Al Jazeera
Encyclopedia
Al Jazeera (also Aljazeera or JSC [Jazeera Satellite Channel]) is an independent broadcaster owned by the state of Qatar
through the Qatar Media Corporation
and headquartered in Doha
, Qatar
. Initially launched as an Arabic news and current affairs
satellite TV channel, Al Jazeera has since expanded into a network with several outlets, including the Internet and specialty
TV channels
in multiple languages. Al Jazeera is accessible in several world regions.
The original Al Jazeera channel's willingness to broadcast dissenting views, for example on call-in
shows, created controversies in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf
. The station gained worldwide attention following the September 11, 2001 attacks
, when it was the only channel to cover the war in Afghanistan
live from its office there. It has also recently been acclaimed for its in-depth coverage of the Arab Spring
protests and revolutions.
, literally means "the island". However, it refers here to the "(Arabian) peninsula" which is شبه الجزيرة العربية , Arabian Peninsula
, abbreviated الجزيرة العربية , literally means the Arabian island, شبه literally means "similarity/likeness".
television station, a joint venture with Orbit Communications Corporation, owned by Saudi King Fahd's cousin, Prince Khaled. It had fallen apart after a year and a half when the Saudi government attempted to kill a documentary on executions under sharia law.
The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh
Hamad bin Khalifa
, provided a loan of QAR 500 million ($137 million) to sustain Al Jazeera through its first five years, as Hugh Miles detailed in his book Al Jazeera The Inside Story of the Arab News Channel That Is Challenging the West. Shares were held by private investors as well as the Qatar
government.
Prior to Al Jazeera, even before he deposed his father the previous year, the Emir had been contemplating a satellite channel. A free press complemented his vision of the emirate as a center of commercial development and progress.
Sheikh
Hamad bin Thamir Al Thani, previously Qatar's Deputy Minister of Information, was chairman of the enterprise, although Al Jazeera maintained editorial independence
. It was hoped the channel would break even in five years through sales of advertising, news feeds and programs, as well as equipment rental. Much of the staff came from the 250 journalists displaced by the closure of BBC Arabic
.
Al Jazeera's first day on the air was 1 November 1996. It offered 6-hours of programming per day; this would increase to 12-hours
by the end of 1997. It was broadcast to the immediate neighborhood as a terrestrial signal, on cable, as well as through satellites (which was also free to users in the Arab world). Ironically Qatar
, like many other Arab countries, barred private individuals from having satellite dishes until 2001.
At the time of Al Jazeera's launch, Arabsat was the only satellite broadcasting to the Middle East
, and for the first year could only offer Al Jazeera a weak Ku-band transponder that needed a large satellite dish for reception. A more powerful C-band transponder became available after its user, Canal France International, accidentally beamed 30 minutes of pornography into ultraconservative Saudi Arabia
.
Al Jazeera was not the first such broadcaster in the Middle East
; a number had appeared since the Arabsat satellite, a Saudi Arabia
-based venture of 21 Arab governments, took orbit in 1985. The unfolding of Operation Desert Storm on CNN International
underscored the power of live television in current events. While other local broadcasters in the region would assiduously avoid material embarrassing to their home governments (Qatar
had its own official TV station as well), Al Jazeera was pitched as an impartial news source and platform for discussing issues relating to the Arab world.
In presenting "The opinion and the other opinion" to which the Arabic
script in the network's logo refers, it did not take long for Al Jazeera to shock local viewers by presenting the Israeli speaking Hebrew
on Arab TV
for the first time. Lively and far-ranging talk shows, particularly a popular, confrontational one called The Opposite Direction, were a constant source of controversy regarding issues of morality and religion. This prompted a torrent of criticism from the conservative voices among the region's press. It also led to official complaints and censures from neighboring governments. Some jammed Al Jazeera's terrestrial broadcast or booted its correspondents. In 1999, the Algerian government reportedly cut power to several major cities to censor one broadcast. There were also commercial repercussions; Saudi Arabia
reportedly pressured advertisers to avoid the channel, to great effect. Al Jazeera was also becoming a favorite sounding board for militant groups such as Hamas and Chechen separatists.
Al Jazeera was the only international news network to have correspondents in Iraq during the Operation Desert Fox bombing campaign in 1998. In a precursor of a pattern to follow, its exclusive video clips were highly prized by Western
media.
broadcasting. Employment had more than tripled in one year to 500 employees, and the agency had bureaus at a dozen sites as far as EU and Russia
. Its annual budget was estimated at about $25 million at the time.
However controversial, Al Jazeera was rapidly becoming one of the most influential news agencies in the region. Eager for news beyond the official versions of events, Arabs became dedicated viewers. A 2000 estimate pegged nightly viewership at 35 million, ranking Al Jazeera first in the Arab world, over the Saudi Arabia
-sponsored Middle East Broadcasting Centre (MBC) and London
's Arab News Network
(ANN). There were about 70 satellite or terrestrial channels being broadcast to the Middle East
, most of them in Arabic. Al Jazeera launched a free Arabic language
web site in January 2001. In addition, the TV feed was soon available in United Kingdom
for the first time via British Sky Broadcasting
.
after the 11 September 2001
terrorist attacks on the United States
. The station aired videos it received from Osama bin Laden
and the Taliban, deeming new footage of the world's most wanted fugitives to be newsworthy. Some criticized the network, however, for giving a voice to terrorists. Al Jazeera's Washington, D.C.
bureau chief compared the situation to that of the Unabomber's messages in The New York Times
. The network said it had been given the tapes merely because it had a large Arab audience.
The rest of the world's television networks were eager to acquire the same footage. CNN International
had exclusive rights for six hours before other networks could broadcast it (a provision that was broken by the others on at least one controversial occasion). Prime Minister Tony Blair
soon appeared on an Al Jazeera talk show to state Britain's case for pursuing the Taliban into Afghanistan
.
Al Jazeera's prominence was heightened during the war in Afghanistan since it had opened a bureau in Kabul
before 9/11. This gave it better video than the others scrambling to cover the invasion, clips that sold for as much as $250,000. The Kabul
office was destroyed, however, by United States
bombs in 2001. Looking to stay ahead of the future conflicts Al Jazeera then opened bureaus in other trouble spots.
The network remained dependent on government support in 2002, having a budget of $40 million and ad revenues of about $8 million. It also took in fees for sharing its news feed with other networks. It was estimated to have up to roughly 45 million viewers around the world. Al Jazeera soon had to contend with a new rival, Al-Arabiya, an offshoot of the MBC, set up in nearby Dubai with generous Saudi backing.
-led invasion of Iraq
, where Al Jazeera had a presence since 1997, the network's facilities and footage were again highly sought by international networks. The channel and its web site also were seeing unprecedented attention from viewers looking for alternatives to Embedded reporting and military press conferences.
Al Jazeera moved its sports coverage to a new, separate channel in 1 November 2003, allowing for more news and public affairs programming on the other one. An English language
web site had launched earlier in the year. The channel had about 1,300 to 1,400 employees, its newsroom editor told The New York Times
. There were 23 bureaus around the world and 70 foreign correspondents, with 450 journalists in all.
On 1 April 2003, a United States
plane fired on Al Jazeera's Baghdad
bureau, killing reporter Tareq Ayyoub. The attack was called a mistake, but may have been deliberate, since Qatar had supplied the US with a precise map of the location of the bureau in order to spare it from attack .
Afshin Rattansi became the channel's first English-language broadcast journalist after he left the BBC Today Programme, after the death of UK Government Scientist, [David Kelly].
channel, originally called Al Jazeera International, in 2006. Among its staff were journalists hired from ABC
's Nightline
and other top news outfits. Josh Rushing, a former media handler for CentComm during the Iraq
war, agreed to provide commentary; Sir David Frost was also on board. In an interesting technical feat, the broadcast of the new operation was handed off between bases in Doha
, London
, Washington, D.C.
, and Kuala Lumpur
on a daily cycle.
The new English language
venture faced considerable regulatory and commercial hurdles in the North America
market for its perceived sympathy with extremist causes. At the same time, others felt Al Jazeera's competitive advantage lay in programming in the Arabic language
. There were hundreds of millions of potential viewers among the non-Arabic language
speaking Muslims in Europe
and Asia
, however, and many others who might be interested in seeing news from the Middle East
read by local voices. If the venture panned out, it would extend the influence of Al Jazeera, and tiny Qatar
, beyond even what had been achieved in the station's first decade. In an interesting twist of fate, the BBC World Service
was preparing to launch its own Arabic language
station in 2007.
with a loan of 500 million Qatari riyal
s (US$
137 million) from the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh
Hamad bin Khalifa
. By its funding through loans or grants rather than direct government subsidies, the channel claims to maintain independent editorial policy. The channel began broadcasting in late 1996, with many staff joining from the BBC World Service
's Saudi
-co-owned Arabic language
TV station, which had shut down in 1 April 1996 after two years of operation because of censorship
demands by the Saudi Arabia
n government.
Following the initial grant from the Emir of Qatar, Al Jazeera had aimed to become self-sufficient through advertising by 2001, but when this failed to occur, the Emir agreed to several consecutive loans on a year-by-year basis (US$30 million in 2004, according to Arnaud de Borchgrave
). Other major sources of income include advertising, cable subscription fees, broadcasting deals with other companies, and sale of footage. In 2000, advertising accounted for 40% of the station's revenue.
The Al Jazeera logo
is a decorative representation of the network's name written using Arabic calligraphy
. It was selected by the station's founder, Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa, as the winning entry in a design competition.
The Chairman of Al Jazeera is Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani
, a distant cousin of Qatar
i Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani
.
Al Jazeera restructured its operations to form a Network that contains all their different channels. Wadah Khanfar
, then the managing director of the Arabic Channel, was appointed as the Director General of the Al Jazeera Network. He also acted as the Managing Director of the Arabic channel. Khanfar resigned on the 20th Sep 2011 proclaiming that he had achieved his original goals, and that 8 years was enough time for any leader of an organization, in an interview aired on Aljazeera English.
The Editor-in-Chief of the Arabic website is Mustafa Soug who replaced Ahmed Sheikh
. It has more than 100 editorial staff. The managing director of Al Jazeera English is Al Anstey. The Editor-in-Chief of the English-language site is Mohamed Nanabhay who has run the site since 2009. Previous editors have included Beat Witschi and Russell Merryman.
Prominent on-air personalities include Faisal al-Qassem
, host of the talk show The Opposite Direction, Ahmed Mansour, host of the show Unlimited (bi-la hudud) and Sami Haddad.
, which highlights the tension between objectivity and audience appeal, to describe the station's controversial yet popular news approach.
Increasingly, Al Jazeera's exclusive interviews and other footage are being rebroadcast in American, British, and other western media outlets such as CNN
and the BBC
. In January 2003, the BBC announced that it had signed an agreement with Al Jazeera for sharing facilities and information, including news footage.
Al Jazeera's availability (via satellite) throughout the Middle East changed the television landscape of the region. Prior to the arrival of Al Jazeera, many Middle Eastern citizens were unable to watch TV channels other than state-controlled national TV stations. Al Jazeera introduced a level of freedom of speech
on TV that was previously unheard of in many of these countries. Al Jazeera presented controversial views regarding the governments of many Gulf Arab states, including Saudi Arabia
, Kuwait
, Bahrain
and Qatar; it also presented controversial views about Syria
's relationship with Lebanon
, and the Egyptian judiciary. Critics accused Al Jazeera of sensationalism in order to increase its audience share. Al Jazeera's broadcasts have sometimes resulted in drastic action: for example, when, on 27 January 1999, critics of the Algerian government appeared on the channel's live program El-Itidjah el-Mouakass ("The Opposite Direction"), the Algerian government cut the electricity supply to large parts of the capital Algiers (and allegedly also to large parts of the country), to prevent the program from being seen.Qatar's Al-Jazeera TV: The Power of Free Speech
At that time, Al Jazeera was not yet generally known in the Western world
, but where it was known, opinion was often favourable and Al Jazeera claimed to be the only politically
independent television station in the Middle East
. However, it was not until late 2001 that Al Jazeera achieved worldwide recognition, when it broadcast video statements by al-Qaeda
leaders.
Some observers have argued that Al Jazeera has formidable authority as an opinion-maker. Noah Bonsey and Jeb Koogler, for example, writing in the Columbia Journalism Review
, argue that the way in which the station covers any future Israeli-Palestinian peace deal could well determine whether or not that deal is actually accepted by the Palestinian public.
Al Jazeera's broad availability in the Arab world "operat[ing] with less constraint than almost any other Arab outlet, and remain[ing] the most popular channel in the region", has been perceived as playing a part in the 2010–2011 Middle East and North Africa protests
, including the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions
. The New York Times stated in January 2011: "The protests rocking the Arab world this week have one thread uniting them: Al Jazeera, [...] whose aggressive coverage has helped propel insurgent emotions from one capital to the next". The newspaper quoted Marc Lynch, a professor of Middle East Studies at George Washington University
: “They did not cause these events, but it’s almost impossible to imagine all this happening without Al Jazeera”.
.
In March 2003, it launched an English-language website (see below).
On 4 July 2005 Al Jazeera officially announced plans to launch a new English-language satellite service to be called Al Jazeera International
.
The new channel started at 12h GMT on 15 November 2006 under the name Al Jazeera English and has broadcast centers in Doha
(next to the original Al Jazeera headquarters and broadcast center), London
, Kuala Lumpur
and Washington D.C. The channel is a 24-hour, 7-days-a-week news channel, with 12 hours broadcast from Doha, and four hours each from London, Kuala Lumpur, and Washington D.C.
With Al Jazeera's growing global outreach and influence, some scholars including Adel Iskandar
have described the station as a transformation of the very definition of "alternative media
."
As of 2007, the Arabic Al Jazeera channel rivals the BBC in worldwide audiences with an estimated 40 to 50 million viewers. Al Jazeera English has an estimated reach of around 100 million households.
On 26 November 2009, Al Jazeera English received approval from the CRTC, which enables Al Jazeera English to broadcast via satellite in Canada.
, Bosnia and Herzegovina
and began its Balkan News Channel on the 11th November 2011.The managing director of Aljazeera Balkan is Tarik Dodic and the channel is available through Eutelsat W3C 16 Degrees East.
On 11 February 2011, the Turkish
government approved the sale of the TV channel "Cine5
" to Al-Jazeera. Cine5 television station has been administered by a government-run fund since its owner's business ran into economic trouble. Al-Jazeera paid USD$40.5 million for Cine5 TV channel in an auction. Al Jazeera said it planned to launch a news channel in Turkey.
In the United States
, Al Jazeera English is available through free to air DVB-S
on the Galaxy 19
(and Galaxy 23
C-band) satellites. However, Al Jazeera English is unavailable to cable viewers in the US, with the exception of those in Toledo, Ohio
; Burlington, Vermont
; Washington State and Washington, D.C.
. Many analysts consider this to be effectively a "black out". An Al Jazeera spokesperson confirmed a scheduled meeting with the large cable company Comcast, but as yet there has been no indication of the news network being made available to Comcast subscribers.
In contrast, in the United Kingdom
, Al Jazeera English is available on the Sky and Freesat
satellite platforms, as well as the standard terrestrial service (branded Freeview), thus making it available to the vast majority of UK households.
