Al Jazeera Arabic

This article is about the TV network and channel. For the English-language channel, see Al Jazeera English. For the unrelated magazine, see Aljazeera Publishing and aljazeera.com. For other uses, see Jazira.

Al Jazeera

Type	Satellite television network
Country	Qatar
First air date	1 November 1996
Availability	Worldwide
Headquarters	Doha, Qatar
Owner	Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani (Qatar Media Corporation)
Key people	Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani, Chairman Wadah Khanfar, Director-General Ahmed Sheikh, Editor-in-chief
Established	1 November 1996
Launch date	1 November 1996
Official website	http://www.aljazeera.net/

Aljazeera Satellite Channel

Country	Qatar
Headquarters	Doha, Qatar
Ownership
Owner	Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera (Arabic: الجزيرة al-ǧazīrah IPA: [æl dʒæˈziːrɐ], literally, "The Island," abbreviating "The [Arabian] Peninsula")^[note] (also Aljazeera or JSC [Jazeera Satellite Channel]) is a 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 of revolutions which continues to this day.

History

Launch

Aljazeera Satellite Channel was launched on 1 November 1996 following the closure of the BBC's Arabic language television station, a joint venture with a Qatar Media Corporation company. 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 Aljazeera through its first five years, as Hugh Miles detailed in his book Aljazeera 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.

According to Miles, the Emir had been contemplating a satellite channel even before he deposed his father the previous year. 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 Aljazeera 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.

Aljazeera's first day on the air was 1 November 1996. It offered 6-hour of programming per day; this would increase to 12-hour 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, notes Miles, Qatar (like many other Arab countries) barred private individuals from having satellite dishes until 2001.

At the time of Aljazeera's launch, Arabsat was the only satellite broadcasting to the Middle East, and for the first year could only offer Aljazeera 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.

Aljazeera 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), Aljazeera 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 Aljazeera to shock local viewers by presenting the Israeli speaking Hebrew on Arab TV for the first time, according to Miles. 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 Aljazeera'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. Aljazeera was also becoming a favorite sounding board for militant groups such as Hamas and Chechen separatists. A source told Miles the range of complaints helped cancel out any allegations of bias.

Aljazeera 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.

Around the clock

Al Jazeera English newsroom

January 1, 1999 was Aljazeera's first day of 24-hour broadcasting. Employment had more than tripled in one year to 500 employees, and the agency had bureaus at a dozen sites as far as Europe and Russia. Its annual budget was estimated at about $25 million at the time.

However controversial, Aljazeera 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 Aljazeera 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. Aljazeera 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.

Post-9/11

Aljazeera came to the attention of many in the West during the hunt for Osama bin Laden 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. Aljazeera'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. According to Miles, 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 Aljazeera talk show to state Britain's case for pursuing the Taliban into Afghanistan.

Aljazeera'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. Aljazeera then opened bureaus in other trouble spots, noted Miles, looking to stay ahead of the future conflicts.

According to Miles, 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. Aljazeera 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 States-led invasion of Iraq, where Aljazeera 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.

Aljazeera 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 Aljazeera's Baghdad bureau, killing reporter Tareq Ayyoub. The attack was called a mistake.

Aljazeera English

Aljazeera launched an English language channel, originally called Aljazeera 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 Qatar, 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 Aljazeera'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 Aljazeera, 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.

Organisation

The original Al Jazeera channel was started in 1 November 1996 by an emiri decree with a loan of 500 million Qatari riyals (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 Arabian 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.

Staff

Wadah Khanfar, Director General of the Al Jazeera Network

The Chairman of Al Jazeera is Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani, a distant cousin of Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.

Al Jazeera recently restructured its operations to form a Network that contains all their different channels. Wadah Khanfar, the managing director of the Arabic Channel was appointed as the Director General of the Al Jazeera Network. He also acts as the Managing Director of the Arabic channel.

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.

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 objectivity, which highlights the tension between objectivity and audience appeal, to describe the station's controversial yet popular news approach. As a result, it is probably the most watched news channel in the Middle East.

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. 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.

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, 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”.

Expansion outside the Middle East

Main article: Al Jazeera English

In 2003, Al Jazeera hired its first English-language journalists, among whom was Afshin Rattansi, from the BBC's Today Programme.

