HONG KONG, 28 October 2004 — Arabic satellite TV broadcaster Al Jazeera is to launch a global 24-hour English-language news service as an alternative to rival networks such as BBC and CNN, the company announced here yesterday.
The Qatar-based broadcaster noted as a favored conduit for statements and videos from Middle Eastern militant groups, said the new channel, Al Jazeera International, would be a “credible, authoritative and balanced” alternative to Western media.
“We will be a broad-based international channel in English,” said Steve Clark, head of news at the channel, which aims to be up and running by the end of 2005.
“We will be a world channel,” added Al Jazeera International managing director Nigel Parsons at the channel’s official launch.
Al Jazeera International will stand alone from the Arabic-language channel, with a different editorial team and a news agenda that will focus less on the Middle East and more on issues from the developing world, Parsons added.
“Our target will be everyone who speaks English — we will be a world channel,” he said, adding that the nations of Southeast Asia with large Muslim populations would be a particular target audience.
Eventually staffed by 250-300 reporters and producers, the channel will be headquartered in the company’s Doha base but have regional offices in Washington, London and another in either Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur or Singapore, Clark said.
Although news of the planned channel was leaked some weeks ago, the company chose to officially announce the launch at the CASBAA Asia-Pacific cable TV industry convention in Hong Kong.
“Asia is a key regional target — Qatar is in Asia after all — so it made sense for us to make the announcement here,” said Al Jazeera managing director Wadah Khanfar.
Al Jazeera’s Arabic news channel has been criticized in the West for screening videoed statements sent in by militant Islamic groups such as Al-Qaeda and, more recently, footage shot by kidnap groups in Iraq.
As a result it has been demonized by some American politicians as a mouthpiece for terrorists.
Al Jazeera denies the accusations and stressed it would continue showing the videos if deemed newsworthy.
“Al Jazeera is not the only channel that shows these videos but it is usually the first, and any other news organization you care to ask would do the same thing if they could,” said Clark, a former head of news and producer at British TV channels BSkyB and Central. “We are not an anti-Western or anti-US channel,” added Parsons. “It is a misconception. We hope that after watching our channel people will understand that.”
The company hopes to follow the satellite footprint of its Arabic language sister channel. Once up and running, Al Jazeera International will be part of a five-channel operation run out of Doha that will also include Arabic sports, children’s and documentary channels.
