Published On 1/6/2026
The Guardian newspaper said that the British “Sky” network decided to end its television partnership with the “Sky News Arabia” channel, which is based in the UAE.
The newspaper explained that this decision came against the backdrop of controversial news coverage of the war in Sudan, specifically coverage of the Rapid Support Forces massacres in the city of El Fasher, amid growing accusations of denying the facts of genocide.
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After a stifling siege that lasted more than 500 days, the Rapid Support Forces announced on October 26, 2025, their control of the city of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State, after battles with the Sudanese army and its allied forces, and the army’s withdrawal from the headquarters of the Sixth Infantry Division.
This was followed by the Rapid Support committing a massacre in the city, in which more than two thousand people were killed, including 460 patients and people accompanying them in the Saudi Maternity Hospital in El Fasher, while about 26 thousand people were forced to flee “in a state of terror,” according to international reports.
Under a new commercial deal between the British network and the International Media Investments Company, Sky is relinquishing all forms of strategic and operational ownership of the Arabic news service (Sky News Arabia). In return, the two parties have concluded a brand licensing agreement extending for several years, allowing the channel to maintain its name in the Middle East region.
Rapid support coverage at the heart of criticism
According to the “Guardian” report, internal anxiety grew among the executives of the British “Sky” network due to the editorial line adopted by “Sky News Arabia” in dealing with news in the region, and the disputes focused on covering the atrocities committed by the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan, especially in the city of El Fasher, where the channel faced accusations of trying to whitewash the record of these forces and hide the features of genocide from its screen.
The newspaper pointed out that the crisis worsened last November when the Sudanese government decided to ban the canal from operating within its territory.
This ban came after the channel sent a working team to the city of El Fasher in North Darfur state, and prepared a report claiming the stability of the security and humanitarian situation there. Data later revealed that the reporter (channel broadcaster Tasbih Mubarak Khater) who prepared the article is married to a prominent official (Ibrahim Al-Mirghani) in the parallel government announced by the “Establishment” coalition led by the Rapid Support Forces in Darfur.
The Guardian reported that the channel then published reports and articles denying the existence of evidence on the ground to support satellite images and testimonies of survivors of the massacres.
This editorial line greatly contradicts the report of the United Nations fact-finding mission issued last February, which confirmed that the siege imposed by the Rapid Support Forces and its allied militias on El Fasher for more than a year and a half aimed to destroy ethnic minority communities, which bears clear signs of genocide.
Full ownership and future of the platform
Regarding the nature of these changes, the newspaper quoted David Rhodes, CEO of Sky Group, as expressing his pride in the successes achieved in cooperation with the International Media Investments Company, while expressing his aspiration to continue the relationship in the next stage despite the dissolution of the operational partnership.
In the same context, the report quoted Nakhla Al-Hajj, Head of the Transformation Sector at the International Media Investments Company, which owns Sky News Arabia, explaining that the company will assume full ownership of the platform, with investments directed towards strengthening its position as a leading news destination in the Arab world, and his praise of the trust and spread that Sky News Arabia has achieved across various platforms over the past decade.
The Guardian indicated that this withdrawal represents an additional step in a series of declines for the Sky network (which was acquired by the American company Comcast in 2018) from the international news arena. The company has decided not to renew its brand license in Australia, which will lead to changing the name of the channel there to “News 24” during the current year. In 2020, it also canceled a project to establish a global news channel in partnership with NBC to compete with CNN.