Al Jazeera can also be freely viewed with a DVB-S receiver in Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East
as it is broadcast on the Astra 1M
, Hot Bird 6, Eutelsat W2A, Badr 4, Turksat 2A, Thor 6
, Nilesat 102
, Hispasat 1C
and Eurobird 1
satellites. The Optus C1 satellite in Australia
carries the channel for free.
For availability info of the Al Jazeera network's other TV channels, see their respective articles. Segments of Al Jazeera English are uploaded to YouTube
.
It is also possible to watch Al Jazeera English over the internet from their official website. The low-resolution version is available free of charge, while the high-resolution version is available under subscription fees through partner sites. In some countries that do not regularly offer Al Jazeera English through satellite or cable, the availability of internet video streaming receiver boxes, like those sold by Roku
in the United States, offer the low-resolution stream without the use of a computer.
Al Jazeera's English division has also partnered with Livestation
for Internet-based broadcasting. This enables viewers to watch Al Jazeera English and Al Jazeera live worldwide.
Al Jazeera is available in Canada
on Bell Express Vu Channel 516, as part of the package "International News I." Al Jazeera is available on Rogers Cable
individually. Al Jazeera is also available on Shaw Cable TV Channel 513, as part of the package "Multicultural" Free preview until Mar. 8, 2011
On 7 December 2010, Al Jazeera said its English language service has got a downlink license to broadcast in India
. Satellite and cable companies would therefore be allowed to broadcast Al Jazeera in the country. The broadcaster will be launched soon on Dish TV
, and is considering a Hindi-language channel.
. On 13 April 2009, Al Jazeera launched condensed versions of its English and Arabic sites for mobile device users.
The Arabic version of the site was brought offline for about 10 hours by an FBI raid on its ISP, InfoCom Corporation
, on 5 September 2001. InfoCom was later convicted of exporting to Libya
and Syria
, of knowingly being invested in by a Hamas
member (both of which are illegal in the United States), and of underpaying customs duties.
, which gave Al Jazeera notice, soon followed by Akamai Technologies
. Al Jazeera later shifted to the French branch of NavLink, and then to (the current host) AT&T
WorldNet Services.
, had posted on its Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/roku that the English-Language Al Jazeera Live, would be streaming on its Roku devices through a private channel called Newscaster and also through the BBC channel. It permitted the announcement following an unrest in Egypt so American viewers can watch the latest events going on in the middle east. A Roku user must add the private channel Newscaster by going to Roku. Roku is used to stream Netflix
and Hulu
content as well as many other private channels.
An Al Jazeera site designed specifically for Google TV
exists, featured under the "Spotlight" section of the operating system.
Free Android market app offers free 24/7 live streaming of Al Jazeera in English and in Arabic.
, which allows easy downloading and integration with Miro.
Al Jazeera used the Ushahidi
platform to collect information and reports about the Gaza War, through Twitter
, SMS
and the website.
, an Urdu
language channel to cater mainly to Pakistan
is and possibly some India
ns, as well as a Kiswahili service called Al Jazeera Kiswahili to be based in Nairobi and broadcast in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.
Al Jazeera has been preparing to launch a Turkish language
news channel. On 10 February, Al Jazeera acquired Turkey's Cine 5 television channel.
Al Jazeera has also been reported to be planning to launch an international newspaper.
Al Jazeera Arabic began using a chroma key
studio on 13 September 2009. Similar to Sky News
, Al Jazeera broadcast from that studio while the channels main newsroom was given a new look. The channel relaunched, with new graphics and music along with a new studio, on 1 November 2009, the 13th birthday of the channel.
On 4 July 2004, the Algerian government froze the activities of Al Jazeera's Algerian correspondent. The official reason given was that a reorganization of the work of foreign correspondents was in progress. The international pressure group Reporters Without Borders
says, however, that the measure was really taken in reprisal for a broadcast the previous week of another Al-Itijah al-Mouakiss debate on the political situation in Algeria.
closed down Al Jazeera's offices in the West Bank, apparently in response to claims made on the channel by Farouk Kaddoumi
that PA President Mahmoud Abbas
had been involved in the death of Yasser Arafat
. In a statement announcing the decision, the Palestinian Information Ministry said the station's coverage was "unbalanced" and accused it of incitement against the PLO and the PA.
On 19 July 2009, President Abbas rescinded the ban and allowed Al Jazeera to resume operations.
, a U.S. missile strike destroyed Al Jazeera's office in Kabul
. There were no casualties.
According to Glenn Greenwald
, Al Jazeera is "constantly demonized in the American media." When Al Jazeera reported events featuring very graphic footage from inside Iraq, Al Jazeera was deecried as anti-American and as inciting violence because it reported on issues concerning national security.
Examples of censorship in the U.S. came shortly after the start of the invasion. On Monday, 24 March 2003, two Al Jazeera reporters covering the New York Stock Exchange
(NYSE) had their credentials revoked. The New York Stock Exchange
banned Al Jazeera (as well as several other news organizations whose identities were not revealed) from its trading floor indefinitely. NYSE spokesman Ray Pellechia claimed "security reasons" and that the exchange had decided to give access only to networks that focus "on responsible business coverage". He denied the revocation has anything to do with the network's Iraq
war coverage. However, Robert Zito, the exchange's executive vice president for communications, indicated that Al Jazeera's graphic footage broadcast on Sunday, 22 March 2003, led him to oust Al Jazeera. The move was quickly mirrored by NASDAQ
stock market officials. The NYSE ban was rescinded a few months later.
In addition, Akamai Technologies
, a U.S. company whose founder was killed in 9/11, canceled a contract to provide web services for Al Jazeera’s English language website.
was hit by a missile, killing reporter Tareq Ayyoub
and wounding another. Al Jazeera reports that it had mailed coordinates for their office to the U.S. State Department six weeks earlier and that these should have clearly identified their location. Dima Tareq Tahboub, the widow of Tareq Ayyoub, continues to denounce her husband's death and has among other things written for The Guardian
and participated in a documentary broadcast on Al Jazeera English.
On 30 January 2005, The New York Times
reported that the Qatar
i government, under pressure from the Bush
administration, was speeding up plans to sell the station. However, as of 2011, the station/network has not been sold and it is unclear whether there are still any plans to do so.
.
On 22 November 2005, the UK tabloid The Daily Mirror
published a story claiming that it had obtained a leaked memo from 10 Downing Street
saying that former U.S. President George W. Bush
had considered bombing Al Jazeera's Doha headquarters in April 2004, when United States Marines were conducting a contentious assault on Fallujah
.
In light of this allegation, Al Jazeera has questioned whether it has been targeted deliberately in the past — Al Jazeera's Kabul
office was bombed in 2001 and another missile hit its office in Baghdad
during the invasion of Iraq, killing correspondent Tareq Ayyoub
. Both of these attacks occurred subsequent to Al Jazeera's alleged disclosure of the locations of their offices to the United States.
, a cameraman, was killed by pro-Gaddafi sleeper cells while covering the 2011 Libyan civil war
in Benghazi
.
, who launched denial-of-service attack
s, and another hacker who redirected visitors to a site featuring an American flag
. Both events were widely reported as Al Jazeera's website having been attacked by "hackers". In November 2003, John William Racine II, also known as 'John Buffo', was sentenced to 1,000 hours of community service and a $1,500 U.S. fine for the online disruption. Racine posed as an Al Jazeera employee
to get a password to the network's site, then redirected visitors to a page he created that showed an American flag shaped like a U.S. map and a patriotic motto, court documents said. In June 2003, Racine pleaded guilty to wire fraud
and unlawful interception of an electronic communication. As of 2011, the perpetrators of the denial-of-service attacks remain unknown.
Hillary Rodham Clinton
testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Al Jazeera provided more informative news coverage than the opinion-driven coverage of American mass media. Most American media outlets declined comment. Michael Clemente of Fox News called the comments "curious", while not directly refuting them.
Secretary Clinton's remarks contrast dramatically to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
's complaints of bias early in the previous decade.
as part of the 2010 United States diplomatic cables leak
, claim that the Qatar government manipulates Al Jazeera coverage to suit political interests.
In the United States, a poll taken in 2006 concluded Americans in general have an unfavourable view of Al Jazeera.
A widely reported criticism is the unfounded allegation that Al Jazeera showed videos of masked terrorists beheading western hostage
s in Iraq. When this was reported in other media, Al Jazeera pressed for retractions to be made. This allegation was again repeated on Fox News Channel
in the USA on the launch day of Al Jazeera's English service, 15 November 2006. Later The Guardian
apologized for incorrect information that Al Jazeera 'had shown videos of masked terrorists beheading western hostages'.
, who served as a veteran correspondent for ABC's Nightline
, resigned from his position as Washington anchor for Al Jazeera English in 2008. Dave Marash cited "reflexive adversarial editorial stance" against Americans and "anti-American bias".
i Information Minister, Nabeel Yacoob Al Hamer, banned Al Jazeera correspondents from reporting from inside the country on 10 May 2002, saying that the station was biased towards Israel and against Bahrain. After improvements in relations between Bahrain and Qatar in 2004, Al Jazeera correspondents returned to Bahrain.
", which is the much wider used name.
In addition, Al Jazeera has filed a lawsuit against the Egyptian Al-Ahram Newspaper for an article posted on 9 June 2010 named "Jazeerat AlTaharoush" ("Al Jazeera an Island of Harassment"), which Al Jazeera finds to be "wholly deceptive and journalistically unprofessional" and claims that the article's aim is to "damage the reputation of the Al Jazeera Network".
, was expelled from the country, while another one, Diyar Al-Omari, was stripped of his journalistic permits by the US. Reacting to this, Al Jazeera announced on 2 April 2003, that it would "temporarily freeze all coverage" of Iraq in protest of what Al Jazeera described as unreasonable interference from Iraqi officials.
In May 2003, the Central Intelligence Agency
, through the Iraqi National Congress
, released documents purportedly showing that Al Jazeera had been infiltrated by Iraqi spies
, and was regarded by Iraqi officials as part of their propaganda effort. As reported by the Sunday Times
, the alleged spies were described by an Al Jazeera executive as having minor roles with no input on editorial decisions.
On 23 September 2003, Iraq
suspended Al Jazeera (and Al-Arabiya) from reporting on official government activities for two weeks for what the Council stated as supporting recent attacks on council members and Coalition occupational forces. The move came after allegations by Iraqis who stated that the channel had incited anti-occupation violence (by airing statements from Iraqi insurgency
leaders), increasing ethnic and sectarian tensions, and being supportive of the insurgency.
During 2004, Al Jazeera broadcast several video tapes of various victims of kidnappings in Iraq, which had been sent to the network. The videos had been filmed by the kidnappers holding the hostages. The hostages were shown, often blindfolded, pleading for their release. They often appeared to be forced to read out prepared statements of their kidnappers. Al Jazeera has assisted authorities from the home countries of the victims in an attempt to secure the release of kidnapping victims. This included broadcasting pleas from family members and government officials. Contrary to some allegations, including the oft-reported comments of Donald Rumsfeld
on 4 June 2005, Al Jazeera has never shown beheadings
. (Beheadings have appeared on numerous non-Al Jazeera websites and have sometimes been misattributed to Al Jazeera.)
On 7 August 2004, the Iraqi Allawi
government shut down the Iraq office of Al Jazeera, claiming that it was responsible for presenting a negative image of Iraq, and charging the network with fueling anti-Coalition hostilities. Al Jazeera spokesman Jihad Ballout said: "It's regrettable and we believe it's not justifiable. This latest decision runs contrary to all the promises made by Iraqi authorities concerning freedom of expression and freedom of the press," and Al Jazeera vowed to continue its reporting from inside Iraq. News photographs showed United States and Iraqi military personnel working together to close the office. Initially closed by a one-month ban, the shutdown was extended indefinitely in September 2004, and the offices were sealed, drawing condemnation from international journalists.
In April 2003, the Qatar channel broadcast a long commemorative program showing ex-General of the Iraqi Republican Guards, Sayf ad-Din Rawi, who claimed that a neutron bomb
had been dropped on the international airport of Baghdad during the invasion of Iraq.
, a Lebanese militant who had been imprisoned in Israel for killing several people in a Palestine Liberation Front
raid from Lebanon into Israel. In the program, the head of Al Jazeera's Beirut office, Ghassan bin Jiddo, praised Kuntar as a "pan-Arab hero" and organized a birthday party for him. In response, Israel's Government Press Office (GPO) threatened to boycott the satellite channel unless it apologized. A few days later an official letter was issued by Al Jazeera's director general, Wadah Khanfar, in which he admitted that the program violated the station's Code of Ethics and that he had ordered the channel's programming director to take steps to ensure that such an incident does not recur.
The television network was also criticized for allegedly biased coverage of events in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
, including the Bat Mitzvah massacre
in 2002, where the network failed to note that the massacre victims were attending a bat mitzvah celebration for a 12 year old girl, and neglected to mention that the gunman crashed the event at a crowded banquet hall. When the Palestinian militant Raed Karmi was assassinated by the Israeli army, Al Jazeera was criticized for failing to mention Israeli accusations about how many people he had killed, which would have provided a context for the story.
On 13 March 2008, Israel imposed sanctions on Al Jazeera, accusing it of slanted coverage favoring Hamas
. Deputy Foreign Minister Majalli Wahabi
said that Israel would deny entry visas to Al Jazeera employees, and that Israeli officials would not be available for interviews with the network. According to Wahabi, "We have seen that Al Jazeera has become a part of Hamas... taking sides and cooperating with people who are enemies of the State of Israel. The moment a station like Al Jazeera gives unreliable reports, represents only one side, and doesn't present the positions of the other side, why should we cooperate"? Wahabi said that the Israeli Foreign Ministry would send letters of complaint to the government of Qatar and Al Jazeera.
In February 2009, Israel again imposed sanctions on Al Jazeera after Qatar closed the Israeli trade office in Doha
in protest to the Gaza War. Initially, Israel contemplated declaring Al Jazeera a hostile entity and shutting down its Israel offices, but after a legal review, the Israeli government decided instead to impose limited measures to restrict Al Jazeera's activities in the country. All Al Jazeera employees would not have their visas renewed, and the Israeli government would issue no new visas. Al Jazeera staff would also not be allowed to attend government briefings and reduced access to government and military offices or interview Knesset
members. The station would only be allowed access to three official spokespersons: The Prime Minister's Office
, the Foreign Ministry, and the IDF Spokesperson's Unit
.
In August 2011, Samer Allawi, Al Jazeera's Afghanistan bureau chief, was arrested by Israeli authorities on charges of being a member of Hamas
. Walied Al-Omary, Al Jazeera's bureau chief in Israel and the Palestinian territories, said the military court accused Allawi of making contact with members of Hamas's armed wing. A co-leader of The Committee to Protect Journalists said "Israel must clarify why it continues to hold Samer Allawi."
, where Al Jazeera is based. The most frequently cited story is the revoking of citizenship from the Al Ghafran clan of the Al Murrah
tribe in response to a failed coup that members of the Al Ghafran clan were implicated in.
united to form the Republic of Yemen in May 1990. Another criticism of the documentary was that Al Jazeera did not allow Ali Mahdi Muhammad
, former interim president of Somalia
, to exercise his right of reply
for being accused of authorising Italy
based companies to build dumping grounds in Somalia.
was arrested in Spain on 5 September 2003, on a charge of having provided support for members of al-Qaeda
. Judge Baltasar Garzón
, who had issued the arrest warrant, ordered Allouni held without bail. Al Jazeera wrote to then Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar
and protested: "On several occasions Western journalists met secretly with secret organizations and they were not subjected to any legal action because they were doing their job, so why is Allouni being excluded?" Allouni was released on bail several weeks later over health concerns, but prohibited from leaving the country.
