Al-Jazeera's english news-channel hits airwaves
Ten years after it started broadcasts that shook up Arab and Western leaders, Al-Jazeera today launched an English-language news channel aimed at bringing the Arab take on the news to the rest of the world.
Al-Jazeera English is available in more than 80 million homes, but so far has no major U.S. distribution, leaving viewers there unable to watch a channel branded by some as biased against the United States.
The station hit the airwaves at noon GMT, broadcasting from its headquarters in Doha, capital of the tiny Persian Gulf state of Qatar.
A screen graphic with a clock ticking down the minutes to air gave way to a photo montage of the biggest news stories of the past decade and an announcer saying the new channel would be “setting the news agenda.”
“It’s November 15th, a new era in television news,” anchor Sami Zeidan said, speaking in front of a flashy newsroom backdrop.
The channel quickly jumped to live feeds from correspondents in various regions – starting with the Gaza Strip in a spot that reflected the channel’s promise to Arab concerns in the Middle East.
The station reported on a rocket attack this morning by Palestinian militants that killed an Israeli woman – then cut to its Gaza correspondent reporting on the aftermath of Israel’s shelling of the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun that killed 18 Palestinians earlier this week.
The footage showed pancaked apartment blocks and a scarred baby lying a hospital bed after being wounded in the Israeli attack. The correspondent did her stand-up in front of a destroyed home. It was followed by a clip from an exclusive interview with Hamas leader Khaled Mishaal.
The station appeared eager to show its global reach, moving to live reports from correspondents in Sudan’s Darfur region, Iran, Zimbabwe and Brazil and breaking in with a report on a tsunami warning in Japan.
Al-Jazeera, which is bankrolled by Qatar’s royal family, said its 24-hour news programmes could now be viewed by 80 million cable and satellite TV viewers, mainly in the Middle East and Europe.
The channel hopes to steal viewers from CNN and the BBC by giving the world’s 1 billion English speakers their first chance to watch news from a non-Western perspective.
Al-Jazeera’s feisty Arabic news channel is well known for angering leaders in the West and the Arab world, where it has been banned from operating in 18 countries at one time or another. Four Arab countries still block it from sending reporters.
The station has broken new ground covering taboo political, religious and social subjects, while airing interviews with opposition figures and Israeli officials who previously were absent from Arab networks.
In Washington, Bush administration officials have branded the network’s airing of messages from Osama bin Laden as an incitement to terrorism and criticised its often grisly coverage of bloodshed in Iraq.
Al-Jazeera says the messages and images are newsworthy. It has promoted its channels to US officials as the ideal venue to address the Muslim world.
Still, the station is burdened with a reputation among Americans as anti-US - an image Al-Jazeera insists is unfair. Its reporters argue that while the station adopts an Arab viewpoint, its coverage is balanced.
The broadcast will also be streamed live on its Internet site english.aljazeera.net.
Across Europe and the Middle East, Al-Jazeera English will be widely available on major cable providers in Britain, Germany, Italy and even Israel, which Al-Jazeera has promised to cover from an Arab perspective.
The launch was originally scheduled for early 2006 but was repeatedly postponed due to technical problems and licensing issues. Al-Jazeera executives said they are negotiating with carriers in the United States, Asia and elsewhere to broadcast its signal.
Al-Jazeera English hired more than 500 people, poaching some of the world’s best-known journalists from American and British networks, including onetime CNN anchor Riz Khan, the BBC’s David Frost and former ABC correspondent Dave Marash.
It will broadcast in high-definition TV with four chief broadcast centres in Doha, London, Washington and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
