digital media people can stream sawa even where we don't have an fm. so, once again the driving force seems to be digital in the middle east. it is opening up new horizons for us. >> what does alhurra and sawa mean? >> alhurra means the free one and sawa means together. >> how much time do you have to spend with congress or working with the administration? >> well, as i said earlier, we're a private company. we're not part of the government. we are accountable to our stakeholders. the administration requests the budget in congress, appropriates the money. so we're answerable to them. so when they have questions we answer those. they respect our editorial independence and i never had a case in 10 years where somebody from the state department or the hill has told us what to do. and they give us the ability to have an independent, editorial approach to these very difficult issues and the system works. the system of giving us a grant and allowing us to practice with proper due diligence journalism. ♪ >> what a al hum. >> that is three hours news and enter

we also have eight radio sawa programming streams. three websites. and numerous social media platforms. >> host: why a separate alhurra and alhurra iraq? >> guest: when alhurra was created, launched back in 2004, we were on the tail end of the iraq war and there was a bereave factor. we needed iraq focused information and there was a need to broadcast local news about iraq while the rest of the middle east was sort of by the pan arab channel. >> host: how big is mbn? budget? employees? >> guest: mbn is about 600 employees over here in the u.s. we have correspondent said -- correspondents all over middle east and a budget of $10 million to support all of the different activities. we have maintained the staffing level but done some internal reallocation to accommodate and adapt to some of the changes that have occurred in communications in the middle east particularly in the area of digital media. >> host: what kind of technology do you use? >> guest: well, we have an hd channel. we have some standard definitions channels. we use satellite which is a b

hura" andrds "al "sawa"? srian: "alhurra" meand together. >> working with the administration question what brian: as i said, we are a private company. we are accountable to our stakeholders. the administration requests the budget, and congress appropriate the money, so we answer to them, and when they have questions, we but they respect our editorial independence, and i have never had a case in 10 years where someone from the state department or the hill has told us not to do -- and they give us the ability to have an independent editorial approach ,o these very difficult issues and the system works. the system of giving us a grant and allowing us to practice with all proper due diligence of journalism. ♪ >> what is this? >> it is a three-hour news and information and entertainment program that i launched in 2007 -- no, 2009. it is a big show. it comes live out of dubai and cairo, and it was created to connect us from here to there. >> and what does "al yhoum" mean? "today."means ,riday is a holiday for islam

we talked to executives and producers who work at alhurra and radio sawa.

. >>> what would you do if you sawa bear in your backyard? one manifold it with a camera. jason alexander says the big guy took his bird feeder. and peaceful and he took the chance. this is the third bear sighting he has made this summer. >>> on the "healthwatch" the maker of the epipen says it will release a cheaper version of the medicine. last week they were criticized for raising prices on the new version of the drug. the generic epipen should be released in the next few weeks selling for $300 half the price of the regular version. >>> warning about kids and concussions. to recover. doctors at the university of arkansas say kids who continue to play after a concussion took twice as long to recover than those who sat out the game. and more parents are saying no to vaccinating their kids but it's not because they are worried about safety. they think it's a waste of time. the new study from the american academy of pediatrics says most of the parents refusing vaccines are doing it because they believe the diseases the kids are vaccinated for at noon, beyonce's big night. >

> tonight, the communications business middle is broadcasting networks including alhurra and radio sawa. we speak with the president of the middle east broadcasting networks, fran mires. about how they should democrats values with an audience that would otherwise be exposed to a broader spectrum of opinions. >> we been on the air for 12 years, and over that period of time i think the audience has come to learn that it's not propaganda. we do strive to be balanced, but we also provide topics. we cover topics and we provide information that is not readily available. >> you are not enough people telling the stories of the difficult it is to be a woman and a girl child. so how many stories have we done on child marriages? i can even count. >> so you can do enough because really they are not telling the story enough. it's too sensitive, too close to home. >> radio voice is a campaign we launched in september 2015 to encourage people in the middle east to engage and be part of a discussion of important issues in the region, including extremism, root causes of extremism and unemployment, human