MIDDLE EAST
MEDIA WEEK
Q&A
The Arabic connection
With France 24 extending its Arabic news broadcast, Media Week meets the channel’s
director general, Christine Ockrent, who is charged with promoting it in the Arab world
Was the original goal with France 24 Will the channel ever move away from
to try to dilute the usual Anglo-Saxon state funding?
news offering? Well, we are breaking even, which is re-
We believe that even in a part of the markable and we intend to stick to that
world where British and American very healthy way to conduct our opera-
channels are well-established, the fact tions. We’re in the process of negotiat-
that we speak Arabic as well as French ing with our one and only shareholder—
and English can boost our branding. the state—on our business plan for the
When the BBC resumed its Arabic pro- next five years.
gramming, its Arabic audience outnum-
bered its English audience [within the And if you’re breaking even does
Arab world]. So, we believe it’s a good that money go back to the state?
strategy and we’ll see in a year or two No, we reinvest it, so that
whether it has worked or not. hopefully we can achieve the goal of
a twenty-four seven Arabic language
Last year President Sarkozy said that broadcast.
he wants to see France 24 to be solely
in French. What level of influence does Finally, before you moved into
the President have over the network? Understood… So, do you think the What is your target audience? management, you were a journal-
No more than the Queen of England or French people are getting value It’s the same for all news chan- ist; if you could interview anyone
the Prime Minister has over the BBC. for money? nels which target opinion leaders. from the Arab region, who would
We are a publicly-funded company with We have more and more French viewers These days ‘opinion leader’ means a it be?
editorial independence and profession- and are very popular on the internet. We broader target than socio-economic Well, I have had the privilege of inter-
al criteria. have a very interesting Web 2.0 approach level of income. It actually means viewing quite a few leading Arab person-
with what we call France vingt-quatre people who are interested in world alities—Arafat, Assad (the father, not the
You get 82 million euros a year from observers—you know, people who see affairs and people who are techno- son) and several Lebanese leaders—but
the government… things and send them in over the web, logically up to date. It is broader and not people from here in the Gulf. These
From the State. You know in France we which are then edited and screened by tends to be younger too. And I guess days, Saudi Arabia is very interesting,
have this distinction. The government our people. It is a very vibrant dimen- that’s pretty much the same for all and, of course, Iran—which is outside
changes, the State remains. sion of the network. news channels. the Arab world, but very close to it.
COVERS
For art’s sake, advertise
Glossy, luxurious cultural magazines line of a warplane has been cut out.
aattttrract glossy, luxurac ious advertisers. Controversial stuff.
And Canvas, by DMC-based Mixed Also on the shelves (and free in ourn our
MMeedia Pdia ublishing, doesn’t disap- local Starbucks) is brownbook, whichhich
point in this rt egard. The bimonth- is published six times a year by DMCMC-
ly magazine features ads for Dior, registered Brownbook Publishing, ang, an
Chananel and Gucci in its March/April affiliate of The Sheikh Mohammed Bd Bin
edition—and hediti as a similarly classy Rashid Establishment for Young BBuusi-si-
editoredito ial content. ness Leaders. The magazine doesn’tesn’t
The issue feaTh tures four covers, attract the high-fashion brands—ds—
each focusing on the subject of wareac there are ads for du and Nescafé—é—
seen thrsee ough the eyes of different but its editorial content still gave usus
Arab ara tists. The cover pictured that warm, slightly smug feeling ofof
herhe e is by Emily Jacir, and depicts being all ‘arty’.
a detail of a UN tena t embroidered The standout article is a comicc
with the names of 418 Palestinian strip by a US-based postgradu-
villages destrv oyed, depopulated ate study group called “Re: Do-
or occupied bo y Israel. There’s ing Dubai”, which centres on a
also a feaa ture on Iranian artist fictional property developer that
FFaarrhad Ma oshiri, whose installation wants to build a 29-storey building tong to
worworkk Flying Carpet depicts a stack run 43 miles along Dubai’s coastlineline.
of Persian carpets in which the out- We think it’s fictional, anyway…
www.mediaweekme.com 10 MAY 2009 / 23
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32