On 19 September, a Spanish court issued an arrest warrant for Allouni before the expected verdict. Allouni had asked the court for permission to visit his family in Syria
to attend the funeral of his mother but authorities denied his request and instead ordered him back to jail.
Although he pleaded not guilty of all the charges against him, Allouni was sentenced on 26 September 2005 to seven years in prison for being a financial courier for al-Qaeda. Allouni insisted he merely interviewed bin Laden
after the September 11 attack on the United States. Al Jazeera has continuously supported Allouni and maintain that he is innocent.
Many international and private organizations (Reporters Without Borders
among them) condemned the arrest and called on the Spanish court to free Taysir Allouni. Websites such as Alony Solidarity were created to support Allouni.
. Al Jazeera stated that the coalition leaders were taking exception because its reporting made it more difficult for both countries to manage the way the war was being reported.
The station first gained widespread attention in the West following the September 11, 2001 attacks
, when it broadcast videos in which Osama bin Laden
and Sulaiman Abu Ghaith
defended and justified the attacks. This led to significant controversy and accusations by the United States government that Al Jazeera was engaging in propaganda
on behalf of terrorists. Al Jazeera countered that it was merely making information available without comment, and several western television channels later followed suit in broadcasting portions of the tapes. Military analyst and defense consultant James F. Dunnigan assigns Al Jazeera a primary role in the rise of religious hatred and terrorism in the modern Muslim world.
At an 3 October 2001 press conference, Colin Powell
tried to persuade the emir of Qatar to shut down Al Jazeera.
On 13 November, 2001, during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan
, a U.S. missile strike destroyed Al Jazeera's office in Kabul
. There were no casualties.
On 12 October 2008, Al Jazeera broadcast interviews with people attending a Sarah Palin
2008 United States presidential election
rally in St. Clairsville, Ohio
, with interviewees making comments about Barack Obama
such as "he regards white people as trash". The report received over 2 million views on YouTube
and elicited comment by Colin Powell: "Those kind of images going out on Al Jazeera are killing us." Following this the Washington Post ran an op-ed
, claiming the news channel was deliberately encouraging "anti-American sentiment overseas", which was criticized by Al Jazeera as "a gratuitous and uninformed shot at Al Jazeera's motives", as the report was just one of "hundreds of hours of diverse coverage".
Al Jazeera won praise for its coverage of the 2011 Arab protests from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who testified at a Senate hearing that "Al Jazeera has been the leader in that they are literally changing people’s minds and attitudes. And like it or hate it, it is really effective." She also stated "in fact viewership of Al Jazeera is going up in the United States because it’s real news. You may not agree with it, but you feel like you’re getting real news around the clock instead of a million commercials..."
ese national, was detained while in transit to Afghanistan in December 2001, and up until May 2008 was held, without charge, as an enemy combatant
in Camp Delta
at Guantánamo Bay. The reasons for his detention remain unknown, although the U.S.' official statement on all detainees is that they are security threats. Reporters Without Borders
have repeatedly expressed concern over Al Hajj's detention, mentioned Al Hajj in their Annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index, and launched a petition for his release. On 23 November 2005, Sami Al Hajj's lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith reported that, during (125 of 130) interviews, U.S. officials had questioned al-Hajj as to whether Al Jazeera was a front for al-Qaeda
. Al-Hajj has since expressed plans to launch legal action against former U.S. President George W. Bush
for his treatment while in Guantanamo. According to Smith, these accusations include having been beaten and sexually assaulted during his incarceration.
opening game, Al Jazeera Sports' transmission in the Arab world went down without explanation in the first half, while the second half transmission was patchy. Al Jazeera and FIFA said they were working to figure out the cause of the disruption to Al Jazeera's official broadcasting rights. The British newspaper The Guardian reported that evidence points toward jamming by the Jordanian government.
director Jehane Noujaim
. In July 2003, PBS broadcast a documentary, called Exclusive to al-Jazeera on its program "Wide Angle
." In 2008, Al Jazeera filmed Egypt: A nation in waiting', which documented trends in Egypt's political history and foreshadowed the Egyptian Revolution of 2011.
Another documentary, Al-Jazeera, An Arab Voice for Freedom or Demagoguery? The UNC Tour was filmed two months after the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack.
s besides its original flagship news channel. As of early 2007, the Al Jazeera network's TV channels include:
8-8424-9282-5
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
through the Qatar Media Corporation
Qatar Media Corporation
Qatar Media Corporation is a Middle Eastern multimedia corporation based in and owned by the state of Qatar and is the parent company of Al Jazeera and most of the domestic media of Qatar. The chairman is Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani.-External links:**...
and headquartered in Doha
Doha
Doha is the capital city of the state of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf, it had a population of 998,651 in 2008, and is also one of the municipalities of Qatar...
, Qatar
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
. Initially launched as an Arabic news and current affairs
Current affairs (news format)
Current Affairs is a genre of broadcast journalism where the emphasis is on detailed analysis and discussion of news stories that have recently occurred or are ongoing at the time of broadcast....
satellite TV channel, Al Jazeera has since expanded into a network with several outlets, including the Internet and specialty
Specialty channel
A specialty channel can be a commercial broadcasting or non-commercial television channel which consists of television programming focused on a single genre, subject or targeted television market at a specific demographic....
TV channels
Television channel
A television channel is a physical or virtual channel over which a television station or television network is distributed. For example, in North America, "channel 2" refers to the broadcast or cable band of 54 to 60 MHz, with carrier frequencies of 55.25 MHz for NTSC analog video and...
in multiple languages. Al Jazeera is accessible in several world regions.
The original Al Jazeera channel's willingness to broadcast dissenting views, for example on call-in
Phone in
In broadcasting, a phone-in or call-in is a programme format in which viewers or listeners are invited to air their live comments by telephone, usually in respect of a specific topic selected for discussion on the day of the broadcast. On radio , it is common for an entire programme to be dedicated...
shows, created controversies in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf
Arab states of the Persian Gulf
"Arab states of the Persian Gulf" or "Arab Persian Gulf states" or "Persian Gulf Arab states" or "Arabic Persian Gulf states" or "Arab States of The Gulf", are terms that refer to the six Arab states of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, bordering the Persian Gulf....
. The station gained worldwide attention following the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
, when it was the only channel to cover the war in Afghanistan
War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...
live from its office there. It has also recently been acclaimed for its in-depth coverage of the Arab Spring
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring , otherwise known as the Arab Awakening, is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, 18 December 2010...
protests and revolutions.
Etymology
In ArabicArabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, literally means "the island". However, it refers here to the "(Arabian) peninsula" which is شبه الجزيرة العربية , Arabian Peninsula
Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula is a land mass situated north-east of Africa. Also known as Arabia or the Arabian subcontinent, it is the world's largest peninsula and covers 3,237,500 km2...
, abbreviated الجزيرة العربية , literally means the Arabian island, شبه literally means "similarity/likeness".
Launch
Al Jazeera Satellite Channel was launched on 1 November 1996 following the closure of the BBC's Arabic languageArabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
television station, a joint venture with Orbit Communications Corporation, owned by Saudi King Fahd's cousin, Prince Khaled. It had fallen apart after a year and a half when the Saudi government attempted to kill a documentary on executions under sharia law.
The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh
Sheikh
Not to be confused with sikhSheikh — also spelled Sheik or Shaikh, or transliterated as Shaykh — is an honorific in the Arabic language that literally means "elder" and carries the meaning "leader and/or governor"...
Hamad bin Khalifa
Hamad bin Khalifa
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani is the ruling Emir of the State of Qatar since 1995.Sheikh Hamad was the appointed Heir Apparent of Qatar between 1977 and 1995 and at the same time Minister of Defense. In the early 1980s he led the Supreme Planning Council, which sets the Qatar's basic economic...
, provided a loan of QAR 500 million ($137 million) to sustain Al Jazeera through its first five years, as Hugh Miles detailed in his book Al Jazeera The Inside Story of the Arab News Channel That Is Challenging the West. Shares were held by private investors as well as the Qatar
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
government.
Prior to Al Jazeera, even before he deposed his father the previous year, the Emir had been contemplating a satellite channel. A free press complemented his vision of the emirate as a center of commercial development and progress.
Sheikh
Sheikh
Not to be confused with sikhSheikh — also spelled Sheik or Shaikh, or transliterated as Shaykh — is an honorific in the Arabic language that literally means "elder" and carries the meaning "leader and/or governor"...
Hamad bin Thamir Al Thani, previously Qatar's Deputy Minister of Information, was chairman of the enterprise, although Al Jazeera maintained editorial independence
Editorial independence
Editorial independence is the freedom of editors to make decisions without interference from the owners of a publication. Editorial independence is tested, for instance, if a newspaper runs articles that may be unpopular with its advertising clientele....
. It was hoped the channel would break even in five years through sales of advertising, news feeds and programs, as well as equipment rental. Much of the staff came from the 250 journalists displaced by the closure of BBC Arabic
BBC Arabic
BBC Arabic may refer to the Arabic-language radio station run by the BBC World Service, as well as the BBC’s Arabic-language satellite TV channel, and the website that serves as an Arabic language news portal and provides online access to both the TV and radio broadcasts.The radio service is...
.
Al Jazeera's first day on the air was 1 November 1996. It offered 6-hours of programming per day; this would increase to 12-hours
12-hour clock
The 12-hour clock is a time conversion convention in which the 24 hours of the day are divided into two periods called ante meridiem and post meridiem...
by the end of 1997. It was broadcast to the immediate neighborhood as a terrestrial signal, on cable, as well as through satellites (which was also free to users in the Arab world). Ironically Qatar
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
, like many other Arab countries, barred private individuals from having satellite dishes until 2001.
At the time of Al Jazeera's launch, Arabsat was the only satellite broadcasting to the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, and for the first year could only offer Al Jazeera a weak Ku-band transponder that needed a large satellite dish for reception. A more powerful C-band transponder became available after its user, Canal France International, accidentally beamed 30 minutes of pornography into ultraconservative Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
.
Al Jazeera was not the first such broadcaster in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
; a number had appeared since the Arabsat satellite, a Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
-based venture of 21 Arab governments, took orbit in 1985. The unfolding of Operation Desert Storm on CNN International
CNN International
CNN International is an international English language television network that carries news, current affairs, politics, opinions, and business programming worldwide. CNN is one of the world's largest news organizations. It is owned by Time Warner, and is affiliated with CNN, which is mainly...
underscored the power of live television in current events. While other local broadcasters in the region would assiduously avoid material embarrassing to their home governments (Qatar
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
had its own official TV station as well), Al Jazeera was pitched as an impartial news source and platform for discussing issues relating to the Arab world.
In presenting "The opinion and the other opinion" to which the Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
script in the network's logo refers, it did not take long for Al Jazeera to shock local viewers by presenting the Israeli speaking Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
on Arab TV
Arab Radio and Television Network
Arab Radio and Television Network is an Arabic-language television network characterized by its multitude of channels. It is based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The company was founded in October 1993 by Saleh Abdullah Kamel, a Saudi businessman...
for the first time. Lively and far-ranging talk shows, particularly a popular, confrontational one called The Opposite Direction, were a constant source of controversy regarding issues of morality and religion. This prompted a torrent of criticism from the conservative voices among the region's press. It also led to official complaints and censures from neighboring governments. Some jammed Al Jazeera's terrestrial broadcast or booted its correspondents. In 1999, the Algerian government reportedly cut power to several major cities to censor one broadcast. There were also commercial repercussions; Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
reportedly pressured advertisers to avoid the channel, to great effect. Al Jazeera was also becoming a favorite sounding board for militant groups such as Hamas and Chechen separatists.
Al Jazeera was the only international news network to have correspondents in Iraq during the Operation Desert Fox bombing campaign in 1998. In a precursor of a pattern to follow, its exclusive video clips were highly prized by Western
Western culture
Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, refers to cultures of European origin and is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and...
media.
Around the clock
1 January 1999 was Al Jazeera's first day of 24-hour24-hour clock
The 24-hour clock is a convention of time keeping in which the day runs from midnight to midnight and is divided into 24 hours, indicated by the hours passed since midnight, from 0 to 23. This system is the most commonly used time notation in the world today...
broadcasting. Employment had more than tripled in one year to 500 employees, and the agency had bureaus at a dozen sites as far as EU and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. Its annual budget was estimated at about $25 million at the time.
However controversial, Al Jazeera was rapidly becoming one of the most influential news agencies in the region. Eager for news beyond the official versions of events, Arabs became dedicated viewers. A 2000 estimate pegged nightly viewership at 35 million, ranking Al Jazeera first in the Arab world, over the Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
-sponsored Middle East Broadcasting Centre (MBC) and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's Arab News Network
Arab News Network
Arab News Network is a minor Arab news channel broadcast on satellite from London.ANN is owned by Rifaat al-Assad, the former vice president of Syria, and uncle of the current President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad...
(ANN). There were about 70 satellite or terrestrial channels being broadcast to the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, most of them in Arabic. Al Jazeera launched a free Arabic language
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
web site in January 2001. In addition, the TV feed was soon available in United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
for the first time via British Sky Broadcasting
British Sky Broadcasting
British Sky Broadcasting Group plc is a satellite broadcasting, broadband and telephony services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with operations in the United Kingdom and the Ireland....
.
Post-9/11
Al Jazeera came to the attention of many in the West during the hunt for Osama bin LadenOsama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
after the 11 September 2001
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
terrorist attacks on the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The station aired videos it received from Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
and the Taliban, deeming new footage of the world's most wanted fugitives to be newsworthy. Some criticized the network, however, for giving a voice to terrorists. Al Jazeera's Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
bureau chief compared the situation to that of the Unabomber's messages in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. The network said it had been given the tapes merely because it had a large Arab audience.
The rest of the world's television networks were eager to acquire the same footage. CNN International
CNN International
CNN International is an international English language television network that carries news, current affairs, politics, opinions, and business programming worldwide. CNN is one of the world's largest news organizations. It is owned by Time Warner, and is affiliated with CNN, which is mainly...
had exclusive rights for six hours before other networks could broadcast it (a provision that was broken by the others on at least one controversial occasion). Prime Minister Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
soon appeared on an Al Jazeera talk show to state Britain's case for pursuing the Taliban into Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
.
Al Jazeera's prominence was heightened during the war in Afghanistan since it had opened a bureau in Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
before 9/11. This gave it better video than the others scrambling to cover the invasion, clips that sold for as much as $250,000. The Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
office was destroyed, however, by United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
bombs in 2001. Looking to stay ahead of the future conflicts Al Jazeera then opened bureaus in other trouble spots.
The network remained dependent on government support in 2002, having a budget of $40 million and ad revenues of about $8 million. It also took in fees for sharing its news feed with other networks. It was estimated to have up to roughly 45 million viewers around the world. Al Jazeera soon had to contend with a new rival, Al-Arabiya, an offshoot of the MBC, set up in nearby Dubai with generous Saudi backing.
2003 Iraq War
Before and during the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
-led invasion of Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, where Al Jazeera had a presence since 1997, the network's facilities and footage were again highly sought by international networks. The channel and its web site also were seeing unprecedented attention from viewers looking for alternatives to Embedded reporting and military press conferences.
