from a master's thesis submitted to the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications, The American University in Cairo, January 1999 Overview: Pay TV in the Arab World In every nation of the Arab world except Lebanon, the national broadcasting systems used to be entirely government-owned. The old and …

Disempowerment and Empowerment Today we observe, across the world, that people face pervasive worldwide governmental and commercial censorship; distorted and misleading information; stereotyped and damaging images of the human condition including gender, age, race, ethnicity, sexuality, physical and mental illness and disability; restricted access to knowledge, and insufficient channels to …

Arab Radio and Television (ART), as the "flagship Arab network" for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) TeleFood '98, broadcast the first global Arab satellite telethon in history, "Against Hunger." The aim of the event was raising money for projects to help poor farmers increase production and improve …

[Editor�s note: This article is an excerpt from a policy paper entitled "New Media New Politics? From Satellite Television to the Internet in the Arab World" published by The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 1998. If you would like to order a copy of the publication, see http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/pubs/pp.htm] Rise …

As innumerable media corporations execute decisions made in boardrooms (where "globalization" and "deregulation" are the mantras), the challenges facing international communication scholars become veritable riddles of the Sphinx. They watch in bewilderment as transborder commercial satellites pulverize the protective, monopolistic, state-controlled broadcasting regimes of erstwhile colonies of South Asia. They …

As we come to the end of the 20th century and look forward to a new century and a new millennium, it is exciting to think of the opportunities facing those in media or media-related industries. However, with those seemingly endless opportunities awaiting the media professional in the new millennium …

Source: Dr. Hussein Amin, Member of the Higher Committee for Specialized Nilesat Networks, the Egyptian Radio and Television Union, Cairo, Egypt. The biggest development in transnational broadcasting in the Arab world this year was the launch of Nilesat, not only Egypt's first national satellite but also the first satellite owned …

During the 1990s, the Middle East has experienced an explosion of growth in new media services, especially those delivered by satellite. The Middle East Broadcasting Centre (MBC), Orbit, Arab Radio and Television (ART), Emirates Dubai TV, and Egypt's Spacenet have all become well-known entities in the region (Bulloch 1995). Most …

The Middle East has no fewer than four competing digital television platforms fighting for viewer loyalty: ART/1st NET, Orbit, Star Select, and Gulf DTH/Showtime. Four years ago there was no subscription TV. The few direct-to-home (DTH) satellite channels were all free-to-air and offered little threat to the monopoly state-run national …

The Arab League's headquarters in Cairo lie just a few hundred meters away from the city's statue of Simon Bolivar. The two represent monuments to desires for regional autonomy and unity—desires that time has proved easier to conceptualize than to implement. Yet a half century after the founding of the …