Latest news with #Alhurra
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Hit by Trump cuts, journalists at Dubai-based US channel face uncertain future
Sara, a Dubai-based journalist, joined the US-funded Alhurra TV news channel hoping for job security. But after it abruptly stopped broadcasting and fired most staff, she's wondering how to make ends meet. Alhurra, the only Arabic-language US station in a region where anti-American feeling is common, went off-air last month, hit by widespread cuts under President Donald Trump. The station, which has struggled to compete in a crowded market that includes Qatar's Al Jazeera, had already sacked 25 percent of its workforce after budget cuts last September. It is also out of kilter with Trump, a frequent critic of traditional media who will visit the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf monarchies this month. But Alhurra's sudden closure came as a shock. On April 12, all 99 employees in Dubai, its Middle East headquarters, received an email titled "Thank you for your service", informing them of their immediate dismissal. Sara, who asked to use a pseudonym to speak freely about the situation, said they are now fighting for the end-of-service payments mandated by law in the UAE. "We're living a horror movie," she told AFP. "My income was suddenly cut off, and I have family commitments and a bank loan. What will happen if I can't pay the instalments?" The defunding of Alhurra, along with other outlets under the federal US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) such as Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, is being challenged in US courts. But the Dubai staff hold out little hope of being reinstated. Meanwhile, the stress has "driven us into psychological ruin", said Sara, who is in her thirties. - 'Dialogue between leaders' - Dubai's authorities are closely monitoring the case and providing assistance, including by relaxing the usual practice of quickly cancelling residence permits for those without a job, Alhurra journalists told AFP. According to Mutlaq al-Mutairi, a media specialist at Saudi Arabia's King Saud University, the cuts were in line with shifts in messaging under Trump. The United States no longer uses media as "they used to do in the past to communicate their political vision, especially on the question of terrorism", Mutairi said. Instead, Trump now directly "relies on dialogue between leaders and governments" to get his message across, he told AFP. Washington established Alhurra in 2004, the year after the invasion of Iraq, as a soft power tool to counterbalance the influence of Al Jazeera, which had been broadcasting since 1996. The US news channel claims a weekly audience of more than 30 million people in 22 Arab countries. It is the flagship of Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN), part of USAGM -- an independent federal agency that funds media outlets. However, the Trump administration -- which placed USAGM under the leadership of Kari Lake, an ultra-conservative former TV news anchor -- condemned it as a "corrupt giant and a burden on American taxpayers". USAGM had 3,384 employees in fiscal year 2023 and had requested $950 million in funding for the current fiscal year. - 'Kill strategy' - Jeffrey Gedmin, MBN's president and CEO for just over a year, said the company had gone from around 500 employees to "about 40". "The Trump administration, in my view, is not particularly fond of this kind of independent media," he told AFP, describing the cuts as a "kill strategy". "I think what the Trump administration is doing is simply unwise. I think it's going to harm, reputationally, the United States of America." Given the recent job losses, many of Alhurra's staff were not surprised it closed. But they were taken aback by the speed of events. "The decision (to close) was expected, but we didn't imagine it would happen so quickly," said an employee at MBN's Virginia headquarters. "They threw us out into the street," the employee added. Michael Robbins, director of the Arab Barometer research network, pointed to Alhurra's limited success competing with Al Jazeera, as well as the BBC, which "already provided news in Arabic from a Western perspective and had a much longer reputation". "Few in the region turn to Alhurra as their primary source of information," he added. Another Alhurra journalist in Dubai, who also did not want to be named, said he was facing an "uncertain professional future" after eight years at the channel. "We are shunned (by media) in most Arab countries because we worked for the Americans," said the 56-year-old. Gedmin said he was "in complete solidarity" with the laid-off employees. "We're fighting to see if we can help them at least somewhat," he said. ml/th/jsa/cms
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