Al Jazeera moved its sports coverage to a new, separate channel in 1 November 2003, allowing for more news and public affairs programming on the other one. An English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
web site had launched earlier in the year. The channel had about 1,300 to 1,400 employees, its newsroom editor told The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. There were 23 bureaus around the world and 70 foreign correspondents, with 450 journalists in all.
On 1 April 2003, a United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
plane fired on Al Jazeera's Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
bureau, killing reporter Tareq Ayyoub. The attack was called a mistake, but may have been deliberate, since Qatar had supplied the US with a precise map of the location of the bureau in order to spare it from attack .
Afshin Rattansi became the channel's first English-language broadcast journalist after he left the BBC Today Programme, after the death of UK Government Scientist, [David Kelly].
Al Jazeera English
Al Jazeera launched an English languageEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
channel, originally called Al Jazeera International, in 2006. Among its staff were journalists hired from ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's Nightline
Nightline
Nightline, or ABC News Nightline is a late-night news program broadcast by ABC in the United States, and has a franchised formula to other networks and stations elsewhere in the world. It airs weeknights, usually for 31 minutes. Created by Roone Arledge, the program featured Ted Koppel as its main...
and other top news outfits. Josh Rushing, a former media handler for CentComm during the Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
war, agreed to provide commentary; Sir David Frost was also on board. In an interesting technical feat, the broadcast of the new operation was handed off between bases in Doha
Doha
Doha is the capital city of the state of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf, it had a population of 998,651 in 2008, and is also one of the municipalities of Qatar...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, and Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...
on a daily cycle.
The new English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
venture faced considerable regulatory and commercial hurdles in the North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
market for its perceived sympathy with extremist causes. At the same time, others felt Al Jazeera's competitive advantage lay in programming in the Arabic language
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
. There were hundreds of millions of potential viewers among the non-Arabic language
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
speaking Muslims in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, however, and many others who might be interested in seeing news from the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
read by local voices. If the venture panned out, it would extend the influence of Al Jazeera, and tiny Qatar
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
, beyond even what had been achieved in the station's first decade. In an interesting twist of fate, the BBC World Service
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...
was preparing to launch its own Arabic language
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
station in 2007.
Organization
The original Al Jazeera channel was started in 1 November 1996 by an emiri decreeDecree
A decree is a rule of law issued by a head of state , according to certain procedures . It has the force of law...
with a loan of 500 million Qatari riyal
Qatari riyal
The riyal is the currency of the State of Qatar. It is divided into 100 dirham and is abbreviated as either QR or ر.ق .- History :...
s (US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
137 million) from the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh
Sheikh
Not to be confused with sikhSheikh — also spelled Sheik or Shaikh, or transliterated as Shaykh — is an honorific in the Arabic language that literally means "elder" and carries the meaning "leader and/or governor"...
Hamad bin Khalifa
Hamad bin Khalifa
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani is the ruling Emir of the State of Qatar since 1995.Sheikh Hamad was the appointed Heir Apparent of Qatar between 1977 and 1995 and at the same time Minister of Defense. In the early 1980s he led the Supreme Planning Council, which sets the Qatar's basic economic...
. By its funding through loans or grants rather than direct government subsidies, the channel claims to maintain independent editorial policy. The channel began broadcasting in late 1996, with many staff joining from the BBC World Service
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...
's Saudi
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
-co-owned Arabic language
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
TV station, which had shut down in 1 April 1996 after two years of operation because of censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
demands by the Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
n government.
Following the initial grant from the Emir of Qatar, Al Jazeera had aimed to become self-sufficient through advertising by 2001, but when this failed to occur, the Emir agreed to several consecutive loans on a year-by-year basis (US$30 million in 2004, according to Arnaud de Borchgrave
Arnaud de Borchgrave
Arnaud de Borchgrave is an American journalist who specializes in international politics.Born in Belgium to Audrey Dorothy Louise Townshend, daughter of Major General Sir Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend, and Belgian count Baudouin de Borchgrave d’Altena , head of Belgium's military intelligence...
). Other major sources of income include advertising, cable subscription fees, broadcasting deals with other companies, and sale of footage. In 2000, advertising accounted for 40% of the station's revenue.
The Al Jazeera logo
Logo
A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...
is a decorative representation of the network's name written using Arabic calligraphy
Islamic calligraphy
Islamic calligraphy, colloquially known as Perso-Arabic calligraphy, is the artistic practice of handwriting, or calligraphy, and by extension, of bookmaking, in the lands sharing a common Islamic cultural heritage. This art form is based on the Arabic script, which for a long time was used by all...
. It was selected by the station's founder, Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa, as the winning entry in a design competition.
Staff
Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani
Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer bin Mohammed bin Thani Al-Thani is the owner of Al Jazeera, which is based in Qatar. He also served as Chairman of the Board of Directors and President of the Board of Administration.He is the chairman of Qatar Media Corporation....
, a distant cousin of Qatar
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
i Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani
Hamad bin Khalifa
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani is the ruling Emir of the State of Qatar since 1995.Sheikh Hamad was the appointed Heir Apparent of Qatar between 1977 and 1995 and at the same time Minister of Defense. In the early 1980s he led the Supreme Planning Council, which sets the Qatar's basic economic...
.
Al Jazeera restructured its operations to form a Network that contains all their different channels. Wadah Khanfar
Wadah Khanfar
Wadah Khanfar was the Director General of the Al Jazeera Network. He has been ranked by Fast Company as the first in the 100 Most Creative People in Business and as one of the most ‘Powerful People in the World’ by Forbes Magazine...
, then the managing director of the Arabic Channel, was appointed as the Director General of the Al Jazeera Network. He also acted as the Managing Director of the Arabic channel. Khanfar resigned on the 20th Sep 2011 proclaiming that he had achieved his original goals, and that 8 years was enough time for any leader of an organization, in an interview aired on Aljazeera English.
The Editor-in-Chief of the Arabic website is Mustafa Soug who replaced Ahmed Sheikh
Ahmed Sheikh
Ahmed Sheikh is a Palestinian journalist and the current editor-in-chief of the Qatar-based television channel Al Jazeera.Ahmed Sheikh was born in Nablus on the West Bank. He left his homeland in 1968 to study in Jordan.-External links:...
. It has more than 100 editorial staff. The managing director of Al Jazeera English is Al Anstey. The Editor-in-Chief of the English-language site is Mohamed Nanabhay who has run the site since 2009. Previous editors have included Beat Witschi and Russell Merryman.
Prominent on-air personalities include Faisal al-Qassem
Faisal al-Qassem
Dr. Faisal al-Qassem is a Syrian television personality who hosts The Opposite Direction , a talk show on Al Jazeera.Al-Qassem studied drama at Hull University before moving in to television....
, host of the talk show The Opposite Direction, Ahmed Mansour, host of the show Unlimited (bi-la hudud) and Sami Haddad.
Reach
Many governments in the Middle East deploy state-run media or government censorship to impact local media coverage and public opinion, leading to international objections regarding press freedom and biased media coverage. Many people see Al Jazeera as a more trustworthy source of information than government and foreign channels. Some scholars and commentators use the notion of contextual objectivityContextual objectivity
Contextual objectivity is a principle with roots in quantum mechanics that was adapted and applied to explain and describe the operations of news media organizations during times of war...
, which highlights the tension between objectivity and audience appeal, to describe the station's controversial yet popular news approach.
Increasingly, Al Jazeera's exclusive interviews and other footage are being rebroadcast in American, British, and other western media outlets such as CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
and the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
. In January 2003, the BBC announced that it had signed an agreement with Al Jazeera for sharing facilities and information, including news footage.
Al Jazeera's availability (via satellite) throughout the Middle East changed the television landscape of the region. Prior to the arrival of Al Jazeera, many Middle Eastern citizens were unable to watch TV channels other than state-controlled national TV stations. Al Jazeera introduced a level of freedom of speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
on TV that was previously unheard of in many of these countries. Al Jazeera presented controversial views regarding the governments of many Gulf Arab states, including Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
, Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
, Bahrain
Bahrain
' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...
and Qatar; it also presented controversial views about Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
's relationship with Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
, and the Egyptian judiciary. Critics accused Al Jazeera of sensationalism in order to increase its audience share. Al Jazeera's broadcasts have sometimes resulted in drastic action: for example, when, on 27 January 1999, critics of the Algerian government appeared on the channel's live program El-Itidjah el-Mouakass ("The Opposite Direction"), the Algerian government cut the electricity supply to large parts of the capital Algiers (and allegedly also to large parts of the country), to prevent the program from being seen.Qatar's Al-Jazeera TV: The Power of Free Speech
At that time, Al Jazeera was not yet generally known in the Western world
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
, but where it was known, opinion was often favourable and Al Jazeera claimed to be the only politically
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
independent television station in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. However, it was not until late 2001 that Al Jazeera achieved worldwide recognition, when it broadcast video statements by al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
leaders.
Some observers have argued that Al Jazeera has formidable authority as an opinion-maker. Noah Bonsey and Jeb Koogler, for example, writing in the Columbia Journalism Review
Columbia Journalism Review
The Columbia Journalism Review is an American magazine for professional journalists published bimonthly by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961....
, argue that the way in which the station covers any future Israeli-Palestinian peace deal could well determine whether or not that deal is actually accepted by the Palestinian public.
The channel’s tremendous popularity has also, for better or worse, made it a shaper of public opinion. Its coverage often determines what becomes a story and what does not, as well as how Arab viewers think about issues. Whether in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, or Syria, the stories highlighted and the criticisms aired by guests on Al Jazeera’s news programs have often significantly affected the course of events in the region.
In Palestine, the station’s influence is particularly strong. Recent polling indicates that in the West Bank and Gaza, Al Jazeera is the primary news source for an astounding 53.4 percent of Palestinian viewers. The second and third most watched channels, Palestine TV and Al Arabiya, poll a distant 12.8 percent and 10 percent, respectively. The result of Al Jazeera’s market dominance is that it has itself become a mover and shaker in Palestinian politics, helping to craft public perceptions and influence the debate. This has obvious implications for the peace process: how Al Jazeera covers the deliberations and the outcome of any negotiated agreement with Israel will fundamentally shape how it is viewed—and, more importantly, whether it is accepted—by the Palestinian public.
Al Jazeera's broad availability in the Arab world "operat[ing] with less constraint than almost any other Arab outlet, and remain[ing] the most popular channel in the region", has been perceived as playing a part in the 2010–2011 Middle East and North Africa protests
2010–2011 Middle East and North Africa protests
The Arab Spring , otherwise known as the Arab Awakening, is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, 18 December 2010...
, including the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions
2011 Egyptian revolution
The 2011 Egyptian revolution took place following a popular uprising that began on Tuesday, 25 January 2011 and is still continuing as of November 2011. The uprising was mainly a campaign of non-violent civil resistance, which featured a series of demonstrations, marches, acts of civil...
. The New York Times stated in January 2011: "The protests rocking the Arab world this week have one thread uniting them: Al Jazeera, [...] whose aggressive coverage has helped propel insurgent emotions from one capital to the next". The newspaper quoted Marc Lynch, a professor of Middle East Studies at George Washington University
George Washington University
The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...
: “They did not cause these events, but it’s almost impossible to imagine all this happening without Al Jazeera”.
Expansion outside the Middle East
In 2003, Al Jazeera hired its first English-language journalists, among whom was Afshin Rattansi, from the BBC's Today ProgrammeToday programme
Today is BBC Radio 4's long-running early morning news and current affairs programme, now broadcast from 6.00 am to 9.00 am Monday to Friday, and 7.00 am to 9.00 am on Saturdays. It is also the most popular programme on Radio 4 and one of the BBC's most popular programmes across its radio networks...
.
In March 2003, it launched an English-language website (see below).
On 4 July 2005 Al Jazeera officially announced plans to launch a new English-language satellite service to be called Al Jazeera International
Al Jazeera International
Al Jazeera English is an international 24-hour English-language news and current affairs TV channel headquartered in Doha, Qatar. It is the sister channel of the Arabic-language Al Jazeera....
.
The new channel started at 12h GMT on 15 November 2006 under the name Al Jazeera English and has broadcast centers in Doha
Doha
Doha is the capital city of the state of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf, it had a population of 998,651 in 2008, and is also one of the municipalities of Qatar...
(next to the original Al Jazeera headquarters and broadcast center), London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...
and Washington D.C. The channel is a 24-hour, 7-days-a-week news channel, with 12 hours broadcast from Doha, and four hours each from London, Kuala Lumpur, and Washington D.C.
With Al Jazeera's growing global outreach and influence, some scholars including Adel Iskandar
Adel Iskandar
Adel Iskandar is a British-born Middle East media scholar, postcolonial theorist, analyst, and academic. He is the author and co-author of several works on Arab media, most prominently an analysis of the Arab satellite station Al Jazeera...
have described the station as a transformation of the very definition of "alternative media
Alternative media
Alternative media are media which provide alternative information to the mainstream media in a given context, whether the mainstream media are commercial, publicly supported, or government-owned...
."
As of 2007, the Arabic Al Jazeera channel rivals the BBC in worldwide audiences with an estimated 40 to 50 million viewers. Al Jazeera English has an estimated reach of around 100 million households.
On 26 November 2009, Al Jazeera English received approval from the CRTC, which enables Al Jazeera English to broadcast via satellite in Canada.
Al Jazeera Balkans
On 22 September 2010, Al Jazeera purchased a broadcasting station in SarajevoSarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
and began its Balkan News Channel on the 11th November 2011.The managing director of Aljazeera Balkan is Tarik Dodic and the channel is available through Eutelsat W3C 16 Degrees East.
On 11 February 2011, the Turkish
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
government approved the sale of the TV channel "Cine5
Cine5
Cine5 is the first subscription based television channel in Turkey. It was aired encrypted and primarily broadcast feature movies when it was founded on September 20, 1993. Subscribers were required to buy a decoder to watch the channel. The number of subscribers reached over half a million...
" to Al-Jazeera. Cine5 television station has been administered by a government-run fund since its owner's business ran into economic trouble. Al-Jazeera paid USD$40.5 million for Cine5 TV channel in an auction. Al Jazeera said it planned to launch a news channel in Turkey.
Availability
The original Al Jazeera channel is available worldwide through various satellite and cable systems.In the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Al Jazeera English is available through free to air DVB-S
DVB-S
DVB-S is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Satellite; it is the original Digital Video Broadcasting forward error coding and demodulation standard for satellite television and dates from 1994, in its first release, while development lasted from 1993 to 1997...
on the Galaxy 19
Galaxy 19
Galaxy 19 is a communications satellite owned by Intelsat located at 97° West longitude, serving the North American market. Galaxy 19 replaced Galaxy 25 which is nearing the end of its design life and has been moved to 93.1°W longitude. It was built by Space Systems/Loral, as part of its FS-1300...
(and Galaxy 23
Galaxy 23
Galaxy 23 is the name given to the C-band service of the Galaxy 23/EchoStar 9 communications satellite jointly owned by Intelsat and EchoStar located at 121° W longitude, serving the North American market. It was built by Space Systems/Loral, as part of its FS-1300 line. Galaxy 23 was...
C-band) satellites. However, Al Jazeera English is unavailable to cable viewers in the US, with the exception of those in Toledo, Ohio
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
; Burlington, Vermont
Burlington, Vermont
Burlington is the largest city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the shire town of Chittenden County. Burlington lies south of the U.S.-Canadian border and some south of Montreal....
