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Asharq Discovery announces 7 new original shows

Asharq Discovery announces 7 new original shows
The new shows aim to meet the growing demand for free, high-quality Arabic content. (Supplied)
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Updated 30 January 2024
Arab News
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Asharq Discovery announces 7 new original shows

Asharq Discovery announces 7 new original shows
  • Free-to-view platform introduces exclusive programs
  • Productions from art, culture, entertainment, adventure and crime genres, featuring singer Samira Saeed, influencers Mohanad Al-Hattab and Qasim Al-Hatto, among others
Updated 30 January 2024
Arab News
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DUBAI: Asharq Discovery, which launched in 2023 as the result of a strategic partnership between SRMG and Warner Bros. Discovery, has announced seven new original productions.

The shows aim to meet the growing demand for free, high-quality Arabic content and appeal to Arabic-speaking audiences around the world.

The lineup includes shows across various genres, including art and culture, entertainment, adventure, and crime.

“Asharq Discovery is fulfilling its promise to enhance the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region’s infotainment scene through the launch of its high-quality original programming,” said Paul Edwards, the general manager of the platform.

“The demand for high-quality Arabic-language content is constantly increasing. Our new lineup of Arabic-language original shows not only entertain, but they also empower regional talent, showcasing authentic and diverse narratives that truly represent the region.”

“Dark Minds,” touted as the Arab world’s first true crime docuseries, will spotlight crimes committed by serial killers from the MENA region, while “Bassma” will feature exclusive interviews with powerful Arab women such as singer Samira Saeed, the first Saudi female aerospace engineer Mishaal Ashemimry, and the accomplished lawyer Sofana Dahlan.

Popular social media star Qasim Al-Hatto will play the host in “Food Tales,” which takes viewers on a journey through the stories of popular dishes in the MENA region, while actor and media personality Tariq Al-Harbi hosts the competition-based reality show “Test Drive Riyadh,” which takes viewers on a road trip through famous landmarks and uncharted territories.

The lineup also includes a daily news show “In Other News,” co-presented by Sultan Al-Shaddadi and Leen Al-Halawani; entertainment show “The Critics,” presented by Passant Shams Ell Dean, Maher Mosly and Mahmoud Mahdy; and “Diet Master,” hosted by influencer Mohanad Al-Hattab, who will examine the most popular diets with input from dieticians and medical experts, as well as those who have attempted the dishes.

Edwards said: “The shows … are only the beginning and we look forward to producing more of our own original programs, as well as co-productions with our partners at Warner Bros. Discovery and HBO.”

Topics: SRMG Asharq Discovery

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Advertising network Publicis Groupe partners with Dubai Business Women Council to support female businesses

Advertising network Publicis Groupe partners with Dubai Business Women Council to support female businesses
Updated 1 min 17 sec ago
Arab News
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Advertising network Publicis Groupe partners with Dubai Business Women Council to support female businesses

Advertising network Publicis Groupe partners with Dubai Business Women Council to support female businesses
  • Publicis Groupe to host workshops focusing on public relations, brand communication, digital marketing
Updated 1 min 17 sec ago
Arab News

DUBAI: Advertising network Publicis Groupe Middle East has partnered with the Dubai Business Women Council to support female-founded micro, small and medium-sized businesses.

Founded in 2022 by Dr. Raja Easa Al-Gurg, chairperson and managing director of the Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group, the Dubai Business Women Council serves as a platform for the personal and professional development of businesswomen in Dubai.

This partnership will see Publicis Groupe host a series of workshops aimed at providing female business owners with a comprehensive knowledge of brand marketing and communications.

The first workshop, titled “The Power of Founder-Led Brands,” took place on Nov. 14 and was led by Andira Raslan, business director, and Sophia Boudjemaa, business director of strategy and insights, MSL Group Middle East.

During the session, Raslan and Boudjemaa emphasized the importance of personal branding and talked about strategies for building trust, increasing customer engagement, and instilling authenticity and personality in a brand.

