BBC Monitoring

Text of report by Qatari Aljazeera.net website on 18 September

[Report by A'ishah Mahamdiyah in Dubai: "Test Transmission of Sudanese Al-Shuruq Space Channel Begins From Dubai"]

The Arab world will see a new Space channel Called Qanat Al-Shuruq [Sunrise Channel] on 15 October. It is a new Sudanese television station owned by the Al-Shuruq Media Foundation. The new station will be devoted to Sudanese affairs in particular and Arab, African, and international affairs in general. It will be based in the Dubai Media City and will transmit in Arabic for 24 hours. The station's test transmission began on one September. The staff are holding extensive training classes to train editors and announcers. The channel is expected to transmit on the Arabsat and the Nilesat satellites and will later transmit on Hotbird. The station's logo is: "The Sudanese Sun That Never Sets."

AlJazirah Net Logo of AlShuruq Channel[1]

Al-Jazirah Net: Logo of Al-Shuruq Channel: "Sudan's Sun That Never Sets"

On the station's message, aims, an! d what it will add to the Arab media, Director General Mahmud Abd-al-Hadi told Al-Jazirah net that the aim of the project is to contribute to the progress of Sudan, and to strengthen its unity, spread peace on the Sudanese territory, enhance Sudan's stability, and bolster Sudan's construction, as well as develop the people's cultural identify and bolster Sudan's interactions with the Arab world and Africa. The channel will endeavor to gain the greatest support from the Sudanese public without ignoring the tastes of the Arab viewers, taking into consideration financial gains and stability, according to Abd-al-Hadi. He said that the financing of the channel, estimated at $25 million annually, is provided by a number of Sudanese businessmen. Therefore, the channel will be independent. It will not represent a political party, an ethnic group, or a religious denomination but will represent the Sudanese public. It serves the Sudanese public's interests within a media policy that ! is committed to the ethics of the profession and respect of the right of the people to knowledge and free opinion and expression.

Abd-al-Hadi denied any connection between the channel and the ruling Sudanese National Congress and said that the same thing was said about the Al-Jazirah Channel. Despite its huge successes and the repeated announcements that it was fully financed by the State of Qatar, some continued to repeat that it was owned by the Israeli Mosad and the US intelligence.

On the new addition that the Channel will make to the Arab media, Abd-al-Hadi said that those who are supervising the Channel have attempted to monitor the drawbacks in the Arab media, and they will try their utmost to avoid these drawbacks, especially in the field of strategic media planning, establishing an integrated institution, developing and rationalizing the media experiment, and creating media culture that is commensurate with institutionalized work.

The channel considers the Sudanese public the focus of its media experiment, which migh! t become a model to be copied in other media experiments. Therefore, it will present a new model in news coverage. A section in the Foundation will be devoted to studying changes in opinion trends and it will start work from the first day the channel is launched to measure the opinion of the Sudanese public. Direct reporting will be confined to Sudanese affairs. Therefore, the Channel deployed 23 correspondents in Sudanese provinces working through 15 news centers. The news will form 30 percent of the programs. The staff will be 260 employees, 155 of them from Sudan and the rest from Dubai.

The channel will be the first Arab space channel that devotes two programs to African affairs: "News of the Dark Continent" and "African Dialogue." In view of the ethnic and cultural multiplicity in Sudan and the political struggles in the country, the channel raises the slogan: "With All for the Sake of All." In accordance with the basic principles of the editorial policy, ! which is characterized by accuracy, neutrality, balance, and fairness, the station will be free from provocations, prejudices, and incitement.

Source: Aljazeera.net website, Doha, in Arabic 0001 gmt 18 Sep 07