By Ali Jaber
After adding political power to his US$3 billion worth of financial strength, Rafik Hariri, Lebanon's new prime minister, is on his way to becoming the Arab world's media tycoon.
Hariri, 48, who was appointed prime minister last month by Lebanese President Elias Hrawi, has begun to acquire magazines, newspapers, television stations, radio stations and an international wire service.
His aides told the German Press Agency (DPA) that negotiations have started with the Middle East Broadcasting Center (MBC), the London- based Saudi company that currently owns United Press International (UPI), to buy the ailing news agency.
According to Hariri's media team, which is working under a holding company called WAVE, or Word Audio Visual Enterprise, MBC has proposed that half of the UPI shares be sold to the prime minister.
They added that Hariri still insisted on negotiating to acquire the whole of UPI and pledged to provide US$20 million up front investment to rehabilitate the agency's battered technological infrastructure and lift its performance to competitive levels.
WAVE recently closed a deal to buy 49 per cent of the shares of Lebanon's only legitimate television station, the partly state-owned Tele Liban.
Hariri is also building a new private television station called The Future, opening next year with capacity to broadcast to Syria, Israel, Jordan and the Egyptian coast.
An estimated US$12 million have gone to The Future television so far, devoted to buying state of the art equipment, hiring skilled personnel and planning for satellite broadcast to Europe and the US.
The television station, based in his hometown of Sidon, southern Lebanon, will complement the already booming business of Radio Orient, Hariri's radio station which beams its FM programs from Paris to the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the US.
Hariri has also bought the prestigious Paris-based magazine al- Mustakbal and reserved its entire staff for a planned republication by the beginning of the year.
An 18th century building in the heart of Beirut is being renovated to house the desks and publishing house of Voice of Arabism, the newspaper which Hariri bought two years ago.
WAVE officials said two high-rise towers currently under construction in Beirut will become the media headquarters of Hariri group.
Sources close to Hariri said the Lebanese-born Saudi financier was e Daily Star, Beirut's only English- language daily and another French newspaper based in Paris.
Hariri wants to build a friendly media network that can assist him in his new political career and propagate his political thoughts and program.
Hariri told DPA that he seeks to protect Lebanon, through his press empire, from reckless press coverage which could ruin relationships with its neighbours and to carve ideas of coexistence and tolerance into Lebanese mentality.
Hariri believes that Lebanon's problems in soliciting Arab funds for its reconstruction stem from the fact that its press can sometimes be hostile to Arab regimes.
"I need a press that can compliment my work in building a healthy country, not sabotage my job," he said.
[From German Press Agency-DPA via Pegasus]