Public relations, brand communication, digital marketing, social media strategies, innovation and growth are some of the topics that will be covered during future sessions.

“Effective marketing and communication can transform businesses, yet access to this knowledge and resources isn’t always within reach for small business owners,” said Bassel Kakish, CEO of Publicis Groupe Middle East and Turkiye.

The workshops aim to “democratize these insights and break down barriers for women entrepreneurs so they can elevate their brands,” he added.

Supported by the network’s in-house training and upskilling department Publicis Academy, the workshops are structured based on a survey conducted by the network to identify the challenges faced by micro, small and medium-sized businesses.

Nadine Halabi, head of business development and operations at the Dubai Business Women Council, said: “Empowering female entrepreneurs with the tools to elevate their brands is crucial for fostering innovation and growth within Dubai’s business landscape.

“Working with the experts at Publicis Groupe Middle East provides our members with access to strategic marketing and communication insights typically reserved for larger corporations.”

Topics: Publicis Groupe Female entrepreneurs

British MPs to summon Elon Musk over X’s role in summer riots

British MPs to summon Elon Musk over X’s role in summer riots
Updated 20 November 2024
Arab News
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British MPs to summon Elon Musk over X’s role in summer riots

British MPs to summon Elon Musk over X’s role in summer riots
  • Inquiry will examine the impact of generative AI and social media in spreading harmful content
  • X is accused of playing an active role in spreading false claims that led to uprisings against minorities across the country
Updated 20 November 2024
Arab News

LONDON: Elon Musk, the CEO of X and a new appointee in Donald Trump’s administration, will be summoned by British MPs to testify about the role of his social media platform in spreading disinformation during the riots that shook England and Northern Ireland this summer, The Guardian reported on Wednesday.

The hearing, part of a Commons science and technology select committee inquiry into social media, is set to take place early next year.

Executives from other major platforms, including Meta and TikTok, are also expected to be called to testify.

“(Musk) has very strong views on multiple aspects of this,” said Chi Onwurah, the Labour chair of the select committee. “I would certainly like the opportunity to cross-examine him to see … how he reconciles his promotion of freedom of expression with his promotion of pure disinformation.”

She added that the session could “make up for” Musk’s reported frustration at being left out of a UK government investment summit in September.

The inquiry will examine the impact of generative AI and social media in spreading harmful content, particularly during the riots.

Images and posts shared on X and Facebook falsely claimed the attacker involved in the killing of three schoolgirls in Southport in August was a Muslim asylum-seeker.

These false claims fueled Islamophobic protests and violence targeting minorities, including asylum-seekers.

One individual was arrested under the Public Order Act for inciting racial hatred on X. The platform found the same content did not violate its policies on violent threats.

Musk himself joined the online discussion, controversially claiming that “Civil war is inevitable.”

His remarks drew backlash and accusations of meddling in foreign affairs, a criticism that he has faced again for commenting on Italy’s migration policies.

The inquiry comes as X faces increased scrutiny for its inability to curb misinformation and its updated terms of service, which allow the platform to train AI models on user data. This has led to millions of users abandoning the platform.

In an effort to calm the waters, former Labour minister Peter Mandelson, tipped as a potential UK ambassador to Washington, recently called for an end to the “feud” between Musk and the UK government, arguing that it is “unwise” for Britain to alienate him.

The committee’s investigation will also examine how Silicon Valley’s business models, including algorithmic amplification, contribute to the spread of misleading or harmful content.

Onwurah emphasized the need to “get to the bottom of the links between social media algorithms, generative AI, and the spread of harmful or false content.”

