Former Al Jazeera exec launches pan-Arabian channel

A former Al Jazeera executive has launched a new pan Arabian satellite channel Al-Mayadeen (The Squares).

Ghassan bin Jiddo quit the Qatar-based news broadcaster last year to protest against its reporting of the uprising in Syria and has launched the new channel, which is based in Beirut, to counter the influence of Al Jazeera and Al-Arabiya.

“We are not a channel that speaks in the name of Iran or the Syrian regime. We are a completely independent channel which reflects reality as it is,” bin Jiddo said at a news conference in Beirut.