In U.S. retreat from global media, Arab language network is latest casualty
The message was contrite but direct. 'I'm heartbroken. If you're receiving this letter, I'm letting you go — effective immediately.' The email came from Jeffrey Gedmin, head of Middle East Broadcasting Networks,or MBN, the nonprofit overseeing the U.S.-government-funded, Arab-language news channel Alhurra. It was April 12, and the email in the inbox of 500 of Alhurra's employees was another move by the Trump administration and its Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency to shut down U.S.-funded media initiatives abroad. Alhurra, which received around $112 million in 2024 from Congress, joined other state-supported outlets, including Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which had their funding frozen. Done in DOGE's chainsaw-signature style, the cuts have disrupted the lives of journalists both in Alhurra's Middle Eastern bureaus and its Virginia headquarters, leaving them with no severance or compensation. Dozens who had permits to work in the U.S. are unsure if they can remain in America. When news about Alhurra filtered out — along with talk that even MBN might shut down — many observers saw it as an own goal, a misguided rollback of U.S. soft power in the Middle East. The Committee to Protect Journalists, which is helping MBN with legal representation to restore its funding, called the cutbacks "a betrayal of the U.S.'s historical commitment to press freedom." In a statement, Gedmin said, 'Media in the Middle East thrive on a diet of anti-Americanism. It makes no sense to kill MBN as a sensible alternative and open the field to American adversaries and Islamic extremists.' But interviews with critics — including many from Alhurra and MBN's own ranks — reveal a more complicated story. Though many insist they believe in MBN's mission to bring a pro-American perspective to the region, few mourn it in its current form. Others say Alhurra withered under an unclear mandate that never allowed the channel to find its identity and therefore audiences. Some even agreed with Kari Lake, the pugnacious advisor Trump appointed to oversee the Agency for Global Media, which provides funding for news programming abroad. Lake recently described her new workplace as 'irretrievably broken,' where 'waste, fraud and abuse run rampant.' 'It was a relief to me when the grant was canceled because I didn't want my taxes, as little as they are, contributing to somebody's six-figure income that sucks in their work,' said a former employee who was involved in reviewing MBN's finances and who left last May. 'We didn't have to scratch very deep. We were finding things that were very disturbing." Like many interviewed for this article, the former employee refused to have his name used to avoid reprisals. He accused MBN management of entering into needless, multimillion-dollar expansions of bureaus that went wildly over budget, all amid a culture of cronyism that often left the wrong people in place for too long. The April firings continued a downsizing that began in September, when Congress mandated a $20-million cut to MBN's budget, forcing management to fire 160 employees and merge Alhurra with its Iraq-focused satellite news channel, Alhurra Iraq. In March, though Congress had approved MBN's budget through the end of the 2025 fiscal year, Lake blocked the disbursement to MBN a few hours later. 'I'm left to conclude that she is deliberately starving us of the money we need to pay you, our dedicated and hard-working staff,' he said in the email. Along with Alhurra, MBN supports other news outlets. Rather than shut down and declare bankruptcy, Gedmin decided to keep Alhurra on-air with a truncated schedule — mostly broadcasting evergreen content and reruns — and a skeleton staff of 30 to 50 people. It was a gamble, Gedmin said in an interview this week, that would 'buy time for the courts.' 'If we win this in court and eventually have funding, we would pay some severance and restore some staff,' Gedmin said. Read more: Trump signs executive order directing federal funding cuts to PBS and NPR Susan Baumel, a former interview producer at MBN, said in an article published on the National Press Club website last month she and her colleagues were fired before the courts decided if the Trump administration acted legally, unlike staff at other U.S.