How Arab TV Challenged the News: A Look at Al Jazeera’s Origins

We are broadcasting from Doha, Qatar, where we are attending the second Al Jazeera Forum - a three-day gathering of journalists, scholars and media makers from the Middle East and around the world. It is being held to discuss new political, legal and technological challenges facing news organizations, and to debate the responsibility of the media in an increasingly fractured world.

The forum was organized by Al Jazeera - the Arabic satellite television network headquartered in Doha. Al Jazeera first began broadcasting in 1996 and has grown to be the fifth most powerful brand in the world, according to Brandchannel.com.

Over the years, the network has come under intense criticism from governments around the Arab and Western world, and from across the political spectrum. Some leaders in the Gulf have objected to Al Jazeera’s presentation of views critical of governments in the region. And members of the Bush administration have claimed that the network is biased against the U.S and its policies. In fact, in August of last year, the U.S.-backed Iraqi government banned the network from reporting in Iraq.

Al Jazeera has also been the victim of U.S military attacks. The U.S. bombed Al Jazeera’s bureaus in Afghanistan in November 2001 and Baghdad in April 2003. Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Ayoub was killed in the Baghdad incident. The U.S. claimed both bombings were accidental.

Last November, the London tabloid The Daily Mirror cited a secret British memo allegedly revealing that Bush told Tony Blair in April 2004 of his desire to bomb the news outlet. Bush administration officials dismissed the report, calling it “outlandish.”

* Hugh Miles, author of “Al Jazeera: How Arab TV News Challenged the News.”

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