Independent Media Investments (IMI) is a media investment company based in Abu Dhabi. It owns the English language The National, which it bought in 2016 from the state-owned company ADM. Two years later, IMI acquired Al Roeya, a youth-focused publication in Arabic. IMI is the vehicle used by its parent company to hold a 50% stake in Sky News Arabia (managed through a different ownership arrangement, Sky News Arabia is analyzed separately). It also owns a minority stake in Euronews, an all-news television channel available to European households. (Euronews, majority owned by a Portugal-based investment fund, is not part of the State-Administered Database)
Media assets
Publishing: The National, Al Roeya
Online: Al-Ain News
Television: CNN News Arabic
State Media Matrix Typology: Captured Public/State-Managed (CaPu)
Ownership and governance
IMI is a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Media Investment Corporation (ADMIC), an investment vehicle owned by Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the Abu Dhabi Emirate ruling family. Sheikh Mansour also owns Manchester City Football Club. He is the half-brother of Abu Dhabi’s ruler and UAE President, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan.
Source of funding and budget
IMI generates most of its funding through commercial revenues, mostly advertising, according to financial documents from IMI consulted for this report.
Editorial independence
There are no editorial rules officially imposed by the government on IMI. Although from its early days, The National newspaper was hoped to be an intrepid journalism outlet that used to attract, thanks to its high salaries, renowned journalists from America and Britain, the experiment failed quite rapidly. Although it looks modern and runs well-documented news stories, the newspaper never touches on topics related to the government and the royal rulers. The other publication run by the IMI, Al Roeya, is also very much aligned with the government’s interests, focusing on presenting the activities of the government and never publishing any content critical of authorities.
No publicly available statute that would establish the editorial independence of the publications owned by IMI has been identified.
No independent assessment or oversight mechanism to validate the editorial independence of the publications owned by IMI has been identified.
July 2024