; Washington State and Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
. Many analysts consider this to be effectively a "black out". An Al Jazeera spokesperson confirmed a scheduled meeting with the large cable company Comcast, but as yet there has been no indication of the news network being made available to Comcast subscribers.
In contrast, in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Al Jazeera English is available on the Sky and Freesat
Freesat
Freesat is a free-to-air digital satellite television joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc, serving the United Kingdom. The service was formed as a memorandum in 2007 and has been marketed since 6 May 2008...
satellite platforms, as well as the standard terrestrial service (branded Freeview), thus making it available to the vast majority of UK households.
Al Jazeera can also be freely viewed with a DVB-S receiver in Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
as it is broadcast on the Astra 1M
SES Astra
Astra is the name for the geostationary communication satellites, both individually and as a group, which are owned and operated by SES S.A., a global satellite operator based in Betzdorf, in eastern Luxembourg. The name is sometimes also used to describe the channels broadcasting from these...
, Hot Bird 6, Eutelsat W2A, Badr 4, Turksat 2A, Thor 6
Thor 6
Thor 6 is a satellite which was launched on the 29th of October, 2009. It will provide DTH and Telecommunication services for the Nordic, Baltic and Middle East regions...
, Nilesat 102
Nilesat 102
Nilesat 102 is an Egyptian owned geosynchronous communications satellite that was launched by an Ariane 44LP rocket from Kourou, French Guiana on August 17, 2000 at 23:16 UTC by the European Space Agency. It was manufactured by the European company Matra Marconi Space , and started official...
, Hispasat 1C
Hispasat 1C
Hispasat 1C is a Spanish communications satellite which is operated by Hispasat. It was constructed by Alcatel Space and is based on the Spacebus-3000B2 satellite bus. Launch occurred on 3 February 2000, at 23:30...
and Eurobird 1
Eurobird 1
Eurobird 1 is a Eutelsat operated Eurobird satellite, used primarily for digital television. It is located at 28.5° east in the Clarke Belt, just within the range of most satellite dishes pointed at SES Astra's Astra 2A, 2B and 2D at 28.2° east...
satellites. The Optus C1 satellite in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
carries the channel for free.
For availability info of the Al Jazeera network's other TV channels, see their respective articles. Segments of Al Jazeera English are uploaded to YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
.
It is also possible to watch Al Jazeera English over the internet from their official website. The low-resolution version is available free of charge, while the high-resolution version is available under subscription fees through partner sites. In some countries that do not regularly offer Al Jazeera English through satellite or cable, the availability of internet video streaming receiver boxes, like those sold by Roku
Roku
Roku , is an American, privately held, consumer electronics company that sells home digital media products. The Company is based in Saratoga, California.- Company profile and products :...
in the United States, offer the low-resolution stream without the use of a computer.
Al Jazeera's English division has also partnered with Livestation
LiveStation
Livestation is a platform for distributing live television and radio broadcasts over a data network. It has been developed by Skinkers Ltd and is now a new company called Livestation Ltd...
for Internet-based broadcasting. This enables viewers to watch Al Jazeera English and Al Jazeera live worldwide.
Al Jazeera is available in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
on Bell Express Vu Channel 516, as part of the package "International News I." Al Jazeera is available on Rogers Cable
Rogers Cable
Rogers Cable Inc., a subsidiary of Rogers Communications Inc., is Canada's largest cable television service provider with about 2.25 million television customers, and over 930,000 Internet subscribers, in Manitoba, Southern & Eastern Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador.The...
individually. Al Jazeera is also available on Shaw Cable TV Channel 513, as part of the package "Multicultural" Free preview until Mar. 8, 2011
On 7 December 2010, Al Jazeera said its English language service has got a downlink license to broadcast in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. Satellite and cable companies would therefore be allowed to broadcast Al Jazeera in the country. The broadcaster will be launched soon on Dish TV
Dish TV
Dish TV India Limited is an Indian company engaged in the business of providing direct-to-home satellite television service, which includes teleport service, customer support and transponder space leasing. Dishtv is a division of Zee Network Enterprise . It uses MPEG-2 digital compression...
, and is considering a Hindi-language channel.
On the Web
Al Jazeera's web-based service is accessible subscription-free throughout the world. The station launched an English-language edition of its online content in March 2003. This English language website was relaunched on 15 November 2006, along with the launch of Al Jazeera English. The English and Arabic sections are editorially distinct, with their own selection of news and comment. Al Jazeera and Al Jazeera English are streamed live on the official site, as well as on YouTubeYouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
. On 13 April 2009, Al Jazeera launched condensed versions of its English and Arabic sites for mobile device users.
The Arabic version of the site was brought offline for about 10 hours by an FBI raid on its ISP, InfoCom Corporation
InfoCom Corporation
InfoCom Corporation was a Web hosting service company founded by five brothers in 1992. It was initially based in Dallas, Texas, and before its dissolution it was based in Richardson, Texas....
, on 5 September 2001. InfoCom was later convicted of exporting to Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
and Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
, of knowingly being invested in by a Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
member (both of which are illegal in the United States), and of underpaying customs duties.
Web host changes
The English-language site was forced to change internet hosting providers several times, due, in Al Jazeera's opinion, to political pressure. Initially, hosting for the English-language site was provided by the U.S.-based company DataPipeDataPipe
Datapipe is a provider of managed hosting services and data center infrastructure for IT services and cloud computing with data centers in Somerset, NJ, San Jose, CA, the United Kingdom, and China....
, which gave Al Jazeera notice, soon followed by Akamai Technologies
Akamai Technologies
Akamai Technologies, Inc. is an Internet content delivery network headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US.The company was founded in 1998 by then-MIT graduate student Daniel M. Lewin, and MIT Applied Mathematics professor Tom Leighton...
. Al Jazeera later shifted to the French branch of NavLink, and then to (the current host) AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
WorldNet Services.
Internet TV Appliances
On 1 February 2011, Internet Appliance RokuRoku
Roku , is an American, privately held, consumer electronics company that sells home digital media products. The Company is based in Saratoga, California.- Company profile and products :...
, had posted on its Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/roku that the English-Language Al Jazeera Live, would be streaming on its Roku devices through a private channel called Newscaster and also through the BBC channel. It permitted the announcement following an unrest in Egypt so American viewers can watch the latest events going on in the middle east. A Roku user must add the private channel Newscaster by going to Roku. Roku is used to stream Netflix
Netflix
Netflix, Inc., is an American provider of on-demand internet streaming media in the United States, Canada, and Latin America and flat rate DVD-by-mail in the United States. The company was established in 1997 and is headquartered in Los Gatos, California...
and Hulu
Hulu
Hulu is a website and over-the-top subscription service offering ad-supported on-demand streaming video of TV shows, movies, webisodes and other new media, trailers, clips, and behind-the-scenes footage from NBC, Fox, ABC, and Obstacle on October 20th 2011 Nickelodeon and CBS and many other...
content as well as many other private channels.
An Al Jazeera site designed specifically for Google TV
Google TV
Google TV is a Smart TV platform from Google. It was announced on May 20, 2010, at Google’s Google I/O event and was co-developed by Google, Intel, Sony and Logitech...
exists, featured under the "Spotlight" section of the operating system.
Free Android market app offers free 24/7 live streaming of Al Jazeera in English and in Arabic.
Creative Commons
On 13 January 2009, Al Jazeera released some of its broadcast quality footage from Gaza under a Creative Commons license. Contrary to business "All Rights Reserved" standards, the license invites third parties, including rival broadcasters, to reuse and remix the footage, so long as Al Jazeera is credited. The videos are hosted on blip.tvBlip.tv
The website Blip.tv is a platform for web series. The company offers a for the "best in original web series" and also offers a dashboard for producers of original web series to distribute and monetize their productions....
, which allows easy downloading and integration with Miro.
Citizen journalism
Al Jazeera accepts user-submitted photos and videos about news events through a Your Media page, and this content may be featured on the website or in broadcasts.Al Jazeera used the Ushahidi
Ushahidi
Ushahidi, Inc. is a non-profit software company that develops free and open source software for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping....
platform to collect information and reports about the Gaza War, through Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
, SMS
SMS
SMS is a form of text messaging communication on phones and mobile phones. The terms SMS or sms may also refer to:- Computer hardware :...
and the website.
Plans
Future projects in other languages include Al Jazeera UrduAl Jazeera Urdu
Al Jazeera Urdu is a forthcoming channel from Al Jazeera. It is an Urdu language version catering mainly to Pakistan and possibly Urdu-speaking areas in India. It is offered as part of the ARY Digital Network....
, an Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
language channel to cater mainly to Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
is and possibly some India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
ns, as well as a Kiswahili service called Al Jazeera Kiswahili to be based in Nairobi and broadcast in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.
Al Jazeera has been preparing to launch a Turkish language
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
news channel. On 10 February, Al Jazeera acquired Turkey's Cine 5 television channel.
Al Jazeera has also been reported to be planning to launch an international newspaper.
Al Jazeera Arabic began using a chroma key
Chroma key
Chroma key compositing is a technique for compositing two images together. A color range in the top layer is made transparent, revealing another image behind. The chroma keying technique is commonly used in video production and post-production...
studio on 13 September 2009. Similar to Sky News
Sky News
Sky News is a 24-hour British and international satellite television news broadcaster with an emphasis on UK and international news stories.The service places emphasis on rolling news, including the latest breaking news. Sky News also hosts localised versions of the channel in Australia and in New...
, Al Jazeera broadcast from that studio while the channels main newsroom was given a new look. The channel relaunched, with new graphics and music along with a new studio, on 1 November 2009, the 13th birthday of the channel.
Algeria
On 27 January 1999, several Algerian cities lost power simultaneously, reportedly to keep residents from watching a program in which Algerian dissidents implicated the Algerian military in a series of massacres.On 4 July 2004, the Algerian government froze the activities of Al Jazeera's Algerian correspondent. The official reason given was that a reorganization of the work of foreign correspondents was in progress. The international pressure group Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...
says, however, that the measure was really taken in reprisal for a broadcast the previous week of another Al-Itijah al-Mouakiss debate on the political situation in Algeria.
Palestinian Territories
On 15 July 2009, the Palestinian National AuthorityPalestinian National Authority
The Palestinian Authority is the administrative organization established to govern parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip...
closed down Al Jazeera's offices in the West Bank, apparently in response to claims made on the channel by Farouk Kaddoumi
Farouk Kaddoumi
Farouk al-Kaddoumi , also known as Abu al-Lutf, born in 1931. Secretary-general of Fatah's central committee and PLO's political department in Tunisia.-Early life:...
that PA President Mahmoud Abbas
Mahmoud Abbas
Mahmoud Abbas , also known by the kunya Abu Mazen , has been the Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation since 11 November 2004 and became President of the Palestinian National Authority on 15 January 2005 on the Fatah ticket.Elected to serve until 9 January 2009, he unilaterally...
had been involved in the death of Yasser Arafat
Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini , popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar , was a Palestinian leader and a Laureate of the Nobel Prize. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization , President of the Palestinian National Authority...
. In a statement announcing the decision, the Palestinian Information Ministry said the station's coverage was "unbalanced" and accused it of incitement against the PLO and the PA.
On 19 July 2009, President Abbas rescinded the ban and allowed Al Jazeera to resume operations.
United States
On 13 November 2001, during the U.S. invasion of AfghanistanWar in Afghanistan (2001–present)
The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...
, a U.S. missile strike destroyed Al Jazeera's office in Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
. There were no casualties.
According to Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Greenwald is an American lawyer, columnist, blogger, and author. Greenwald worked as a constitutional and civil rights litigator before becoming a contributor to Salon.com, where he focuses on political and legal topics...
, Al Jazeera is "constantly demonized in the American media." When Al Jazeera reported events featuring very graphic footage from inside Iraq, Al Jazeera was deecried as anti-American and as inciting violence because it reported on issues concerning national security.
Examples of censorship in the U.S. came shortly after the start of the invasion. On Monday, 24 March 2003, two Al Jazeera reporters covering the New York Stock Exchange
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...
(NYSE) had their credentials revoked. The New York Stock Exchange
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...
banned Al Jazeera (as well as several other news organizations whose identities were not revealed) from its trading floor indefinitely. NYSE spokesman Ray Pellechia claimed "security reasons" and that the exchange had decided to give access only to networks that focus "on responsible business coverage". He denied the revocation has anything to do with the network's Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
war coverage. However, Robert Zito, the exchange's executive vice president for communications, indicated that Al Jazeera's graphic footage broadcast on Sunday, 22 March 2003, led him to oust Al Jazeera. The move was quickly mirrored by NASDAQ
NASDAQ
The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...
stock market officials. The NYSE ban was rescinded a few months later.
In addition, Akamai Technologies
Akamai Technologies
Akamai Technologies, Inc. is an Internet content delivery network headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US.The company was founded in 1998 by then-MIT graduate student Daniel M. Lewin, and MIT Applied Mathematics professor Tom Leighton...
, a U.S. company whose founder was killed in 9/11, canceled a contract to provide web services for Al Jazeera’s English language website.
Death of Tareq Ayyoub
On 8 April 2003, Al Jazeera's office in BaghdadBaghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
was hit by a missile, killing reporter Tareq Ayyoub
Tareq Ayyoub
Tareq Ayyoub was an Arab television reporter of Palestinian nationality, employed by Al Jazeera, and previously by Fox News. On April 8, 2003, Ayyoub was killed when two missiles, fired from by an American ground-attack aircraft, struck the Baghdad headquarters of the Al Jazeera Satellite Channel...
and wounding another. Al Jazeera reports that it had mailed coordinates for their office to the U.S. State Department six weeks earlier and that these should have clearly identified their location. Dima Tareq Tahboub, the widow of Tareq Ayyoub, continues to denounce her husband's death and has among other things written for The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
and participated in a documentary broadcast on Al Jazeera English.
On 30 January 2005, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
reported that the Qatar
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
i government, under pressure from the Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
administration, was speeding up plans to sell the station. However, as of 2011, the station/network has not been sold and it is unclear whether there are still any plans to do so.
Al Jazeera bombing memo
O'Connor - Keogh official secrets trial
In November 2005, Civil servant David Keogh was charged with offences under section 3, and parliamentary researcher Leo O'Connor under section 5, of the Official Secrets Act 1989 in the United Kingdom. Both men were of Northampton, England....
.
On 22 November 2005, the UK tabloid The Daily Mirror
The Daily Mirror
The Daily Mirror is a British national daily tabloid newspaper which was founded in 1903. Twice in its history, from 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was changed to read simply The Mirror, which is how the paper is often referred to in popular parlance. It had an...
published a story claiming that it had obtained a leaked memo from 10 Downing Street
10 Downing Street
10 Downing Street, colloquially known in the United Kingdom as "Number 10", is the headquarters of Her Majesty's Government and the official residence and office of the First Lord of the Treasury, who is now always the Prime Minister....
saying that former U.S. President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
had considered bombing Al Jazeera's Doha headquarters in April 2004, when United States Marines were conducting a contentious assault on Fallujah
Fallujah
Fallujah is a city in the Iraqi province of Al Anbar, located roughly west of Baghdad on the Euphrates. Fallujah dates from Babylonian times and was host to important Jewish academies for many centuries....
.