Topics: Elon Musk X UK misinformation UK riots

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Taliban govt clearing ‘un-Islamic’ books from Afghanistan shelves

Taliban govt clearing ‘un-Islamic’ books from Afghanistan shelves
Updated 20 November 2024
AFP
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Taliban govt clearing ‘un-Islamic’ books from Afghanistan shelves

Taliban govt clearing ‘un-Islamic’ books from Afghanistan shelves
  • Committee identified 400 titles “that conflicted with Islamic and Afghan values”
Updated 20 November 2024
AFP

KABUL: Checking imported books, removing texts from libraries and distributing lists of banned titles — Taliban authorities are working to remove “un-Islamic” and anti-government literature from circulation.
The efforts are led by a commission established under the Ministry of Information and Culture soon after the Taliban swept to power in 2021 and implemented their strict interpretation of Islamic law, or sharia.
In October, the ministry announced the commission had identified 400 books “that conflicted with Islamic and Afghan values, most of which have been collected from the markets.”
The department in charge of publishing has distributed copies of the Qur'an and other Islamic texts to replace seized books, the ministry statement said.
The ministry has not provided figures for the number of removed books, but two sources, a publisher in Kabul and a government employee, said texts had been collected in the first year of Taliban rule and again in recent months.
“There is a lot of censorship. It is very difficult to work, and fear has spread everywhere,” the Kabul publisher told AFP.
Books were also restricted under the previous foreign-backed government ousted by the Taliban, when there was “a lot of corruption, pressures and other issues,” he said.
But “there was no fear, one could say whatever he or she wanted to say,” he added.
“Whether or not we could make any change, we could raise our voices.”


AFP received a list of five of the banned titles from an information ministry official.
It includes “Jesus the Son of Man” by renowned Lebanese-American author Khalil Gibran, for containing “blasphemous expressions,” and the “counterculture” novel “Twilight of the Eastern Gods” by Albanian author Ismail Kadare.
“Afghanistan and the Region: A West Asian Perspective” by Mirwais Balkhi, an education minister under the former government, was also banned for “negative propaganda.”
During the Taliban’s previous rule from 1996 to 2001, there were comparatively few publishing houses and booksellers in Kabul, the country having already been wracked by decades of war.
Today, thousands of books are imported each week alone from neighboring Iran — which shares the Persian language with Afghanistan — through the Islam Qala border crossing in western Herat province.
Taliban authorities rifled through boxes of a shipment at a customs warehouse in Herat city last week.
One man flipped through a thick English-language title, as another, wearing a camouflage uniform with a man’s image on the shoulder patch, searched for pictures of people and animals in the books.
“We have not banned books from any specific country or person, but we study the books and we block those that are contradictory to religion, sharia or the government, or if they have photos of living things,” said Mohammad Sediq Khademi, an official with the Herat department for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (PVPV).
“Any books that are against religion, faith, sect, sharia... we will not allow them,” the 38-year-old told AFP, adding the evaluations of imported books started some three months ago.
Images of living things — barred under some interpretations of Islam — are restricted according to a recent “vice and virtue” law that codifies rules imposed since the Taliban returned to power, but the regulations have been unevenly enforced.
Importers have been advised of which books to avoid, and when books are deemed unsuitable, they are given the option of returning them and getting their money back, Khademi said.
“But if they can’t, we don’t have any other option but to seize them,” he added.
“Once, we had 28 cartons of books that were rejected.”


Authorities have not gone from shop to shop checking for banned books, an official with the provincial information department and a Herat bookseller said, asking not to be named.
However, some books have been removed from Herat libraries and Kabul bookstores, a bookseller told AFP, also asking for anonymity, including “The History of Jihadi Groups in Afghanistan” by Afghan author Yaqub Mashauf.
Books bearing images of living things can still be found in Herat shops.
In Kabul and Takhar — a northern province where booksellers said they had received the list of 400 banned books — disallowed titles remained on some shelves.
Many non-Afghan works were banned, one seller said, “so they look at the author, whose name is there, and they are mostly banned” if they’re foreign.
His bookshop still carried translations of Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s “The Gambler” and fantasy novel “Daughter of the Moon Goddess” by Sue Lynn Tan.
But he was keen to sell them “very cheap” now, to clear them from his stock.

