KDP extends media empire to Arab world

This month, the Kurdistan Democratic Party launched Shams TV, an Arabic language satellite news channel directed at the broader Arab world. The party has many media platforms associated with it, though this is the first that has set its sights on an Arab audience beyond Iraq.

The KDP has traditionally established media outlets to serve the interests of specific members of the Barzani family among particular audiences. Shams TV, in reference to the sun on the Kurdish flag, emerges at a time of regional tumult, political uncertainty for the Kurds in Syria, and an increasingly more assertive Baghdad. It is part of a package of initiatives and overtures that attempt to link Kurdish leaders to emerging powerful figures in the Gulf and beyond.