UN General Assembly Summit

(September 25, 2013)

This was the week of the big, annual meeting of all the heads of state at the United Nations headquarters in New York. The BBC Arabic carried Obama's speech live...

 

... with the aid of the intrepid English-Arabic interpreter.  When Obama mentioned Libya, or whatever country, the BBC would move the camera to show the Libyans as they sat in the audience. They showed the audience a lot:

 

I kept looking to see if they would show the Swedish delegation in the audience, but they did not. And oh! I was hoping they would show the UN Deputy Secretary-General, because he is Swedish as well. But they did not. I was hopeful because they posted a picture of John Kerry, and the Deputy Secretary-General, and maybe the Iranian foreign minister, too, all sitting together on the front page of the English BBC webpage, but I didn't see it on the BBC Arabic TV. Pity!

After Obama, someone from Turkey spoke before the great marble slab, and the BBC carried that live, also translated into Arabic. He was very boring. Throughout the week, the BBC Arabic kept interrupting regular coverage to show the live speeches of all the leaders from all the Arabic countries. They even did a preview where they showed the estimated schedule, so if you had a favorite country you wanted to catch, you'd know when to be tuned. 

But not everyone was as important as Obama. If your favorite country was Kuwait, for example ...

... if I remember correctly, they cut them off for some reason. I think this is the Kuwaiti delegation listening as the Kuwaiti speaker was being broadcast from the front. Note they have a women among their ranks!