Al Arabiya business roundtable: Regional media experts meet in Dubai

Senior members of Al Arabiya will be opening discussions on various topics ranging from the development of business media in the Arab world to the importance of business programming for regional economies, with globalization as a background and the need for wider business industry involvement in the evolution of business specific media.

Announcing the event, Jihad Ali Ballout, Al Arabiya's Director of Corporate Communications, underlined the importance of dialogue amongst members of the regional media corps. Ballout emphasized the news channel's commitment to this cause by describing the meeting today as "a first in a series of professional gatherings aiming at engaging regional media, press and broadcast, on issues of common interests and concerns".

It is anticipated that the meeting will include a preview of Al Arabiya's latest endeavor to widen the scope of its business news service. The roundtable gathering comes a few days after the launch of the channel's new phase in business reporting.

"Open and transparent debate will be the mainstay of the meting", said Jamil El Hajj, Head of business news and programming at Al Arabiya, as he highlighted the central role of the business community's active involvement in the evolution of specialized media. El Hajj stated that "It is part of Al Arabiya's brand philosophy to provide audiences with reliable information direct from independent experts. He went on to describe this getting together of the area's top business journalists as "a dynamic gathering" that will deliberate relevant and perhaps controversial issues pertaining to the ongoing evolution of regional business news gathering and dissemination and programming in general.

Launched in 2003, Al Arabiya News Channel, a member of MBC media group, has quickly become one of the major news broadcasters in the Arab world lauded for its professional best-practices and work ethics. Al Arabiya has been at the forefront of speedy - yet accurate - field reporting, maintaining a clear distinction between news and opinion, in addition to its considered and sober news and current affairs analysis.