RT ARABIC CELEBRATES 10 YEARS ON AIR
MOSCOW, MAY 4, 2017 – RT Arabic, which began broadcasting in May 2007, marks its 10-year anniversary on the air. Over the years, RT Arabic journalists have provided exclusive, live reporting from some of the most conflict-ridden areas around the world, including Syria, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, and Egypt.
“In ten years RT Arabic has achieved huge success, often surpassing many mainstream outlets. Ten million people in the region watch our channel every week,” said head of RT Arabic, Maya Manna.
According to an Ipsos study, RT’s audience in the Middle East and North Africa is 10 million people weekly. On Facebook and YouTube, RT Arabic is more popular than the Arabic-language versions of BBC, CNN, Sky News, Deutsche Welle, France 24, and Al Hurra.
Within the span of 10 years, RT Arabic has broadcast hundreds of reports from areas facing some of the most intense conflicts and changes. During the ‘Arab Spring,’ RT was one of the only international media outlets that warned of the long-term risks posed by the regional unrest. While reporting from the frontlines, RT journalists have repeatedly come under fire in Damascus and the Syrian cities of Aleppo and Daraa. In November 2015, RT Arabic correspondent Sargon Hadaya was wounded by militant shelling in Syria.
The work of RT Arabic has been praised internationally. Palestinian National Authority head Mahmoud Abbas said, “We have a lot of TV channels in the Arab world… But we watch RT, because it provides accurate information.” Nabil Fahmy, who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt from 2013 to 2014, said that RT Arabic “plays an active part and works professionally, impartially and effectively.” During his visit to Russia, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, president of Yemen from 2012-2015, thanked RT for its work in the Arab world in general and Yemen in particular.
During its time on the air, RT Arabic has won a number of international awards, including AIB, New York Festivals, and Promax BDA awards, and is a three-time winner of the Al-Ghadeer International Festival held in Iraq. In 2012, the RT Arabic website was recognized by Forbes as one of the top three best news media outlets online in the Arab world.