-funded outlets which were put on leave. (On Tuesday, a federal judge ordered the administration to release $12 million it had cut from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The administration, he ruled, could not unilaterally revoke funding approved by Congress.) An email sent in March from a former employee in the finance department to top management which was reviewed by The Times said MBN had $8 million in its accounts, including $4.7 million that could have been used to cover unused annual leave and partial severance. The employee also wonders why some bureaus continued to operate despite loss of funding. By April, according to a WhatsApp conservation between former employees reviewed by The Times, the balance had fallen to $4.2 million. MBN leadership, including Gedmin and the MBN board chair, former Ambassador Ryan Crocker, insist the networks will pay annual leave and end-of-service to all employees terminated last month. Many of those laid off resent the decision to continue broadcasting, saying Gedmin knew Lake was unwilling to deal with current management, and that he and his colleagues should have stepped down weeks earlier. 'I consider that the money they used to continue [operating] was supposed to be for us, and we were neglected and our professional life destroyed so they could keep on broadcasting,' said one correspondent who worked in the Beirut bureau for six years. 'We weren't given a safe exit, to have one or two months to search for a new job. We were thrown out on the street — that's how I see it.' Another correspondent who worked with Alhurra Iraq since 2008 characterized the firings differently. MBN managers "basically took us as hostages so they could face the Trump administration,' he said. Meanwhile, around 40 Alhurra employees in the U.S. on work visas must leave the country before May 12. All U.S.-based staff lost healthcare benefits at the end of April. When President George W. Bush began Alhurra in 2004, he said it would "cut through the barriers of hateful propaganda" and act as a counterweight to what U.S. officials considered the pernicious coverage of Al Jazeera. But launched one year after the disastrous invasion of Iraq, it faced an uphill battle. "It was tainted, in the first place, as the mouthpiece of the American administration, placed before audiences that are already skeptical of political affiliations of any media,' said Zahera Harb, an expert on Arab media at City University in London. 'The idea you can win hearts and minds through propaganda and information by telling people how good the U.S. is — it was never going to work,' said Shibley Telhami, a University of Maryland professor and an Arab polling data expert. 'It was not a main source of news," said Telhami, who served on a Bush-era commission evaluating Alhurra's performance. "Our research showed that less than 2% of people watched it. And that's probably charitable.' MBN claims Alhurra and its other outlets reach a combined 33.5 million people per week, but a 2023 study from the University of San Diego's Center for Public Diplomacy found that it never exceeded 27 million weekly views for the last decade. The same study found Alhurra's share of adult Arab audiences shrank by half, from 17% in 2005 to 8.8% in 2022. At the same time, complaints of corruption have long dogged the network. A 2009 ProPublica investigation found much of the hiring based on cronyism and office politics rather than on qualifications — a scenario all former employees interviewed for this article say still persists. Alhurra is subject to the same forces afflicting all TV networks, with audiences increasingly finding their news on TikTok and YouTube. But even during big news events, including the war in Gaza, Alhurra live broadcasts never managed more than 167 viewers, said one former employee in the Dubai bureau. 'And 100 of those screens are people inside our studios. So who is really watching you, 20, 25 people?' she said. 'And that's probably the censors.' Read more: Between censorship and chaos: Syrian artists wary of new regime Gedmin, who became interim head of MBN last April and took the reins in October, acknowledges MBN's defects, but said he believed the networks were on the path to a turnaround before Lake's intervention. None of the former employees interviewed had faith MBN's current leadership could improve. Others question the very premise of a government-funded channel being independent. James O'Shea, who served as chairman of MBN's board between 2022 until 2024, said, "One of the things I walked away with is I don't know if you can do this with government.' O'Shea, a former editor of The Times, remembered how at one news meeting, Alhurra journalists were chastised for talking to Hamas representatives, because such interviews drew the ire of congressional officials. 'You can't ignore a major part of the story. Alhurra was set up to be independent, but it wasn't,' he said. He added that the 'tragedy' of Alhurra was that 'an Arabic-language news operation, with an objective, journalistic voice is really needed in the region.' "The best thing you can do is promote the American kind of journalism: Not controlled by any government, and which adheres to the principles of the 1st Amendment." Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
