Saudi Arabia plan to nationalise MBC

Saudi Arabian authorities want to take control of the Middle East’s largest media company  MBC, as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s extraordinary anti-corruption crackdown.

Officials have ordered  Waleed bin Ibrahim al-Ibrahim, the founder of the Middle East Broadcasting Center to hand over his controlling stake in the company to secure his release, according to people briefed on the matter.

This is lauded by many Saudis as an overdue attack on corruption, appears in part to be nationalisation of private sector powerhouses. A desire by Prince Mohammed to tighten the government’s grip on the media as he pushes ahead with ambitious reforms and an assertive foreign policy.

MBC is the largest free-to-air Arab TV network, with enjoys 50 percent of the market in the Kingdom and attracts over 150m viewers daily across the region.

Mr. Ibrahim, who set up the multi-billion-dollar media company in London in 1991, is one of the 150 princes, business tycoons and former ministers arrested and detained at Riyadh’s Ritz-Carlton hotel after Prince Mohammed launched the anti-corruption purge in November 2017.