tember 1991. Wealthy Saudis, some of whom belonged to the ruling family, started their own TV channels from London and Rome. At that time, Sheikh Waleed Al-Ibrahim, brother-in-law of King Fahd bin Ab- dulaziz Al Saud, first gave birth to the Middle East Broadcasting Centre (MBC) in London. A move followed by Sheikh Saleh Kamel, in 1994, with the founding of the Arab Radio and Television (ART) in Rome. Following suit, Prince Khalid bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud established the Orbit Group. Broadcasting its programmes from Bahrain through dozens of TV and radio stations, Orbit, however, stationed its studios in Rome. While the first two networks were a copy-paste Arab model of major American TV networks specialising in entertainment, Orbit upheld a character distinct from its predecessors by launching BBC Ar- abic , a news service broadcast through a cooperation agreement with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). However, the contract be- tween the two institutions was soon terminated after eighteen months, following a dispute involving the available margin of freedom after an Arabic version of the BBC documentary “The Death of a Princess” was broadcast. The dispute between BBC and Orbit paved the way for the emer- gence of Al Jazeera on the news landscape. By a quirk of fate, Al Ja- zeera came into being in a politically and socially conservative envi- ronment akin to that of Saudi Arabia. Thus, it dealt a blow to media theories limiting the birth of cross-border media projects’ influence on the socio-political pluralistic environment that Western open societ- ies provide. Acting Director General of Al Jazeera Network, Mostefa Souag, ties the answer to this paradox to an enlightening vision that the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani had. He further explained the reason why the State of Qatar hosted the new project on its soil, unlike other Arab satellite channels that were launched in Eu- rope, by saying: “I believe that the one who thought of establishing Al Jazeera had an exceptional and enlightening way of thinking, free from the rules of media, and perhaps political, thought in this region. This is what prompted him to take risks and to give it a shot. It was a great risk for the Emir to have thought of and implemented such a project. To the best of my knowledge at the time, the Father Emir had been thinking of starting a top-notch TV channel. It perhaps was the sort of a multi-genre family channel for news, entertainment, films, etc. According to some
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