From: eliedw@hedda.uio.no (Elie Dib Wardini)
Subject: LEBANON'S PRIME MINISTER BUILDS UP MEDIA
Organization: UiO
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 11:35:45 GMT

 
From LEbNEt archives
posted without permission

Subject: ANALYSIS: LEBANON'S PRIME MINISTER BUILDS UP MEDIA ...

By ALI JABER 
  BEIRUT (NOV. 20) DPA - After adding political power to his enormous financial
strength, Rafik Hariri, Lebanon's new prime minister, is on his way to becoming
the Arab world's media tycoon. 
   Hariri, 48, who was appointed prime minister last month in the hope that he
would lift Lebanon from chaos and economic hardship, has begun to acquire
magazines, newspapers, television and radio stations and last but not least, an
international wire service. 
   His aides told the German Press Agency dpa that negotiations have already
started with the Middle East Broadcasting Center (MBC), the London-based Saudi
company now owning United Press International (UPI), to buy the ailing news
agency. 
   According to Hariri's media team, which is working under a holding company
named Wave, or Word Audio Visual Enterprise, MBC has proposed that half of the
UPI shares be sold to the prime minister. 
  But they added that Hariri still insisted on negotiating to acquire the whole
of UPI and had pledged to provide 20 million dollars upfront investment to
rehabilitate the agency's battered technological infrastructure and lift its
performance to competitive levels. 
   In the meantime, the Wave closed a deal last week buying 49 per cent of the
shares of Lebanon's only legitimate television station, the partly state-owned
Tele Liban. They estimated the cost at six million U.S. dollars. 
   At the same time, Hariri is also building a new private television station
named The Future to be opened by the begining of next year with capacity to
broadcast to Syria, Israel, Jordan and the coast of Eygpt. 
   An estimated 12 million dollars have gone to The Future television so far,
all devoted to buying state of the art equipment, hiring skilled personnel and
planning for satellite broadcast to Europe and the U.S. 
   The television station, based in his hometown of Sidon in southern Lebanon,
will complement the already booming business of Radio Orient, Hariri's radio
station which beams its programmes on frequency modulation from Paris to the
Middle East, Africa, Europe and the United States. 
   Hariri has also bought the prestigious Paris-based magazine al-Mustakbal and
reserved its entire staff for a planned re-publication by the begining of the
year. 
   An 18th century building in the heart of Beirut is being renovated to house
the desks and publishing house of Voice of Arabism, the newspaper which Hariri
bought two years ago and is planning to publish also by the turn of the year. 
   Wave officials said two highrise towers currently under construction in
Beirut will become by 1995 the media headquarters of Hariri group. One would
house the audio visual media and the other the printing press and desks of the
newspaper and magazine. 
   Sources close to Hariri said the Lebanese-born Saudi financier was 
contemplating buying the Daily Star, Beirut's only English-language daily and
another French newspaper based in Paris. 
  The man himself believes in building a friendly media network that can assist
him in his newly-starting political career and propagate his political thoughts
and programme. 
   Hariri told dpa that he seeks through his press empire to protect Lebanon
from reckless press coverage which could ruin relationships with its neighbours
and the Arab countries and to carve the ideas of coexistence and tolerance into
the Lebanese mentality. 
   Hariri believes that Lebanon's problems in soliciting Arab funds for its
reconstruction stem from the fact that its press can sometimes be hostile to
Arab regimes. 
   "I need a press that can compliment my work in building a healthy country,
not sabotage my job," he said.