Al Mayadeen
[3] Omar Ibhais, a freelance Lebanese TV producer, stated that the channel is a joint venture between the Iranians and Rami Makhlouf, cousin of Syrian President Bashar Assad.[9] Nayef Krayem, the owner of the Lebanon-based Al Ittihad TV and former director of the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar,[22] was designated as the general manager of the channel,[4] but he resigned one month before its launch.The staff of the channel include Lebanese journalists such as Sami Kulaib,[23] Ali Hashem, the former Al Jazeera war correspondent, who said he resigned from the channel because it refused to broadcast footage of militants on the Lebanese Syrian borders in the early days of the Syrian uprising,[13] Zahi Wehbe,[24] Lina Zahreddine, Lana Mudawwar, Muhammad Alloush, Ahmad Abu Ali and Dina Zarkat.[29] Omar Abdel Qader, a Syrian cameraman working for Al Mayadeen, was killed by a sniper during clashes in Deir Ezzor, Syria, on 8 March 2014.[30] Al Mayadeen correspondent Farah Omar and camera operator Rabih Me’mari were killed in Israeli strikes in Southern Lebanon in November 2023.[4][5] In 2013, Joe Khalil, author of a book about television in the Arab world, told The Daily Telegraph newspaper that the station is undoubtedly supportive of Assad.[6] The channel's alignment with Iran, Assad and Hezbollah was also expressed in a 2019 London School of Economics report[11] and a 2021 academic publication by Israeli scholar Barak Bouks.[34][41] According to Media Matters for America in 2021, Al Mayadeen used antisemitic conspiracy theories about George Soros in its coverage of the Pandora Papers "to sow doubt about whistleblowers and leaks".[45] British politician Jeremy Corbyn was criticised by Joan Ryan and the Simon Wiesenthal Center for appearing on the network during the war because of its perceived closeness to Iran and Hezbollah.