In light of this allegation, Al Jazeera has questioned whether it has been targeted deliberately in the past — Al Jazeera's Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
office was bombed in 2001 and another missile hit its office in Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
during the invasion of Iraq, killing correspondent Tareq Ayyoub
Tareq Ayyoub
Tareq Ayyoub was an Arab television reporter of Palestinian nationality, employed by Al Jazeera, and previously by Fox News. On April 8, 2003, Ayyoub was killed when two missiles, fired from by an American ground-attack aircraft, struck the Baghdad headquarters of the Al Jazeera Satellite Channel...
. Both of these attacks occurred subsequent to Al Jazeera's alleged disclosure of the locations of their offices to the United States.
Egypt
During the 2011 Egyptian protests, on 30 January, the Egyptian government ordered the TV channel to close its offices. A day after, on 31 January, Egyptian security forces arrested six Al Jazeera journalists for several hours and seized their camera equipment. There were also reports of disruption in Al Jazeera Mubasher's Broadcast to Egypt.Libya
Ali Hassan al-JaberAli Hassan al-Jaber
Ali Hassan al-Jaber was a Qatari national working as a camera operator for the TV channel Al Jazeera. He was the first foreign journalist killed during the 2011 Libyan civil war.Three other foreign photojournalists were killed in Libya while covering the war...
, a cameraman, was killed by pro-Gaddafi sleeper cells while covering the 2011 Libyan civil war
2011 Libyan civil war
The 2011 Libyan civil war was an armed conflict in the North African state of Libya, fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and those seeking to oust his government. The war was preceded by protests in Benghazi beginning on 15 February 2011, which led to clashes with security...
in Benghazi
Benghazi
Benghazi is the second largest city in Libya, the main city of the Cyrenaica region , and the former provisional capital of the National Transitional Council. The wider metropolitan area is also a district of Libya...
.
Website attacks
Immediately after its launch in 2003, the English site was attacked by one or several hackersHacker (computer security)
In computer security and everyday language, a hacker is someone who breaks into computers and computer networks. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, including profit, protest, or because of the challenge...
, who launched denial-of-service attack
Denial-of-service attack
A denial-of-service attack or distributed denial-of-service attack is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users...
s, and another hacker who redirected visitors to a site featuring an American flag
Flag of the United States
The national flag of the United States of America consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton bearing fifty small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars alternating with rows...
. Both events were widely reported as Al Jazeera's website having been attacked by "hackers". In November 2003, John William Racine II, also known as 'John Buffo', was sentenced to 1,000 hours of community service and a $1,500 U.S. fine for the online disruption. Racine posed as an Al Jazeera employee
Social engineering (security)
Social engineering is commonly understood to mean the art of manipulating people into performing actions or divulging confidential information...
to get a password to the network's site, then redirected visitors to a page he created that showed an American flag shaped like a U.S. map and a patriotic motto, court documents said. In June 2003, Racine pleaded guilty to wire fraud
Wire fraud
Mail and wire fraud is a federal crime in the United States. Together, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341, 1343, and 1346 reach any fraudulent scheme or artifice to intentionally deprive another of property or honest services with a nexus to mail or wire communication....
and unlawful interception of an electronic communication. As of 2011, the perpetrators of the denial-of-service attacks remain unknown.
Recognition by Secretary Clinton
On 4 March 2011, U.S. Secretary of StateSecretary of State
Secretary of State or State Secretary is a commonly used title for a senior or mid-level post in governments around the world. The role varies between countries, and in some cases there are multiple Secretaries of State in the Government....
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Al Jazeera provided more informative news coverage than the opinion-driven coverage of American mass media. Most American media outlets declined comment. Michael Clemente of Fox News called the comments "curious", while not directly refuting them.
Secretary Clinton's remarks contrast dramatically to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...
's complaints of bias early in the previous decade.
Editorial independence
Al Jazeera emphasizes that it is editorially independent, though much of its funding comes from the Qatar government. U.S. State Department internal communications, released by WikiLeaksWikileaks
WikiLeaks is an international self-described not-for-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers. Its website, launched in 2006 under The Sunshine Press organisation, claimed a database of more...
as part of the 2010 United States diplomatic cables leak
United States diplomatic cables leak
The United States diplomatic cables leak, widely known as Cablegate, began in February 2010 when WikiLeaks—a non-profit organization that publishes submissions from anonymous whistleblowers—began releasing classified cables that had been sent to the U.S. State Department by 274 of its consulates,...
, claim that the Qatar government manipulates Al Jazeera coverage to suit political interests.
Criticism and controversy
While Al Jazeera has a large audience in the Middle East, the organization and the original Arabic channel in particular have taken significant criticism and been involved in numerous controversies.In the United States, a poll taken in 2006 concluded Americans in general have an unfavourable view of Al Jazeera.
A widely reported criticism is the unfounded allegation that Al Jazeera showed videos of masked terrorists beheading western hostage
Hostage
A hostage is a person or entity which is held by a captor. The original definition meant that this was handed over by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as security for the carrying out of an agreement, or as a preventive measure against certain acts of war...
s in Iraq. When this was reported in other media, Al Jazeera pressed for retractions to be made. This allegation was again repeated on Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
in the USA on the launch day of Al Jazeera's English service, 15 November 2006. Later The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
apologized for incorrect information that Al Jazeera 'had shown videos of masked terrorists beheading western hostages'.
Anti-American bias
Emmy award winning journalist Dave MarashDave Marash
David Marash, known as Dave Marash is an American television journalist.Marash garnered considerable attention when he joined Al Jazeera English in January 2006 as the network's Washington, D.C. anchor, thus becoming the de facto American face of the new English language station. Two years later,...
, who served as a veteran correspondent for ABC's Nightline
Nightline
Nightline, or ABC News Nightline is a late-night news program broadcast by ABC in the United States, and has a franchised formula to other networks and stations elsewhere in the world. It airs weeknights, usually for 31 minutes. Created by Roone Arledge, the program featured Ted Koppel as its main...
, resigned from his position as Washington anchor for Al Jazeera English in 2008. Dave Marash cited "reflexive adversarial editorial stance" against Americans and "anti-American bias".
Bahrain
The BahrainBahrain
' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...
i Information Minister, Nabeel Yacoob Al Hamer, banned Al Jazeera correspondents from reporting from inside the country on 10 May 2002, saying that the station was biased towards Israel and against Bahrain. After improvements in relations between Bahrain and Qatar in 2004, Al Jazeera correspondents returned to Bahrain.
Iran
The station allegedly used the term "Arabian Gulf" instead of the term "Persian GulfPersian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...
", which is the much wider used name.
Egypt
Al Jazeera has been criticized by Egyptian newspapers and television shows for its allegedly biased coverage of news that are related to Egypt and its government, and they argue that these "continuous attacks against Egypt is to destroy Egypt’s image in the region" as many of them suggest.In addition, Al Jazeera has filed a lawsuit against the Egyptian Al-Ahram Newspaper for an article posted on 9 June 2010 named "Jazeerat AlTaharoush" ("Al Jazeera an Island of Harassment"), which Al Jazeera finds to be "wholly deceptive and journalistically unprofessional" and claims that the article's aim is to "damage the reputation of the Al Jazeera Network".
Iraq
During the Iraq war, Al Jazeera faced reporting and movement restrictions, as did other news-gathering organizations. In addition, one of its reporters, Tayseer AllouniTayseer Allouni
Tayseer Allouni is a journalist from the Al Jazeera news channel. He was born in Deir ez-Zor in Syria in 1955 then in 1983 he moved to Spain where he studied Economics, and has lived there ever since, adopting Spanish citizenship in 1988...
, was expelled from the country, while another one, Diyar Al-Omari, was stripped of his journalistic permits by the US. Reacting to this, Al Jazeera announced on 2 April 2003, that it would "temporarily freeze all coverage" of Iraq in protest of what Al Jazeera described as unreasonable interference from Iraqi officials.
In May 2003, the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
, through the Iraqi National Congress
Iraqi National Congress
The Iraqi National Congress is an umbrella Iraqi opposition group led by Ahmed Chalabi. It was formed with the aid and direction of the United States government following the Gulf War, for the purpose of fomenting the overthrow of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.-History:INC was set up following the...
, released documents purportedly showing that Al Jazeera had been infiltrated by Iraqi spies
SPY
SPY is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* SPY , ticker symbol for Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts* SPY , a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps* SPY , airport code for San Pédro, Côte d'Ivoire...
, and was regarded by Iraqi officials as part of their propaganda effort. As reported by the Sunday Times
The Sunday Times (UK)
The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...
, the alleged spies were described by an Al Jazeera executive as having minor roles with no input on editorial decisions.
On 23 September 2003, Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
suspended Al Jazeera (and Al-Arabiya) from reporting on official government activities for two weeks for what the Council stated as supporting recent attacks on council members and Coalition occupational forces. The move came after allegations by Iraqis who stated that the channel had incited anti-occupation violence (by airing statements from Iraqi insurgency
Iraqi insurgency
The Iraqi Resistance is composed of a diverse mix of militias, foreign fighters, all-Iraqi units or mixtures opposing the United States-led multinational force in Iraq and the post-2003 Iraqi government...
leaders), increasing ethnic and sectarian tensions, and being supportive of the insurgency.
During 2004, Al Jazeera broadcast several video tapes of various victims of kidnappings in Iraq, which had been sent to the network. The videos had been filmed by the kidnappers holding the hostages. The hostages were shown, often blindfolded, pleading for their release. They often appeared to be forced to read out prepared statements of their kidnappers. Al Jazeera has assisted authorities from the home countries of the victims in an attempt to secure the release of kidnapping victims. This included broadcasting pleas from family members and government officials. Contrary to some allegations, including the oft-reported comments of Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...
on 4 June 2005, Al Jazeera has never shown beheadings
Decapitation
Decapitation is the separation of the head from the body. Beheading typically refers to the act of intentional decapitation, e.g., as a means of murder or execution; it may be accomplished, for example, with an axe, sword, knife, wire, or by other more sophisticated means such as a guillotine...
. (Beheadings have appeared on numerous non-Al Jazeera websites and have sometimes been misattributed to Al Jazeera.)
On 7 August 2004, the Iraqi Allawi
Iyad Allawi
Ayad Allawi is an Iraqi politician, and was the interim Prime Minister of Iraq prior to Iraq's 2005 legislative elections. A prominent Iraqi political activist who lived in exile for almost 30 years, the politically secular Shia Muslim became a member of the Iraq Interim Governing Council, which...
government shut down the Iraq office of Al Jazeera, claiming that it was responsible for presenting a negative image of Iraq, and charging the network with fueling anti-Coalition hostilities. Al Jazeera spokesman Jihad Ballout said: "It's regrettable and we believe it's not justifiable. This latest decision runs contrary to all the promises made by Iraqi authorities concerning freedom of expression and freedom of the press," and Al Jazeera vowed to continue its reporting from inside Iraq. News photographs showed United States and Iraqi military personnel working together to close the office. Initially closed by a one-month ban, the shutdown was extended indefinitely in September 2004, and the offices were sealed, drawing condemnation from international journalists.
In April 2003, the Qatar channel broadcast a long commemorative program showing ex-General of the Iraqi Republican Guards, Sayf ad-Din Rawi, who claimed that a neutron bomb
Neutron bomb
A neutron bomb or enhanced radiation weapon or weapon of reinforced radiation is a type of thermonuclear weapon designed specifically to release a large portion of its energy as energetic neutron radiation rather than explosive energy...
had been dropped on the international airport of Baghdad during the invasion of Iraq.
Israel
On 19 July 2008, Al Jazeera TV broadcast a program from Lebanon that covered the "welcome-home" festivities for Samir KuntarSamir Kuntar
Samir Kuntar is a Lebanese Druze convicted murderer and former member of the Palestine Liberation Front...
, a Lebanese militant who had been imprisoned in Israel for killing several people in a Palestine Liberation Front
Palestine Liberation Front
The Palestine Liberation Front is a Palestinian militant group, which is designated as a terrorist organization by Canada, the European Union and the USA. It is presently led by Dr. Wasel Abu Yousef.-Origins:...
raid from Lebanon into Israel. In the program, the head of Al Jazeera's Beirut office, Ghassan bin Jiddo, praised Kuntar as a "pan-Arab hero" and organized a birthday party for him. In response, Israel's Government Press Office (GPO) threatened to boycott the satellite channel unless it apologized. A few days later an official letter was issued by Al Jazeera's director general, Wadah Khanfar, in which he admitted that the program violated the station's Code of Ethics and that he had ordered the channel's programming director to take steps to ensure that such an incident does not recur.
The television network was also criticized for allegedly biased coverage of events in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Jewish and Zionist yishuv and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or...
, including the Bat Mitzvah massacre
Bat Mitzvah massacre
The Bat Mitzvah massacre was a January 18, 2002 terrorist attack in Hadera, Israel, in which a Palestinian gunman killed six people and wounded 33 at a Bat Mitzvah celebration, a traditional Jewish celebration held for a 12-year-old girl.-The attack:...
in 2002, where the network failed to note that the massacre victims were attending a bat mitzvah celebration for a 12 year old girl, and neglected to mention that the gunman crashed the event at a crowded banquet hall. When the Palestinian militant Raed Karmi was assassinated by the Israeli army, Al Jazeera was criticized for failing to mention Israeli accusations about how many people he had killed, which would have provided a context for the story.
On 13 March 2008, Israel imposed sanctions on Al Jazeera, accusing it of slanted coverage favoring Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
. Deputy Foreign Minister Majalli Wahabi
Majalli Wahabi
Majalli Wahabi is an Israeli Druze politician who currently serves as a member of the Knesset for Kadima. He briefly assumed the position of President due to President Moshe Katzav's leave of absence and Acting President Dalia Itzik's trip abroad in February 2007, making him the first non-Jew to...
said that Israel would deny entry visas to Al Jazeera employees, and that Israeli officials would not be available for interviews with the network. According to Wahabi, "We have seen that Al Jazeera has become a part of Hamas... taking sides and cooperating with people who are enemies of the State of Israel. The moment a station like Al Jazeera gives unreliable reports, represents only one side, and doesn't present the positions of the other side, why should we cooperate"? Wahabi said that the Israeli Foreign Ministry would send letters of complaint to the government of Qatar and Al Jazeera.
In February 2009, Israel again imposed sanctions on Al Jazeera after Qatar closed the Israeli trade office in Doha
Doha
Doha is the capital city of the state of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf, it had a population of 998,651 in 2008, and is also one of the municipalities of Qatar...
in protest to the Gaza War. Initially, Israel contemplated declaring Al Jazeera a hostile entity and shutting down its Israel offices, but after a legal review, the Israeli government decided instead to impose limited measures to restrict Al Jazeera's activities in the country. All Al Jazeera employees would not have their visas renewed, and the Israeli government would issue no new visas. Al Jazeera staff would also not be allowed to attend government briefings and reduced access to government and military offices or interview Knesset
Knesset
The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...
members. The station would only be allowed access to three official spokespersons: The Prime Minister's Office
Office of the Prime Minister (Israel)
Office of the Prime Minister is the governmental ministration office with the responsibility of coordinating the actions of the work of all governmental ministry offices, on various matters, and serving and assisting the Israeli Prime Minister in his daily work...
, the Foreign Ministry, and the IDF Spokesperson's Unit
IDF Spokesperson's Unit
The IDF Spokesperson's Unit is the unit in the IDF Operations Directorate, responsible for information policy and media relations. The unit is led by the IDF Spokesperson, a brigadier general and member of the General Staff, and by the Deputy Spokesperson, a colonel. The current Spokesperson is...
