14 Facts About Al Arabiya

Al Arabiya is an international Arabic television news channel, currently based in Dubai, that is operated by the media conglomerate MBC.

On 24 April 2020, Al Arabiya introduced a new graphics and audio package and studios as well as a new modified logo in the network's first major rebrand since its launch in 2003.

On 30 August 2021, Al Arabiya Network began plans to shift operations out of Dubai and to Riyadh, with the stated goal being to "produce 12 hours of news programming from the Saudi capital by early January".

In March 2022, Al Arabiya acquired its own Freeview channel in the United Kingdom, after being available on Freeview via the Vision TV streaming service, with both channels being available on Freeview channel 273.

Al Arabiya has been criticized as 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".

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On 14 February 2005, Al Arabiya was the first news satellite channel to air news of the assassination of Rafik Hariri, one of its early investors.

In 2009, Courtney C Radsch claimed to have lost her job the day after publishing an article about safety problems on Emirates airline, while Al Arabiya claimed it was restructuring the English department.

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 16 November purportedly made by the deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

However, al-Al Arabiya is widely perceived in Iraq as a pro-Saudi and anti-Shia sectarian channel.

Algerian Ministry of Communication released a statement on 31 July 2021 saying that it withdrew Al Arabiya's operating accreditation in Algeria, due to what it termed "the non-respect by this channel of the rules of deontology and its recourse to disinformation and manipulation".

In February 2006, three Al Arabiya reporters were abducted and murdered while covering the aftermath of the bombing of a mosque in Samarra, Iraq.

Al Arabiya later updated one of the articles and added a note, saying the earlier version had "accidentally" neglected to include a mention and hyperlink to Egyptian Street.

The English website of Al Arabiya was relaunched in 2013 and now features automated subtitles of the news and programs that appear on the channel.

Al Arabiya website was plagued with numerous technical difficulties during the Egyptian protests at the end of January 2011.