On Saturday, in an attempt to improve its image in the Middle East, the U.S. government began broadcasting its new Arabic satellite TV station Al-Hurra into 22 Middle Eastern nations. President Bush said the station, which in Arabic means “the free one”, is needed to counter, “the hateful propaganda that fills the airwaves in the Muslim world.”

According to the New York Times, at a cost of $62 million, the news station is the most ambitious government-sponsored international media project since the Voice of America began broadcasting in 1942.

In Jordan a spokesperson for the country’s Muslim Brotherhood movement charged the new station was “part of the American media and cultural invasion of our region.”

In an interview with the New York Times, the station’s news director Mouafac Harb attempted to show that the station would be more objective and balanced than Al Jazeera. He said if the station were to report on an Israeli raid on Palestinians that his station, unlike Al Jazeera, would see no need to note that the Israelis were flying U.S.-made aircraft. Harb asked, “Why say that? You can feel which way they are leading you.”

The U.S. government is hoping Al Hurra will become more popular than the leading Arabic satellite station Al Jazeera which has been critical of U.S. policies in the Middle East.