In the five years of its existence, Al-Jazeera has become the most watched satellite channel in the Arab world and has infuriated every government from Libya to Kuwait. What draws the viewers is news and political debate of a kind that the Arab world had never seen until the channel started in 1996.

In the mid-90s the BBC set up an Arabic language TV channel and contracted with a Saudi satellite company to transmit its programmes to the Middle East. It was not long before the Saudis, unhappy with the content, pulled the plug. That would have been the end of it had the Emir of Qatar not offered $100m, spread over five years, to fund a new and independent– minded TV station. Ready-trained staff from the BBC channel joined it en masse.

Qatar, with a native population of only 500,000 ñ is not the likeliest home for such a project, which is be-coming very influential in the world. Al-Jazeera is the only TV channel with an established live link to Kabul. During the most recent crisis, it has broadcast live interviews with Osama bin Laden. CNN and other news stations that normally might have broken the news themselves were forced to use the Al-Jazeera ma-terials. Al-Jazeera had a major scoop. Many American TV news stations simply showed Al-Jazeera broadcasts live during their own, providing translations. This raised the concern of the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, who had a quiet word with the Emir, asking him if the station could tone down its coverage of Afghanistan. The Emir responded by informing the press. Now western politicians are regularly appearing on Al-Jazeera to put their side of the story across. Today Al-Jazeera is the most reliable and credible media outlet in the Middle East, a region that is not known for its dedication to freedom of the press or unrestricted journalism.

‘Al-Jazeera, has had an impact on the whole of the media in the region. The others are forced to catch up and compete ñ even the printed media. There’s a lot more freedom now, because there’s no point in con-trolling information if you know that people are going to find out from somewhere else.’

Nabim Shehadi.
Source: The Guardian, 9th October 2001.
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