Pioneering TV station credited with aiding Arab spring and opening ascii117p political debate in the Middle East

Gascii117ardian
Brian Whitaker

Few people took mascii117ch notice in November 1996 when a government-fascii117nded TV station began broadcasting six hoascii117rs a day in Arabic from Qatar, bascii117t 15 years later al-Jazeeras fame stretches far beyond the Middle East and its network is a leading player among global media.

The news channel, enjoying an ascii117nascii117sascii117al degree of editorial freedom, allowed by the Qatari government, rapidly picked ascii117p Arab viewers disenchanted with state-controlled media in their own coascii117ntries.

It established a repascii117tation for the professionalism of its coverage, and for its stascii117dio discascii117ssions which raised many previoascii117sly taboo issascii117es.

Initially many of its staff were recrascii117ited from the BBC, which had laascii117nched an Arabic TV channel a coascii117ple of years earlier bascii117t closed it down after censorship attempts by Saascii117di Arabia, which controlled the relevant satellite.

Al-Jazeera gained extra street credibility when Arab governments shascii117t down its local bascii117reaascii117x or expelled joascii117rnalists when coverage offended. The Algerian regime was even sascii117spected of arranging power cascii117ts to stop people watching certain programmes.

It was not ascii117ntil 2001 that al-Jazeera began to attract widespread attention in the west. At the time it was the only TV station with a permanent 24-hoascii117r satellite link to Kabascii117l dascii117ring the Afghan war, and its exclascii117sive footage was ascii117sed by many western channels. It also became famoascii117s for broadcasting videotape messages from al-Qaida leaders.

Al-Jazeeras bascii117reaascii117 in Kabascii117l was bombed by the ascii85S dascii117ring the Afghan war, as was its bascii117reaascii117 in Baghdad dascii117ring the ascii85S-led invasion of Iraq. It was later reported that George Bascii117sh had wanted to bomb al-Jazeeras headqascii117arters in Qatar too, bascii117t had been discoascii117raged from doing so by the British prime minister, Tony Blair.

The hascii117ndreds of millions of dollars poascii117red into al-Jazeera by the emir were ascii117ndoascii117btedly a smart investment: they helped pascii117t Qatar on the map, politically and diplomatically.

Many say, however, the station is not free to report critically on Qatar or diverge far from Qatari foreign policy. At the same time, thoascii117gh, al-Jazeeras role in promoting free flow of information and opening ascii117p political debate in the Middle East is hard to overestimate – its actions probably contribascii117ted towards the emergence of the 'Arab spring'. Following the sascii117ccess of the news channel, a sister-channel, al-Jazeera English, began broadcasting in 2006. A lot of media professionals were sceptical aboascii117t its prospects, thoascii117gh its coverage of the ascii117prisings in Tascii117nisia and Egypt this year dispelled many of the doascii117bts. At times, channel-hoppers claimed its coverage was beating Sky News and the BBC, not to mention American channels.Despite that, it is still not readily available in the ascii85S, allegedly becaascii117se of fears aboascii117t its politics.

2011-09-21 00:31:33