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 November 26, 2009, Al Jazeera English received approval from the CRTC, which enables Al Jazeera English to broadcast via satellite in Canada.

On September 22, 2010, Al Jazeera purchased a broadcasting station in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and is set to begin broadcasting in January 2011.

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.

Availability

The original Al Jazeera channel is available worldwide through various satellite and cable systems.

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. The finest quality source for the channel in the UK is Eutelsat Hotbird which many satellite viewers have to avoid the UK SKY monopoly of satellite gateway and to receive better technical quality.

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 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 YouTube. On April 13, 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.

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 DataPipe, 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.

Internet TV Appliances

On February 1, 2011, Internet Appliance Roku, had posted on its Facebook page [1] 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.

Creative Commons

On January 13, 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.tv, 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 platform to collect information and reports about the Gaza War, through Twitter, SMS and the website.

Plans

Future projects in other languages include Al Jazeera Urdu, an Urdu language channel to cater mainly to Pakistanis.

Al Jazeera has been preparing to launch a Turkish language news channel. On February 10, 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 November 1, 2009, the 13th birthday of the channel.

Attacks on and censorship of Al Jazeera

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 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 Authority 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.

United States

On November 13, 2001, during the US invasion of Afghanistan, 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." In the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the U.S. Pentagon hired the Rendon Group to target and possibly punish Al Jazeera reporters who did not stay on message. When Al Jazeera went on to do reporting featuring very graphic footage from inside Iraq, US officials decried Al Jazeera as anti-American and as inciting violence because it reported on controversial events.

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.

Death of Tareq Ayyoub

Main article: Tareq Ayyoub

On 8 April 2003, Al Jazeera's office in Baghdad was hit by a U.S. 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 as of 2003 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 Qatari 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.

Al Jazeera bombing memo

Main article: Al Jazeera bombing memo

Also see O'Connor - Keogh official secrets trial.

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.

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-Jaber, a cameraman, was killed by pro-Gaddafi sleeper cells while covering the 2011 Libyan civil war in Benghazi.

Website attacks

Immediately after its launch in 2003, the English site was attacked by one or several hackers, who launched denial-of-service attacks, 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.

Recognition by Secretary Clinton

On 4 March 2011, U.S. Secretary of State 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.

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 WikiLeaks as part of the 2010 United States diplomatic cables leak, 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 allegation that Al Jazeera showed videos of masked terrorists beheading western hostages 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'.

Anti-American bias

Emmy award winning journalist Dave Marash, 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".

In 2004, Accuracy in Media, a conservative watchdog group, also criticized Al Jazeera for its "anti-American" stance.

Bahrain

The Bahraini 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.

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 ongoing Iraq war, Al Jazeera faced reporting and movement restrictions, as did other news-gathering organizations. In addition, one of its reporters, Tayseer Allouni, 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 Bagdad 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 Kuntar, 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 March 13, 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.

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 Qatar, where Al Jazeera is based. The two most frequently cited stories were 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, and Qatar's growing relations with and diplomatic visits to Israel.

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 Yemen 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.

Spain

Main article: Tayseer Allouni

Reporter Tayseer Allouni 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.

United Kingdom

UK officials, like their US counterparts, strongly protested against Al Jazeera's coverage of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. 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

Prior to September 11, 2001, the United States government had praised Al Jazeera for its role as an independent media outlet in the Middle East. US officials have since 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, 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 October 3, 2001, press conference, Colin Powell tried to persuade the emir of Qatar to shut down Al Jazeera.

On November 13, during the US invasion of Afghanistan, 2001, a U.S. missile strike destroyed Al Jazeera's office in Kabul. There were no casualties.

On October 12, 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..."

Detention of Sami Al Hajj

Main article: Sami Al Hajj

Al Jazeera cameraman Sami Al Hajj, a Sudanese 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 US' 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 US 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.

Satellite disruption

During the 2010 FIFA World Cup 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 Iraq was the focus of an award-winning 2004 documentary film, Control Room by Egyptian-American 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.

