MEP: Al Arabiya, the Saudi-owned news channel has reportedly sacked 50 of its employees, among them some well-known and long-serving staffers, over financial limitations, Saudi Akhbaar24 website said Wednesday.
Some of those fired had been working for the Saudi broadcaster Middle East Broadcasting Center (MBC) — which owns the Dubai-based Al Arabiya — since the onset of its operations in 1991, according to the source.
Lebanese presenter Gisele Habib, veteran journalist Nasser al-Sarami, who started working for the MBC in the early 1990s before being transferred to Al Arabiya, Ghalib Darwish, who runs the Al Arabiya website’s economy section, and famous presenter Nicole Tannoury have been named on the list.
The Huffington Post, meanwhile, said the channel carried out the expulsions quietly and that those expelled had received salaries and benefits for six months as a severance package.
It added that the majority of those dismissed are close to Saudi author Abdulrahman al-Rashed, who used to manage the channel.
