- Arab News Network
Arab News Network (ANN) is a minor
Arab news channel broadcast onsatellite fromLondon .ANN is owned byRifaat al-Assad , the former vice president ofSyria , and uncle of the currentPresident of Syria ,Bashar al-Assad . The two are in sharp disagreement, with theParis -based Rifaat al-Assad allegedly having claimed right of succession afterHafiz al-Assad , who had exiled him after he attempted to seize power. ANN was started in the late 1990s by Rifaat and his immediate family, as part of a media network designed to promote their political positions visavi the Syrian government and otherArabic countries , as Hafiz al-Assad's poor health began to raise the issue of succession. The channel states its goal to be a democratic reform in the framework of aBaath ist Syria.Fact|date=November 2007The station broadcast daily English news from November 2004 to March 2006, but since then has been broadcasting solely in
Arabic . The desire to remove the programme reflected a change in management. Rifaat's son,Ribal al-Assad , is currently Director of the London Bureau. He decided to cancel the English programming due what he perceived to be the lack of an audience for it.Fact|date=November 2007The channel has faced great financial issues.Fact|date=November 2007 Major restructuring has been undertaken and technological updates have been acquired by the channel in order to improve its image.
ANN is currently broadcasting on
Hotbird andArabsat and aims to soon start broadcasts onNilesat .External links
* [http://www.lyngsat-address.com/ab/ANN-Arab-News-Network.html Channel info]
* [http://arabworld.nitle.org/texts.php?module_id=13&reading_id=1029&sequence=5 Article about ANN]
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