China goes Arabic

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China goes Arabic

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25 July,2009 08:25 pm

China is launching an Arabic-language TV channel to show the Middle East and North Africa the real China. China Central Television's station will broadcast news, entertainment and cultural programmes 24 hours a day. It is part of the Chinese government's plan to promote its own viewpoints by encouraging state-controlled media organizations to go global. Beijing, while saying that some foreign broadcasters misrepresent China, tightly restricts its own media. It is imperative for us to be a multi-language, multi-faceted and multi-perspective broadcaster, said Zhang Changming, vice-president of CCTV. Speaking at a launch event, he added: [We hope] the world can know China and China can know the rest of the world even better. CCTV already has four international channels that broadcast in English, French and Spanish, as well as Chinese. The new Arabic channel will be accessible for nearly 300 million people in 22 Arabic-speaking countries from 25 July.