From the BBC, 22/02/04 ...

''The Arabic version of the Big Brother reality television programme has started, with a prize of $100,000 for the winner.
The show being broadcast across the Arab world by MBC follows the highly successful format estimated to have been watched by two billion viewers around the globe since its beginnings five years ago.

Big Brother has come to the Arabian peninsula - in particular, to a purpose-built house on Amwaj Island in Bahrain.

Twelve housemates from around the Arab world have been spending their first few hours in the Big Brother house under the constant gaze of television cameras........

In the first programme only one of the female contestants was wearing the traditional black robe or abaya.

The house has been modified to reflect Arabic customs. For the first time since the show's inception there are segregated sleeping quarters for men and women. There is also a prayer room. There is a separate women's lounge with a mixed-sex communal area as well.

Otherwise the rules follow the international format for which the show has become both loved and loathed.......'

The full article is here.

From the Middle East Online, 25/02/04 ......

'The first Arab version of the controversial reality TV production Big Brother has incensed Islamist MPs in Bahrain, where the show is being filmed, and who want it stopped.

"The minister has not kept his promise ... that there would be a control committee made up of religious dignitaries," to ensure Muslim sensitivities and traditions were respected, raged Mohammad Khaled, a member of the National Forum parliamentary group.

Seven Islamist MPs have signed a demand to question Information Minister Nabil Al-Hamr in parliament about the programme, which the Middle East Broadcasting Centre (MBC) television began airing nightly from last Friday on its MBC2 channel.......

"We do not agree that the programme be filmed in Bahrain because it goes against our traditions. We support any development and tourism project provided it is not at the expense of our values and our traditions," Khaled said.

MBC is producing Big Brother at a villa in a resort called Amwaj on Muharraq island, the second largest in the Bahrain archipelago.

Twelve young men and women from across the Arab world are living in the villa in separate quarters but meet in the lounge, kitchen and garden.

Film of their daily life and interaction imitates, in a more restricted way, scenes which angered traditionalists in the west when the programme first appeared in the Netherlands in 1999 and later in Britain, the United States and France.

An information ministry official called the demand to question the minister "unjustified", noting the production was not domestic under Bahrain state television but made by MBC, a Saudi-owned company headquartered in Dubai.

The ministry "is not producing the programme and is taking part in neither the production nor the broadcasting to merit asking the minister for an explanation," said the official, who asked not to be named.

Businessman Faruk Al-Moyad called for "restraint and wisdom" over the Big Brother screening, telling the daily Al-Wasat newspaper that such debate "was not likely to encourage foreign investment," in the Gulf kingdom.

Manama has hosted MBC2, which broadcasts entertainment programmes 24 hours a day, since last year.

MBC, owned by Sheikh Walid al-Ibrahim, a brother-in-law of Saudi King Fahd, shifted headquarters from London to Dubai last year taking advantage of the media free zone and reduced costs.''

Read the full article.

Thanks for that Eejay. There was also a report about the Bahrain Big Brother on Newsnight last week.