BEIRUT, Oct 14 (AFP) - A satellite television channel dominated by Iraqi shareholders plans to start broadcasting from Beirut on Friday because of insecurity in Iraq, an official from the broadcaster, Al-Sumariya, told AFP.
May Kahhaleh, head of the news bulletin, said Al-Sumariya "operates under the licence of the Iraqi government" but would start its broadcast from the Lebanese capital for security reasons." Developments inside Iraq would be covered by a "representation office in the Iraqi capital."
Kahhaleh said "Al-Sumariya is an independent satellite television which aims at showing the world the true face of Iraq, and not only images of violence."
"Iraq is not only Baghdad and Fallujah," the hotbed of militants waging military attacks east of the capital, she said.
She added: "The shareholders, who are mostly Iraqis, want to cover other things than hot news in order to be different from other satellite channels."
"We are going to start the broadcast on Friday - the first day of the (Muslim holy fasting) month of Ramadan - with series and entertainment programmes for the occasion," she said.
The news bulletin would only start after the end of Ramadan in mid-November, she said.
Al-Sumariya's chairman is Lebanese Jean Claude Boulos, one of the founders of the state channel Tele-Liban - the Arab world's first television station, founded in 1958.