03-05-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
In U.S. retreat from global media, Arab language network is latest casualty
AMMAN, Jordan — The message was contrite but direct. 'I'm heartbroken. If you're receiving this letter, I'm letting you go — effective immediately.' The email came from Jeffrey Gedmin, head of Middle East Broadcasting Networks,or MBN, the nonprofit overseeing the U.S.-government-funded, Arab-language news channel Alhurra. It was April 12, and the email in the inbox of 500 of Alhurra's employees was another move by the Trump administration and its Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency to shut down U.S.-funded media initiatives abroad. Alhurra, which received around $112 million in 2024 from Congress, joined other state-supported outlets, including Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which had their funding frozen. Done in DOGE's chainsaw-signature style, the cuts have disrupted the lives of journalists both in Alhurra's Middle Eastern bureaus and its Virginia headquarters, leaving them with no severance or compensation. Dozens who had permits to work in the U.S. are unsure if they can remain in America. When news about Alhurra filtered out — along with talk that even MBN might shut down — many observers saw it as an own goal, a misguided rollback of U.S. soft power in the Middle East. The Committee to Protect Journalists, which is helping MBN with legal representation to restore its funding, called the cutbacks 'a betrayal of the U.S.'s historical commitment to press freedom.' In a statement, Gedmin said, 'Media in the Middle East thrive on a diet of anti-Americanism. It makes no sense to kill MBN as a sensible alternative and open the field to American adversaries and Islamic extremists.' But interviews with critics — including many from Alhurra and MBN's own ranks — reveal a more complicated story. Though many insist they believe in MBN's mission to bring a pro-American perspective to the region, few mourn it in its current form. Others say Alhurra withered under an unclear mandate that never allowed the channel to find its identity and therefore audiences. Some even agreed with Kari Lake, the pugnacious advisor Trump appointed to oversee the Agency for Global Media, which provides funding for news programming abroad. Lake recently described her new workplace as 'irretrievably broken,' where 'waste, fraud and abuse run rampant.' 'It was a relief to me when the grant was canceled because I didn't want my taxes, as little as they are, contributing to somebody's six-figure income that sucks in their work,' said a former employee who was involved in reviewing MBN's finances and who left last May. 'We didn't have to scratch very deep. We were finding things that were very disturbing.' Like many interviewed for this article, the former employee refused to have his name used to avoid reprisals. He accused MBN management of entering into needless, multimillion-dollar expansions of bureaus that went wildly over budget, all amid a culture of cronyism that often left the wrong people in place for too long. The April firings continued a downsizing that began in September, when Congress mandated a $20-million cut to MBN's budget, forcing management to fire 160 employees and merge Alhurra with its Iraq-focused satellite news channel, Alhurra Iraq. In March, though Congress had approved MBN's budget through the end of the 2025 fiscal year, Lake blocked the disbursement to MBN a few hours later. 'I'm left to conclude that she is deliberately starving us of the money we need to pay you, our dedicated and hard-working staff,' he said in the email. Along with Alhurra, MBN supports other news outlets. Rather than shut down and declare bankruptcy, Gedmin decided to keep Alhurra on-air with a truncated schedule — mostly broadcasting evergreen content and reruns — and a skeleton staff of 30 to 50 people. It was a gamble, Gedmin said in an interview this week, that would 'buy time for the courts.' 'If we win this in court and eventually have funding, we would pay some severance and restore some staff,' Gedmin said. Susan Baumel, a former interview producer at MBN, said in an article published on the National Press Club website last month she and her colleagues were fired before the courts decided if the Trump administration acted legally, unlike staff at other U.S.