Awards and accolades

• 1999 Prince Claus Award for "Creating Spaces of Freedom", in Amsterdam
• In December 1999, Ibn Rushd (Averoes) Fund for Freedom of Thought in Berlin 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 Censorship for its "courage in circumventing censorship and contributing to the free exchange of information in the Arab world."
• In April 2004, Webby Awards nominated Al Jazeera as one of the five best news Web sites, along with BBC News, National Geographic, RocketNews and The Smoking Gun. 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 brand behind Apple Computer, Google, Ikea and Starbucks.
• During the 2011 Egyptian protests, the liberal online magazineSalon.com wrote that "Al Jazeera's Egypt coverage embarrasses U.S. cable news channels.", and WikiLeaks 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 Arabiya 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 Zogby 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 World and CNN International, as do a growing number of other international broadcasters such as France 24, and Russia Today.
• Another competitor is Al-Alam, Established in 2003 by Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, it broadcasts continuously. It seeks to address the most challenging issues of the Muslim and Arab world and the Middle East.
• A further competitor is the Rusiya Al-Yaum channel - the first Russian TV news channel broadcasting in Arabic and headquartered in Moscow, Russia. Rusiya Al-Yaum started broadcasting on 4 May 2007 at 7:00 (Moscow time). The Channel is established and operated by RIA Novosti, the same news agency that launched Russia Today TV 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 Television 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 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 channels 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 24h news channel	1 November 1996	aljazeera.net/channel
Al Jazeera Sports	a popular Arabic-language sports channel	2003	aljazeerasport.net
	Al Jazeera Sports +1	2004
	Al Jazeera Sports +2	2004
	Al Jazeera Sports +3	2008
	Al Jazeera Sports +4	2008
	Al Jazeera Sports +5	August 2009
	Al Jazeera Sports +6	August 2009
	Al Jazeera Sports +7	August 2009
	Al Jazeera Sports +8	August 2009
	Al Jazeera Sports HD
Al Jazeera Mubasher (a.k.a Al Jazeera Live)	a live politics and public interest channel (similar to C-SPAN, Houses of the Oireachtas Channel or BBC Parliament), which broadcasts conferences in real time without editing or commentary	2005	mubasher.aljazeera.net/
Al Jazeera Children's Channel (a.k.a. JCC)	a children's interest channel	2005	jcctv.net
Al Jazeera English	a global English-language 24h news channel	2006	english.aljazeera.net
Al Jazeera Documentary Channel	an Arabic language documentary channel	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	2011	mubasher-misr.aljazeera.net
Al Jazeera Balkans	a version of Al Jazeera focused on Ex-Yugoslavia stationed in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina	2011	[2]

Notes

^[note] al-ǧazīrah literally means "the island". In Arabic, however, it refers here to the "(Arabian) peninsula" which is شبه الجزيرة العربية šibh al-ğazīrah al-ʿarabiyyah, Arabian Peninsula, abbreviated الجزيرة العربية al-ğazīrah al-ʿarabiyyah, literally means the Arabic island, شبه šibh literally means "similarity/likeness".

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 Diaspora, Journal of Middle East Media, 1(1), 21-50
• Marc Lynch (2005), Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, al-Jazeera, and Middle East Politics Today, Columbia University Press
• 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 Press, 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)
• Mohammed el-Nawawy and Adel Iskandar (2002), Al-Jazeera: How the Free Arab News Network Scooped the World and Changed the Middle East, Westview Press, 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 Scheufele, and James Shanahan (2004), Template:PDFlink, Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics 9 (2), 11-37
• Donatella Della Ratta (2005), Al Jazeera. Media e società arabe nel nuovo millennio Template:It icon, Bruno Mondadori, ISBN

8-8424-9282-5

• Naomi Sakr (2002), Satellite Realms: Transnational Television, Globalization and the Middle East, I.B. Tauris, 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:
  • Al Jazeera English website
  • Al Jazeera English mobile website
  • Al Jazeera Videos
  • Al Jazeera English TV-optimized website (for Google TV)
  • Template:Ar icon Al Jazeera Arabic website
  • Template:Ar icon Al Jazeera Arabic mobile website
  • Template:Bs icon Al Jazeera Balkans website
• Official Al Jazeera live streams:
  • Al Jazeera English
  • Al Jazeera Arabic
  • Al Jazeera English Live Stream
  • Al Jazeera English Live Stream on YouTube
  • Template:Ar icon Al Jazeera Arabic Live Stream
  • Template:Ar icon Al Jazeera Arabic Live Stream on YouTube
• 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 show "From Washington", at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Realplayer video).
• 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):
  • Al Jazeera English
  • Al Jazeera Arabic