Manama, Feb 2 (IANS): A pan-Arab news channel owned by Saudi business tycoon Prince Al Waleed bin Talal stopped transmission barely hours after it went on air Monday.
Bahrain-based Al Arab News Channel started its transmission Sunday with an interview with a leading Bahraini opposition figure who slammed the government over its decision to revoke the citizenship of 72 people, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Arabic news channel said on its Twitter account that the broadcasting stopped due to "technical and administrative reasons".
Head of the media office at the Information Affairs Authority (IAA) Yusuf Mohammed Ismael said they were working with officials of the channel to resume transmission.
The independent channel seeks to compete with others like Qatar's Al Jazeera, the United Arab Emirates' Al Arabiya, Russia's Arabic station RT, Sky News Arabia, France 24 and BBC Arabic.