-funded outlets which were put on leave. (On Tuesday, a federal judge ordered the administration to release $12 million it had cut from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The administration, he ruled, could not unilaterally revoke funding approved by Congress.) An email sent in March from a former employee in the finance department to top management which was reviewed by The Times said MBN had $8 million in its accounts, including $4.7 million that could have been used to cover unused annual leave and partial severance. The employee also wonders why some bureaus continued to operate despite loss of funding. By April, according to a WhatsApp conservation between former employees reviewed by The Times, the balance had fallen to $4.2 million. MBN leadership, including Gedmin and the MBN board chair, former Ambassador Ryan Crocker, insist the networks will pay annual leave and end-of-service to all employees terminated last month. Many of those laid off resent the decision to continue broadcasting, saying Gedmin knew Lake was unwilling to deal with current management, and that he and his colleagues should have stepped down weeks earlier. 'I consider that the money they used to continue [operating] was supposed to be for us, and we were neglected and our professional life destroyed so they could keep on broadcasting,' said one correspondent who worked in the Beirut bureau for six years. 'We weren't given a safe exit, to have one or two months to search for a new job. We were thrown out on the street — that's how I see it.' Another correspondent who worked with Alhurra Iraq since 2008 characterized the firings differently. MBN managers 'basically took us as hostages so they could face the Trump administration,' he said. Meanwhile, around 40 Alhurra employees in the U.S. on work visas must leave the country before May 12. All U.S.-based staff lost healthcare benefits at the end of April. When President George W. Bush began Alhurra in 2004, he said it would 'cut through the barriers of hateful propaganda' and act as a counterweight to what U.S. officials considered the pernicious coverage of Al Jazeera. But launched one year after the disastrous invasion of Iraq, it faced an uphill battle. 'It was tainted, in the first place, as the mouthpiece of the American administration, placed before audiences that are already skeptical of political affiliations of any media,' said Zahera Harb, an expert on Arab media at City University in London. 'The idea you can win hearts and minds through propaganda and information by telling people how good the U.S. is — it was never going to work,' said Shibley Telhami, a University of Maryland professor and an Arab polling data expert. 'It was not a main source of news,' said Telhami, who served on a Bush-era commission evaluating Alhurra's performance. 'Our research showed that less than 2% of people watched it. And that's probably charitable.' MBN claims Alhurra and its other outlets reach a combined 33.5 million people per week, but a 2023 study from the University of San Diego's Center for Public Diplomacy found that it never exceeded 27 million weekly views for the last decade. The same study found Alhurra's share of adult Arab audiences shrank by half, from 17% in 2005 to 8.8% in 2022. At the same time, complaints of corruption have long dogged the network. A 2009 ProPublica investigation found much of the hiring based on cronyism and office politics rather than on qualifications — a scenario all former employees interviewed for this article say still persists. Alhurra is subject to the same forces afflicting all TV networks, with audiences increasingly finding their news on TikTok and YouTube. But even during big news events, including the war in Gaza, Alhurra live broadcasts never managed more than 167 viewers, said one former employee in the Dubai bureau. 'And 100 of those screens are people inside our studios. So who is really watching you, 20, 25 people?' she said. 'And that's probably the censors.' Gedmin, who became interim head of MBN last April and took the reins in October, acknowledges MBN's defects, but said he believed the networks were on the path to a turnaround before Lake's intervention. None of the former employees interviewed had faith MBN's current leadership could improve. Others question the very premise of a government-funded channel being independent. James O'Shea, who served as chairman of MBN's board between 2022 until 2024, said, 'One of the things I walked away with is I don't know if you can do this with government.' O'Shea, a former editor of The Times, remembered how at one news meeting, Alhurra journalists were chastised for talking to Hamas representatives, because such interviews drew the ire of congressional officials. 'You can't ignore a major part of the story. Alhurra was set up to be independent, but it wasn't,' he said. He added that the 'tragedy' of Alhurra was that 'an Arabic-language news operation, with an objective, journalistic voice is really needed in the region.' 'The best thing you can do is promote the American kind of journalism: Not controlled by any government, and which adheres to the principles of the 1st Amendment.'