Topics: Taliban Afghanistan Book

Meta Oversight Board says wrong to remove Moscow attack posts

Meta Oversight Board says wrong to remove Moscow attack posts
Updated 19 November 2024
AFP
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Meta Oversight Board says wrong to remove Moscow attack posts

Meta Oversight Board says wrong to remove Moscow attack posts
  • Non-binding board ruling argues news value justified exemption from platform rules
  • Daesh claims responsibility for Moscow concert hall attack that killed over 140 people
Updated 19 November 2024
AFP

SAN FRANCISCO: The Meta Oversight Board on Tuesday said the social network was wrong to remove three Facebook posts showing images from a deadly attack on a Moscow concert hall in March.
The posts did violate Meta rules against showing victims during an attack, but their news value should have made them exempt from those rules, according to the independent board.
“In a country such as Russia with a closed media environment, accessibility on social media of such content is even more important,” the board said in a written decision.
“Suppressing matters of vital public concern based on unsubstantiated fears it could promote radicalization is not consistent with Meta’s responsibilities to free expression.”
Each of the posts clearly condemned the attack, expressing solidarity with or concern for victims, according to the board.
Meta should restore the posts — adding a warning that the content could be disturbing to viewers, the board ruled.
Four gunmen stormed the Crocus City venue before the start of a rock concert, opened fire on the audience and set fire to the building, in an assault claimed by the Daesh group.
The assault claimed more than 140 lives, the deadliest attack in Russia for almost 20 years.
The board is referred to as a top court for content disputes at Meta, and the social media giant has agreed to abide by its decisions.

Topics: Meta Russia Daesh Meta Oversight Board

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Media watchdog condemns Israeli labelling of Gaza journalists as ‘terrorists’

Media watchdog condemns Israeli labelling of Gaza journalists as ‘terrorists’
Updated 19 November 2024
Arab News
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Media watchdog condemns Israeli labelling of Gaza journalists as ‘terrorists’

Media watchdog condemns Israeli labelling of Gaza journalists as ‘terrorists’
  • Reporters Without Borders director general says move is part of troubling trend to control narrative of the ongoing conflict
Updated 19 November 2024
Arab News

LONDON: Reporters Without Borders has condemned Israel for labeling journalists in Gaza as “terrorists,” describing the move as part of a troubling trend to control the narrative of the ongoing conflict.

Speaking in Geneva, RSF Director General Thibaut Bruttin voiced alarm over the Israeli Defense Forces’ portrayal of Palestinian journalists, calling it a blatant disregard for press freedom.

“We’re seeing Israeli defense forces trying to portray Palestinian journalists as terrorists. So we’re very worried about that trend too,” said Bruttin.

“In the past we had responses which were not satisfying … but still they were trying to pretend that they were abiding by international standards in terms of protection of the press. Today, now they’re outrageously lying and trying to portray journalists in Gaza as terrorists.”

Since the conflict began on Oct. 7 last year, Israel has been accused of waging a “retaliatory campaign” against media workers in Gaza.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 137 journalists — mostly Palestinians — have been killed so far, though the actual toll is believed to be significantly higher.

“Not only have they not been able to protect them, but also we have good reasons to believe that a fair amount of the about 140 journalists that have been killed have been deliberately killed, have been targeted,” Bruttin said.

Bruttin, who succeeded Christophe Deloire in July, highlighted the dire conditions faced by Palestinian journalists, noting severe shortages of essential resources such as food, water and electricity.

He emphasized that Gaza remained closed to international press, forcing global news outlets to rely heavily on exhausted local journalists who faced dual risks as both civilians and potential targets.

“We’re very worried about what’s happening there,” Bruttin said, describing the circumstances as “unprecedented.”

He urged the international community to hold Israel accountable for its treatment of journalists, stressing the need for genuine pressure on Tel Aviv to change its policies.

Despite the dangers, journalists continue to report on the conflict, said Bruttin.

“In such a short period of time, I think it’s fairly unprecedented. But we have seen wars in the beginning of the 21st century which have been very violent and rough too.

“The war in Iraq has been a nightmare for journalists and hundreds of journalists have been killed there. So we are aware of the specific nature of the conflict in Gaza.”

Topics: Reporters Without Borders (RSF) War on Gaza Israel Journalists

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