Writing for the Huffington Post, Magda Abu-Fadil – director of journalism training at the American University of Beirut – points to the growing number of countries beaming Arabic-language TV towards the Middle East and suggests it's "an exercise in futility".

The list includes the US, Britain, France, Russia, China and Turkey. Apart from the difficulty of attracting an audience, it is doubtful whether they serve a useful purpose. 

Even the assistant director for Arabic news at France 24 seems uncertain. "What with the technological revolution, people no longer need to be fed news from the outside," she says. 

The American al-Hurra channel – established by George Bush – has had a particularly expensive and disastrous history.