Iraqi News
14-04-2025
- Business
- Iraqi News
Trump cuts Alhurra news created by US government after Iraq invasion
Washington – Alhurra, the Arabic-language network created by the US government after the Iraq invasion, said Saturday it would cease broadcasts and lay off most staff after President Donald Trump's administration shut off funds. The network went on air in 2004, when US officials were complaining about coverage of the Iraq war from Qatar-backed Al-Jazeera — which two decades later maintains a dominant role in Arabic-langauge media. 'Media in the Middle East thrive on a diet of anti-Americanism,' said Jeffrey Gedmin, president and CEO of Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN), the parent of Alhurra and other smaller US-funded Arabic-language outlets. 'It makes no sense to kill MBN as a sensible alternative and to open the field to American adversaries and Islamic extremists,' he said in a statement. The Trump administration, in part of a sweeping cost-cutting drive led by billionaire Elon Musk, in March said it was ceasing all financial transfers for US government-supported media. The move quickly froze Voice of America, although its employees have mounted legal challenges to restore the funding, which was approved by Congress. In a memo to staff, Gedmin said that Kari Lake, a firebrand Trump supporter put in charge of the agency supervising US-funded media, had refused to see him to discuss the 'unlawfully' withdrawn funds. 'I'm left to conclude that she is deliberately starving us of the money we need to pay you, our dedicated and hard-working staff,' he wrote. 'What's happening is a disgrace. You deserve better and I bear responsibility for not resolving this crisis in time to keep you,' said Gedmin, a veteran scholar of democracy. Alhurra will cease broadcasts but seek to maintain digital updates through a staff reduced to 'a couple dozen,' he wrote. Alhurra says it reaches more than 30 million people each week across 22 countries. But it has faced stiff competition from Al-Jazeera as well as Al-Arabiya, which is funded by Saudi Arabia, and more recently UAE-backed Sky News Arabia. Trump has a testy relationship with media and has questioned the 'firewall' under which US-funded outlets were promised editorial independence. Unlike Voice of America, Alhurra was not considered part of the US government, instead receiving grants to operate. Other outlets in similar situations have also tried to press on. Radio Free Europe, which played a vital role in the Cold War and is now based in Prague, has won promises of support from the Czech government to step in to replace US funding. Radio Free Asia, aimed at providing news to China, North Korea and other Asian countries without free media, has been providing online news at a reduced pace.
Express Tribune
13-04-2025
- Business
- Express Tribune
After VOA, Trump administration shuts down Arabic network Alhurra
US President Donald Trump points a finger during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (not pictured) in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, US on April 7, 2025. PHOTO: REUTERS Listen to article Alhurra, the Arabic-language television network established by the US government after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, announced on Saturday it will cease broadcasts and lay off most of its staff following a decision by the Trump administration to halt funding. The network launched in 2004 amid US frustration with media coverage of the Iraq war, particularly from Qatar-backed Al Jazeera, which, two decades later, remains a dominant force in Arabic-language media. 'Media in the Middle East thrive on a diet of anti-Americanism,' said Jeffrey Gedmin, president and CEO of Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN), which oversees Alhurra and other US-funded Arabic-language outlets. Gedmin criticized the decision, stating it made 'no sense to kill MBN' as a viable alternative voice, arguing that the move effectively "opens the field to American adversaries and extremists." The funding halt came as part of a sweeping cost-cutting initiative led by billionaire Elon Musk. In March, the Trump administration announced it would end all financial transfers to US government-supported media. Voice of America (VOA) was among the first to be impacted, though its employees have launched legal efforts to challenge the funding cut, which had been approved by Congress. In a memo to staff, Gedmin said he had been unable to secure a meeting with Kari Lake, a staunch Trump ally recently appointed to oversee US-funded media, to discuss what he called the 'unlawfully' withdrawn funds. 'I'm left to conclude that she is deliberately starving us of the money we need to pay you, our dedicated and hard-working staff,' Gedmin wrote. 'What's happening is a disgrace. You deserve better and I bear responsibility for not resolving this crisis in time to keep you,' he added. Although Alhurra will cease traditional broadcasts, Gedmin said the network will try to maintain a digital presence with a drastically reduced staff, 'a couple dozen,' he noted. Alhurra claims to reach over 30 million viewers weekly across 22 countries. Still, it has long faced fierce competition from Al Jazeera, Saudi-funded Al Arabiya, and more recently, UAE-backed Sky News Arabia. Trump has had a strained relationship with the media and questioned the 'firewall' that guarantees editorial independence for US-funded outlets. Unlike VOA, Alhurra was not technically part of the US government but instead operated via grants. Other US-funded media have also been impacted but continue to push forward. Radio Free Europe, which was instrumental during the Cold War and now operates from Prague, has secured promises of support from the Czech government to offset lost US funding. Radio Free Asia, which provides news to countries like China and North Korea, continues to publish online at a reduced pace.
