Marrakech – Sky is preparing to sever ties with its UAE-based Arabic news channel after mounting accusations that the broadcaster whitewashed genocide and served as a propaganda arm for Abu Dhabi.
The British satellite giant has effectively given notice that it will withdraw Sky News Arabia’s licence to use its brand next year, the Daily Telegraph reported on Wednesday. Sky executives delivered the decision late last year to IMI, the UAE’s state media investment vehicle. They have also completed the necessary legal groundwork for the licence to lapse.
Communications between the two sides remain open, and an agreement to salvage the partnership could still be reached.
IMI pushed back on the report, calling any suggestion that final decisions had been taken “incorrect” and insisting both parties remain “fully and positively engaged” in ongoing discussions. The spokesperson described the talks as commercial and confidential, with no connection to editorial matters.
The 50-50 joint venture dates back to 2010, when News Corporation, then controlled by Rupert Murdoch, struck a deal with IMI to launch a 24-hour Arabic-language news service under the Sky brand.
IMI is controlled by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the vice-president of the UAE and owner of Manchester City. Sky News Arabia launched in 2012 with stated ambitions to rival Al Jazeera and BBC News Arabic, pledging independence and editorial balance.
That commitment has since come under severe scrutiny. UK-based former Sky executives told the Telegraph in November that the channel had become a mouthpiece for the UAE’s rulers. One said an editorial board meant to monitor coverage had “no real power” because the channel was effectively owned by Sheikh Mansour.
‘Hallmarks of genocide’
The controversy centers on Sky News Arabia’s coverage of the war in Sudan, where the UAE-backed Rapid Support Forces have been accused of genocide and mass sexual violence in Darfur.
A UN fact-finding mission concluded in February that the RSF’s siege, capture, and 18-month occupation of el-Fasher bore the “hallmarks of genocide” and that an intent to commit genocide was the “only reasonable inference.”
A major report last week by Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab and NASA’s Harvest programme revealed that the RSF waged a campaign of starvation around el-Fasher, razing 41 farming communities and reducing cultivated land by more than 80%. Two-thirds of those communities showed no visible signs of life after the attacks.
Sky News Arabia, however, told a different story. The channel sent correspondent Tsabih Mubarak Khatir, who is married to a senior official in the RSF’s parallel government, to el-Fasher.
Khatir was filmed embracing a female RSF commander who had previously urged fighters to rape Darfuri women, telling her “we are with you.” Her reports claimed there was no evidence of atrocities on the ground, while articles on the channel’s website suggested satellite imagery documenting the devastation was fabricated.
Sudan’s government banned Sky News Arabia from operating inside its territory in November after the channel claimed the security and humanitarian situation in el-Fasher had stabilized.
El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, fell to the RSF in October after a prolonged siege during which the paramilitary constructed a network of earth walls around the city, trapping hundreds of thousands of residents inside.
Satellite imagery documented a massacre of thousands of civilians, with so many shot in the streets that blood and bodies were visible from space.
The war between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) has displaced more than 11 million people since it erupted in April 2023. The UAE denies responsibility for RSF atrocities, though Western intelligence agencies and extensive reporting have linked Abu Dhabi to the paramilitary group.
Sky, owned by Comcast since 2018, has already ended a separate licensing agreement that allowed News Corp to use the Sky News brand in Australia. Sky News Australia is rebranding as News24 later this year.
Read also: The Forgotten Crisis: War, Starvation, and International Failure in Sudan
