Global vs. Local: The Impact of Arab Satellite TV on the Maghreb

On June 15, Abdallah Schleifer, Washington bureau chief of al-Arabiya, and Mohammed Alami, chief Washington correspondent for al-Jazeera, analyzed pan-Arab television’s impact on local media in North Africa. Speaking at the CSIS Middle East Program’s seventh Maghreb Roundtable, Schleifer and Alami disagreed on the extent to which the popularity of satellite television has led to greater freedoms in the local media. Both experts, however, emphasized that state run media outlets must provide objective coverage of domestic news if they hope to regain influence with their people.