.
In August 2011, Samer Allawi, Al Jazeera's Afghanistan bureau chief, was arrested by Israeli authorities on charges of being a member of Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
. Walied Al-Omary, Al Jazeera's bureau chief in Israel and the Palestinian territories, said the military court accused Allawi of making contact with members of Hamas's armed wing. A co-leader of The Committee to Protect Journalists said "Israel must clarify why it continues to hold Samer Allawi."
Kuwait
The Al Jazeera office in Kuwait City was closed by government officials after airing a story on police crackdowns. The story had video of police beating activists and included interviews with members of the Kuwaiti opposition. Four MP's were injured in the crackdown. Kuwait's Minister of Information described Al Jazeera's coverage as "intervention in a Kuwaiti domestic issue".Qatar
Al Jazeera has been criticized for failing to report on many hard-hitting news stories that originate from QatarQatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
, where Al Jazeera is based. The most frequently cited story is the revoking of citizenship from the Al Ghafran clan of the Al Murrah
Al Murrah
The Al Murrah is a tribe descended from the well-known Banu Yam tribe. Al Murrah are a tribe of camel-herding nomads, recently some of them have taken up permanent settlement near to traditional Oasis. They exist in many places all over the Arabian Peninsula, but intensively in southern and eastern...
tribe in response to a failed coup that members of the Al Ghafran clan were implicated in.
Somalia
In January 2009 Al Jazeera aired a documentary on toxic waste dumped in Somalia. A Somali journalist who studied the contents of the two part Al Jazeera documentary, The Toxic Truth, has concluded that Al Jazeera failed to rigorously research the story because one of the letters used to substantiate arms smuggling was issued on 15 April 1992, from the Ministry of Defence of People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, almost two years after South Yemen and North YemenNorth Yemen
North Yemen is a term currently used to designate the Yemen Arab Republic , its predecessor, the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen , and their predecessors that exercised sovereignty over the territory that is now the north-western part of the state of Yemen in southern Arabia.Neither state ever...
united to form the Republic of Yemen in May 1990. Another criticism of the documentary was that Al Jazeera did not allow Ali Mahdi Muhammad
Ali Mahdi Muhammad
Ali Mahdi Muhammad was president of Somalia from January 1991 to November 1991. He rose to power when Mohamed Farrah Aidid forced then president Mohamed Siad Barre out of office. Muhammad, however, was not able in that time to exert control over the country...
, former interim president of Somalia
Somalia
Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...
, to exercise his right of reply
Right of reply
The right of reply is the right to defend oneself against public criticism in the same venue where it was published.In Europe there have been proposals for a legally enforceable right of reply that applies to all media, including newspapers, magazines, and other print media, along with radio,...
for being accused of authorising Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
based companies to build dumping grounds in Somalia.
Spain
Reporter Tayseer AllouniTayseer Allouni
Tayseer Allouni is a journalist from the Al Jazeera news channel. He was born in Deir ez-Zor in Syria in 1955 then in 1983 he moved to Spain where he studied Economics, and has lived there ever since, adopting Spanish citizenship in 1988...
was arrested in Spain on 5 September 2003, on a charge of having provided support for members of al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
. Judge Baltasar Garzón
Baltasar Garzón
Baltasar Garzón Real is a Spanish jurist who served on Spain's central criminal court, the Audiencia Nacional. He was the examining magistrate of the Juzgado Central de Instrucción No...
, who had issued the arrest warrant, ordered Allouni held without bail. Al Jazeera wrote to then Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar
José María Aznar
José María Alfredo Aznar López served as the Prime Minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004. He is on the board of directors of News Corporation.-Early life:...
and protested: "On several occasions Western journalists met secretly with secret organizations and they were not subjected to any legal action because they were doing their job, so why is Allouni being excluded?" Allouni was released on bail several weeks later over health concerns, but prohibited from leaving the country.
On 19 September, a Spanish court issued an arrest warrant for Allouni before the expected verdict. Allouni had asked the court for permission to visit his family in Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
to attend the funeral of his mother but authorities denied his request and instead ordered him back to jail.
Although he pleaded not guilty of all the charges against him, Allouni was sentenced on 26 September 2005 to seven years in prison for being a financial courier for al-Qaeda. Allouni insisted he merely interviewed bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
after the September 11 attack on the United States. Al Jazeera has continuously supported Allouni and maintain that he is innocent.
Many international and private organizations (Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...
among them) condemned the arrest and called on the Spanish court to free Taysir Allouni. Websites such as Alony Solidarity were created to support Allouni.
United Kingdom
UK officials, like their US counterparts, strongly protested against Al Jazeera's coverage of the 2003 invasion of Iraq2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
. Al Jazeera stated that the coalition leaders were taking exception because its reporting made it more difficult for both countries to manage the way the war was being reported.
United States
The United States government has always been suspicious of Al Jazeera as an independent media outlet in the Middle East. Since 9/11 U.S. officials have consistently claimed an anti-American bias to Al Jazeera's news coverage.The station first gained widespread attention in the West following the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
, when it broadcast videos in which Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
and Sulaiman Abu Ghaith
Sulaiman Abu Ghaith
Sulaiman Abu Ghaith is a Kuwaiti Islamist regarded as one of Al-Qaida's official spokesmen.-Activities during the 1991 Gulf War:Abu Ghaith first gained attention during the 1990–1991 Iraqi invasion and occupation of Kuwait...
defended and justified the attacks. This led to significant controversy and accusations by the United States government that Al Jazeera was engaging in propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
on behalf of terrorists. Al Jazeera countered that it was merely making information available without comment, and several western television channels later followed suit in broadcasting portions of the tapes. Military analyst and defense consultant James F. Dunnigan assigns Al Jazeera a primary role in the rise of religious hatred and terrorism in the modern Muslim world.
At an 3 October 2001 press conference, Colin Powell
Colin Powell
Colin Luther Powell is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African American to serve in that position. During his military...
tried to persuade the emir of Qatar to shut down Al Jazeera.
On 13 November, 2001, during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan
War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...
, a U.S. missile strike destroyed Al Jazeera's office in Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
. There were no casualties.
On 12 October 2008, Al Jazeera broadcast interviews with people attending a Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin
Sarah Louise Palin is an American politician, commentator and author. As the Republican Party nominee for Vice President in the 2008 presidential election, she was the first Alaskan on the national ticket of a major party and first Republican woman nominated for the vice-presidency.She was...
2008 United States presidential election
United States presidential election, 2008
The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...
rally in St. Clairsville, Ohio
St. Clairsville, Ohio
St. Clairsville is a city in Belmont County, Ohio in the United States. It is part of the Wheeling, West Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 5,057 at the 2000 census. This county seat of Belmont County has been nicknamed "Paradise on the Hill." St. Clairsville was named after...
, with interviewees making comments about Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
such as "he regards white people as trash". The report received over 2 million views on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
and elicited comment by Colin Powell: "Those kind of images going out on Al Jazeera are killing us." Following this the Washington Post ran an op-ed
Op-ed
An op-ed, abbreviated from opposite the editorial page , is a newspaper article that expresses the opinions of a named writer who is usually unaffiliated with the newspaper's editorial board...
, claiming the news channel was deliberately encouraging "anti-American sentiment overseas", which was criticized by Al Jazeera as "a gratuitous and uninformed shot at Al Jazeera's motives", as the report was just one of "hundreds of hours of diverse coverage".
Al Jazeera won praise for its coverage of the 2011 Arab protests from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who testified at a Senate hearing that "Al Jazeera has been the leader in that they are literally changing people’s minds and attitudes. And like it or hate it, it is really effective." She also stated "in fact viewership of Al Jazeera is going up in the United States because it’s real news. You may not agree with it, but you feel like you’re getting real news around the clock instead of a million commercials..."
Detention of Sami Al Hajj
Al Jazeera cameraman Sami Al Hajj, a SudanSudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
ese national, was detained while in transit to Afghanistan in December 2001, and up until May 2008 was held, without charge, as an enemy combatant
Enemy combatant
Enemy combatant is a term historically referring to members of the armed forces of the state with which another state is at war. Prior to 2008, the definition was: "Any person in an armed conflict who could be properly detained under the laws and customs of war." In the case of a civil war or an...
in Camp Delta
Camp Delta
Camp Delta is a permanent detainment camp at Guantanamo Bay that replaced the temporary facilities of Camp X-Ray. Its first facilities were built between February 27 and mid-April 2002 by Navy Seabees, Marine Engineers, and workers from Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root...
at Guantánamo Bay. The reasons for his detention remain unknown, although the U.S.' official statement on all detainees is that they are security threats. Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...
have repeatedly expressed concern over Al Hajj's detention, mentioned Al Hajj in their Annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index, and launched a petition for his release. On 23 November 2005, Sami Al Hajj's lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith reported that, during (125 of 130) interviews, U.S. officials had questioned al-Hajj as to whether Al Jazeera was a front for al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
. Al-Hajj has since expressed plans to launch legal action against former U.S. President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
for his treatment while in Guantanamo. According to Smith, these accusations include having been beaten and sexually assaulted during his incarceration.
Satellite disruption
During the 2010 FIFA World Cup2010 FIFA World Cup
The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national association football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010...
opening game, Al Jazeera Sports' transmission in the Arab world went down without explanation in the first half, while the second half transmission was patchy. Al Jazeera and FIFA said they were working to figure out the cause of the disruption to Al Jazeera's official broadcasting rights. The British newspaper The Guardian reported that evidence points toward jamming by the Jordanian government.
Documentaries
- Al Jazeera's coverage of the invasion of IraqIraqIraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
was the focus of an award-winning 2004 documentary filmDocumentary filmDocumentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
,
Egyptian American
Egyptian Americans are Americans of Egyptian ancestry, first-generation Egyptian immigrants, or descendants of Egyptians who immigrated to the United States. In the 2007 U.S. census, the number of people with Egyptian ancestry was estimated at 195,000, although some estimates range from several...
director Jehane Noujaim
Jehane Noujaim
Jehane Noujaim is an Egyptian American documentary film director best known for her films Control Room, Startup.com and Pangea Day.- Career :Jehane Noujaim is a filmmaker, born in Washington DC and raised in Kuwait and Cairo....
.
Wide Angle (TV series)
Wide Angle is an American documentary television series produced by Thirteen/WNET New York for broadcast on PBS and for worldwide distribution. The weekly one-hour series covers international current affairs and is presently hosted by veteran journalist Aaron Brown...
."
Awards and accolades
- 1999 Prince Claus AwardPrince Claus AwardsThe Prince Claus Fund was inaugurated in 1996, named in honor of Prince Claus of The Netherlands. It receives an annual subsidy from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs....
for "Creating Spaces of Freedom", in AmsterdamAmsterdamAmsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population... - In December 1999, Ibn Rushd (Averoes) Fund for Freedom of Thought in BerlinBerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
awarded the "Ibn Rushd Award" for media and journalism for the year to Al Jazeera. - In March 2003, Al Jazeera was awarded by Index on CensorshipIndex on CensorshipIndex on Censorship is a campaigning publishing organisation for freedom of expression, which produces an award-winning quarterly magazine of the same name from London. The present chief executive of Index on Censorship, since 2008, is the author, broadcaster and commentator John Kampfner, former...
for its "courage in circumventing censorship and contributing to the free exchange of information in the Arab world." - In April 2004, Webby AwardsWebby AwardsA Webby Award is an international award presented annually by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences for excellence on the Internet with categories in websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile....
nominated Al Jazeera as one of the five best news Web sites, along with BBC NewsBBC NewsBBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
, National Geographic, RocketNews and The Smoking GunThe Smoking GunThe Smoking Gun is a website that posts legal documents, arrest records, and police mugshots on a daily basis. The intent is to bring to the public light information that is damning, shocking, outrageous, or amazing, yet also somewhat obscure or unreported by more mainstream media sources...
. According to Tifanny Schlain, the founder of the Webby Awards, this caused a controversy as [other media organisations] "felt it was a risk-taking site". - In 2004, Al Jazeera was voted by brandchannel.com readers as the fifth most influential global brandBrandThe American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
behind Apple ComputerApple ComputerApple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...
, GoogleGoogleGoogle Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
, IkeaIKEAIKEA is a privately held, international home products company that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture such as beds and desks, appliances and home accessories. The company is the world's largest furniture retailer...
and StarbucksStarbucksStarbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...
. - During the 2011 Egyptian protests, the liberal online magazineSalon.comSalon.comSalon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
wrote that "Al Jazeera's Egypt coverage embarrasses U.S. cable newsUnited States cable newsCable news refers to television channels devoted to television news broadcasts, with the name deriving from the proliferation of such networks during the 1980s with the advent of cable television. In the United States, early networks included CNN in 1980, Financial News Network in 1981, and CNN2 ...
channels.", and WikiLeaksWikileaksWikiLeaks is an international self-described not-for-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers. Its website, launched in 2006 under The Sunshine Press organisation, claimed a database of more...
commented on their Twitter feed that "Yes, we may have helped Tunisia, Egypt. But let us not forget the elephant in the room: Al Jazeera + sat dishes".
Competitors
- In response to Al Jazeera, a group of Saudi investors created Al ArabiyaAl ArabiyaAl Arabiya is a Pan-Arabist Saudi-owned Arabic-language television news channel. Launched on March 3, 2003, the channel is based in Dubai Media City, United Arab Emirates, and is majority-owned by the Saudi broadcaster Middle East Broadcasting Center ....
in the first quarter of 2003. Despite (especially initial) skepticism over the station's Saudi funding (cf. History) and a perception of censorship of anti-Saudi content, Al Arabiya has successfully emulated Al Jazeera, garnered a significant audience share, and has also gotten similarly involved in controversy – Al Arabiya has been severely criticised by the Iraqi and US authorities and has also had journalists killed on the job. - In order to counter a perceived bias of Al Jazeera, the U.S. government in 2004 founded Al Hurra ("the free one"). Al Hurra is forbidden to broadcast to the US under the provisions of the Smith–Mundt Act. A ZogbyZogby InternationalIBOPE Zogby International is an international market research, opinion polling firm founded in 1984 by John Zogby. The company polls and consults for a wide spectrum of business media, government, and political groups, and conducts public opinion research in more than 70 countries...
poll found that 1% of Arab viewers watch Al Hurra as their first choice. while an Ipsos-MENA poll from March–May 2008 showed that Alhurra was drawing more viewers in Iraq than Al Jazeera. Citing these figures, Alvin Snyder referred to Alhurra as a "go to" network in Iraq. - Since the launch of Al Jazeera English, Al Jazeera directly competes with BBC WorldBBC WorldBBC World News is the BBC's international news and current affairs television channel. It has the largest audience of any BBC channel in the world...
and CNN InternationalCNN InternationalCNN International is an international English language television network that carries news, current affairs, politics, opinions, and business programming worldwide. CNN is one of the world's largest news organizations. It is owned by Time Warner, and is affiliated with CNN, which is mainly...
, as do a growing number of other international broadcastersInternational broadcastingInternational broadcasting is broadcasting that is deliberately aimed at a foreign, rather than a domestic, audience. It usually is broadcast by means of longwave, mediumwave, or shortwave radio, but in recent years has also used direct satellite broadcasting and the Internet as means of reaching...
such as France 24France 24France 24 is an international news and current affairs television channel. The service is aimed at the overseas market, similar to BBC World News, DW-TV, NHK World and RT, and broadcast through satellite and cable operators throughout the world. During 2010 the channel started broadcasting through...
