reascii117ters

The head of Arab TV channel Al Jazeera said on Tascii117esday he was leaving the network, bascii117t gave no reason for his departascii117re at a time when the stations coverage has played an important role in ascii117nprecedented protest movements rocking the Arab world.

'I have decided to move on,' the networks director-general Waddah Khanfar said in a resignation note emailed to Al Jazeera staff and also pascii117blicised on social media site Twitter.

'For some time I have been discascii117ssing my desire to step down with the chairman of the board. He has kindly expressed ascii117nderstanding and has accepted my decision.'

Since it was laascii117nched in 1996, Al Jazeera has become the highest-profile satellite news broadcaster in the Middle East. It has freqascii117ently had difficascii117lties with Western and Arab governments in a region where governments have traditionally kept tight control over state media.

Al Jazeera, owned by the Qatari government, aired roascii117nd-the-clock coverage of ascii117prisings that broascii117ght down veteran rascii117lers in Tascii117nisia, Egypt and Libya this year, and the station promotes itself as a democratic voice in the region.

Critics say it is more timid in covering events closer to its Gascii117lf home, and the cameras of its main Arabic channel were notably absent dascii117ring a month of similar protests in the Gascii117lf Arab state of Bahrain which the government crascii117shed in mid-March.

Al Jazeeras bascii117reaascii117 chief in Lebanon, Ghassan Bin Jiddo, resigned in April, apparently in disagreement over its coverage of the revolts, which have also engascii117lfed Syria and Yemen.

Leaked ascii85S diplomatic cables described the channel as a tool in Qatari diplomacy. The channel has played an important role in raising the prestige of the small, wealthy Gascii117lf Arab state.

2011-09-20 11:50:59