, and Russia TodayRussia Today TVRT, previously known as Russia Today, is a global multilingual television news network based in the Russian Federation run by the state-owned state-run RIA Novosti....
. - Another competitor is Al-AlamAl-Alam News NetworkAl-Alam is an Iranian Arabic satellite TV station.The network's political coverage tends to be the most popular; however, other subjects, such as commentaries, analysis, business and sports also get a share of the audience. Programs are broadcast for over 300 million Arabic-speaking people around...
, Established in 2003 by Islamic Republic of Iran BroadcastingIslamic Republic of Iran BroadcastingIslamic Republic of Iran Broadcaster, or IRIB, , formerly called the National Iranian Radio and Television until the Islamic revolution of 1979, is a giant Iranian corporation in control of radio and television which is among the largest media organizations in Asia and Pacific region, and a regular...
, it broadcasts continuously. It seeks to address the most challenging issues of the MuslimMuslimA Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
and Arab worldArab worldThe Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
and the Middle EastMiddle EastThe Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. - A further competitor is the Rusiya Al-YaumRusiya Al-YaumRusiya Al-Yaum a Russian TV news channel broadcasting in Arabic and headquartered in Moscow, Russia...
channel - the first Russian TV news channel broadcasting in Arabic and headquartered in MoscowMoscowMoscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, Russia. Rusiya Al-Yaum started broadcasting on 4 May 2007 at 7:00 (Moscow timeMoscow TimeMoscow Time is the time zone for the city of Moscow, Russia and most of western Russia, including Saint Petersburg. It is the second westernmost of the nine time zones of Russia. Moscow Time has been UTC+4 year-round since 27 March 2011....
). The Channel is established and operated by RIA Novosti, the same news agency that launched Russia Today TVRussia Today TVRT, previously known as Russia Today, is a global multilingual television news network based in the Russian Federation run by the state-owned state-run RIA Novosti....
in December 2005 to deliver a Russian perspective on news to English-speaking audiences, and "Rusiya Al-Yaum" is indeed a translation of "Russia Today" into Arabic. - The BBC launched BBC Arabic TelevisionBBC Arabic TelevisionBBC Arabic Television is a news and information television channel broadcast to the Middle East by the BBC. It was launched at 0956 GMT on 11 March 2008. The service was announced in October 2005 and was to start broadcasting in Autumn 2007, but was delayed...
on 11 March 2008, an Arabic-language news channel in North Africa and the Middle East. This is the second time that the BBC has launched an Arabic language TV channel; as mentioned above, the demise of the original BBC World Service Arabic TV channel had at least contributed to the founding of the original Al Jazeera Arabic TV channel. - When EuronewsEuroNewsEuronews is an international multilingual news television channel.It covers world news from what it claims to be a 'European' perspective.Criticisms are that the perspective is in fact that of the European Commission - a major and growing funder of Euronews....
started broadcasting its programs in Arabic on 12 July 2008, it entered into competition with Al Jazeera. Arabic is the eighth language in which Euronews is broadcast, after English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese.
Network
Al Jazeera operates a number of specialty channelSpecialty channel
A specialty channel can be a commercial broadcasting or non-commercial television channel which consists of television programming focused on a single genre, subject or targeted television market at a specific demographic....
s besides its original flagship news channel. As of early 2007, the Al Jazeera network's TV channels include:
| Launched in | Website | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Al Jazeera | the original international Arabic-language Arabic language Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book... 24h news channel |
1 November 1996 | aljazeera.net/channel |
| Al Jazeera Sports Al Jazeera Sports Al Jazeera Sports is a popular Arabic-language sports channel launched in November 2003 by the well-known Al Jazeera network.Al Jazeera Sports also owns the exclusive broadcasting rights in the Middle East for major football leagues, such as the Spanish La Liga, the French Ligue 1 and the Italian... |
a popular Arabic-language sports channel Sports channel Sports channels are television specialty channels broadcast sporting events, usually live, and when not broadcasting events, sports news and other related programming.... |
2003 | aljazeerasport.net |
| Al Jazeera Sports +1 Al Jazeera Sports +1 Al Jazeera Sports +1 is a pan-Arabic TV sports channel. It is part of the Al Jazeera network. Like its sister channels Al Jazeera Sports and Al Jazeera Sports +2 , Al Jazeera Sports +1 is headquartered in Doha's Education City... |
2004 | ||
| Al Jazeera Sports +2 Al Jazeera Sports +2 right|150pxAl Jazeera Sports +2 is a pay TV sports channel broadcast from Qatar. It broadcasts the UEFA Cup, the Spanish La Liga and the Italian Calcio Serie A.-External links:... |
2004 | ||
| Al Jazeera Sports +3 Al Jazeera Sports +3 Al Jazeera Sports +3 is a pan-Arabic TV sports channel and part of the Al Jazeera Network. It is the first Al Jazeera Sport Channel to broadcast commentary in English, and has received positive reviews on behalf of English speaking viewers... |
2008 | ||
| Al Jazeera Sports +4 Al Jazeera Sports Al Jazeera Sports is a popular Arabic-language sports channel launched in November 2003 by the well-known Al Jazeera network.Al Jazeera Sports also owns the exclusive broadcasting rights in the Middle East for major football leagues, such as the Spanish La Liga, the French Ligue 1 and the Italian... |
2008 | ||
| Al Jazeera Sports +5 Al Jazeera Sports Al Jazeera Sports is a popular Arabic-language sports channel launched in November 2003 by the well-known Al Jazeera network.Al Jazeera Sports also owns the exclusive broadcasting rights in the Middle East for major football leagues, such as the Spanish La Liga, the French Ligue 1 and the Italian... |
August 2009 | ||
| Al Jazeera Sports +6 Al Jazeera Sports Al Jazeera Sports is a popular Arabic-language sports channel launched in November 2003 by the well-known Al Jazeera network.Al Jazeera Sports also owns the exclusive broadcasting rights in the Middle East for major football leagues, such as the Spanish La Liga, the French Ligue 1 and the Italian... |
August 2009 | ||
| Al Jazeera Sports +7 Al Jazeera Sports Al Jazeera Sports is a popular Arabic-language sports channel launched in November 2003 by the well-known Al Jazeera network.Al Jazeera Sports also owns the exclusive broadcasting rights in the Middle East for major football leagues, such as the Spanish La Liga, the French Ligue 1 and the Italian... |
August 2009 | ||
| Al Jazeera Sports +8 Al Jazeera Sports Al Jazeera Sports is a popular Arabic-language sports channel launched in November 2003 by the well-known Al Jazeera network.Al Jazeera Sports also owns the exclusive broadcasting rights in the Middle East for major football leagues, such as the Spanish La Liga, the French Ligue 1 and the Italian... |
August 2009 | ||
| Al Jazeera Sports HD Al Jazeera Sports Al Jazeera Sports is a popular Arabic-language sports channel launched in November 2003 by the well-known Al Jazeera network.Al Jazeera Sports also owns the exclusive broadcasting rights in the Middle East for major football leagues, such as the Spanish La Liga, the French Ligue 1 and the Italian... |
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| Al Jazeera Mubasher (a.k.a Al Jazeera Live) | a live politics and public interest channel (similar to C-SPAN C-SPAN C-SPAN , an acronym for Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, is an American cable television network that offers coverage of federal government proceedings and other public affairs programming via its three television channels , one radio station and a group of websites that provide streaming... , Houses of the Oireachtas Channel Houses of the Oireachtas Channel Houses of the Oireachtas Channel or informally Oireachtas TV is a public service broadcaster for the two houses of the Oireachtas . The channel was created under the Broadcasting Act 2009 for broadcast on the proposed roll out of Irish Digital Terrestrial Television... or BBC Parliament BBC Parliament BBC Parliament is a British television channel from the BBC. Its remit is to make accessible to all the work of the parliamentary and legislative bodies of the United Kingdom and the European Parliament... ), which broadcasts conferences in real time without editing or commentary |
2005 | mubasher.aljazeera.net/ |
| Al Jazeera Children's Channel Al Jazeera Children's Channel Al Jazeera Children's Channel is a Pan-Arab edutainment channel addressing an audience between 7 and 15 years old. With the mission to encourage the love of learning and discovery, JCC is dedicated to create & provide quality programs that enlighten the child’s mind.This goal is realized by... (a.k.a. JCC) |
a children's interest channel Children's interest channel Children's interest channels are television specialty channels that present children's interest content.Popular children's interest channels include:* Al Jazeera Children's Channel * Baraem* BBC Kids * Boing * Boing... |
2005 | jcctv.net |
| Al Jazeera English | a global English-language English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... 24h news channel |
2006 | aljazeera.com |
| Al Jazeera Documentary Channel Al Jazeera Documentary Channel Al Jazeera Documentary Channel is an Arabic language documentary channel and a branch of the Al Jazeera network. It was launched at 12:00 GMT on 1 January 2007. It aims to provide viewers an immense amount of high quality documentary films... |
an Arabic language documentary channel Documentary channel A documentary channel is a specialty channel which focuses on broadcasting documentaries. Some documentary channels further specialize by dedicating their television programming to specific types of documentaries or documentaries in a specific area of knowledge. DOC: The Documentary Channel and The... |
2007 | doc.aljazeera.net |
| Al Jazeera Training Center | an Arabic language Training Center | Training.aljazeera.net | |
| Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr | a version of Al Jazeera Mubasher focused on Egypt Egypt Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world... |
2011 | mubasher-misr.aljazeera.net |
| Al Jazeera Balkans Al Jazeera Balkans Al Jazeera Balkans is a 24-hour international news television station launched by Al Jazeera on 11 November 2011 at 1800 CET. The station broadcasts in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 6 hours daily with Al Jazeera English programmes broadcast the remainder of the broadcast day... |
a version of Al Jazeera focused on Ex-Yugoslavia stationed in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina with studios in Belgrade, Serbia; Zagrab, Croatia; Skopje, Macedonia | 2011 | balkans.aljazeera.net |
Further reading
- Abdul-Mageed, M. M. (2008). Online News Sites and Journalism 2.0: Reader Comments on Al Jazeera Arabic. TripleC: Cognition, Communication, Co-operation, 6(2), 59-76. Abstract and full article: Blogspot.com
- Abdul-Mageed, M. M., and Herring, S. C. (2008). Arabic and English news coverage on aljazeera.net. In: F. Sudweeks, H. Hrachovec, and C. Ess (Eds.), Proceedings of Cultural Attitudes Towards Technology and Communication 2008 (CATaC'08), Nîmes, France, 24 June-27. Abstract and full article: Blogspot.com
- M. Arafa, P.J. Auter, & K. Al-Jaber (2005), Hungry for news and information: Instrumental use of Al-Jazeera TV among viewers in the Arab World and Arab DiasporaArab diasporaArab diaspora refers to Arab immigrants, and their descendants who, voluntarily or as refugees, emigrated from their native lands and now reside in non-Arab countries, primarily in Latin America, and Europe, as well as North America and South Asia, parts of Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and West...
, Journal of Middle East Media, 1(1), 21-50 - Marc LynchMarc LynchMarc Lynch is an "Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs" at The George Washington University, where he is also director of both the Institute for Middle East Studies and the Middle East Studies Program. Lynch is also a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Center for a New...
(2005), Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, al-Jazeera, and Middle East Politics Today, Columbia University PressColumbia University PressColumbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by James D. Jordan and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fields of literary and cultural studies, history, social work, sociology,... - N. Miladi (2004), Al-Jazeera, ISBN 1-86020-593-3
- Hugh Miles (2004), Al Jazeera: How Arab TV news challenged the world, Abacus, ISBN 0-349-11807-8,
- aka Al Jazeera: How Arab TV News challenges America, Grove PressGrove PressGrove Press is an American publishing imprint that was founded in 1951. Imprints include: Black Cat, Evergreen, Venus Library, Zebra. Barney Rosset purchased the company in 1951 and turned it into an alternative book press in the United States. The Atlantic Monthly Press, under the aegis of its...
, ISBN 0-8021-1789-9 (2005 reprint), - aka Al Jazeera: The inside story of the Arab news channel that is challenging the West, Grove Press, ISBN 0-8021-4235-4 (2006 reprint)
- aka Al Jazeera: How Arab TV News challenges America, Grove Press
- Mohammed el-Nawawy and Adel Iskandar (2002), Al-Jazeera: How the Free Arab News Network Scooped the World and Changed the Middle East, Westview PressWestview PressWestview Press is an American publishing house. It publishes textbooks and scholarly works for an academic audience.Westview was founded in 1975 in Boulder, Colorado by Fred Praeger. The press was sold in 1991 to SCS Communications. HarperCollins acquired the company in 1995. Since 1998, it has...
, ISBN 0-8133-4017-9,- aka Al-Jazeera: The story of the network that is rattling governments and redefining modern journalism, aka Al-Jazeera: Ambassador of the Arab World, Westview Press/Basic Books/Perseus Books, ISBN 0-8133-4149-3 (2003 reprint)
- Erik C. Nisbet, Matthew C. Nisbet, Dietram ScheufeleDietram ScheufeleDietram A. Scheufele is a communication scholar and holds the in the Department of Life Sciences Communication at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He also has affiliated appointments in the , the , and the...
, and James Shanahan (2004), , Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics 9 (2), 11-37 - Donatella Della Ratta (2005), Al Jazeera. Media e società arabe nel nuovo millennio , Bruno Mondadori, ISBN
8-8424-9282-5
- Naomi Sakr (2002), Satellite Realms: Transnational Television, Globalization and the Middle East, I.B. TaurisI.B. TaurisI. B. Tauris is an independent publishing house with offices in London and New York.-History:I.B.Tauris was founded in 1983. Its declared strategy was to fill the perceived gap between trade publishing houses and university presses—that is, to publish serious but accessible works on international...
, ISBN 1-86064-689-1 - Tatham, Steve (2006), Losing Arab Hearts & Minds: The Coalition, Al-Jazeera & Muslim Public Opinion, Hurst & Co (London), Published 1 Jan 2006, ISBN 0-9725572-3-7
- Mohamed Zayani (2005), The Al Jazeera Phenomenon: Critical Perspectives On New Arab Media, Paradigm Publishers, ISBN 1-59451-126-8
- Augusto Valeriani (2005), Il giornalismo arabo, (Italian) Roma, Carocci ISBN 88-430-3280-1
External links
- Official Al Jazeera websites:
- Official Al Jazeera live streams:
- Al Jazeera: demographics, programs, history
- Al Jazeera demographics
- Al Jazeera, Radio Sawa Founders Report on Media in the Middle East, UCLA Ronald W. Burkle Center for International Relations, posted 11/4/2003, retrieved 01/26/2007
- US-Arab Relations – 4 October 2006 lecture by Hafez Al Mirazi, host of the Al Jazeera (Arabic) talk showTalk showA talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
"From Washington", at the University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignThe University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
(Realplayer videoRealVideoRealVideo is a suite of proprietary video compression formats developed by RealNetworks – the specific format changes with the version. It was first released in 1997 and is at version 10. RealVideo is supported on many platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris, and several mobile...
). - Arabic in Graphic Design: Al Jazeera's Cartouche, an interactive guide to the Arabic calligraphy of the network's logo.
- Unofficial Al Jazeera live streams (during down times):