Al-Jazeera English TV starts broadcasts midday today
n | 15.11.2006 09:00 | World
A new TV station, Al-Jazeera in English, is set to finally begin broadcasting today. It was originally due to launch in 2005 and the service will initially provide just twelve hours coverage each day but is expected to switch to 24/7 hour service in the new year.
Employing over 800 people from 55 countries it promises to bring a different perspective to international events. It's main studios are in Doha, but it also has a presence in Kuala Lumpur, London and Washington DC, and twenty other countries.
It's satelite transmission is expected to reach 80 million homes around the world, double its initial target. However, there will be no coverage in the United States apart from via the internet.
Al-Jazeera has been a thorn in the side of the US administration, pulling few punches with it's editorial policy. Some are questioning whether the new channel in English will be as outspoken as its sister station and adopt a similar editorial stance. There are predictions that it will revolutionise English language television in the same way it revolutionised Arab language television 10 years ago but its success in the Middle East was breaking the monopoly held by government controlled broadcasters. The new station will be competing with well established rivals including the BBC and CNN.
Judge for yourself by watching the stream on
http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage
It's satelite transmission is expected to reach 80 million homes around the world, double its initial target. However, there will be no coverage in the United States apart from via the internet.
Al-Jazeera has been a thorn in the side of the US administration, pulling few punches with it's editorial policy. Some are questioning whether the new channel in English will be as outspoken as its sister station and adopt a similar editorial stance. There are predictions that it will revolutionise English language television in the same way it revolutionised Arab language television 10 years ago but its success in the Middle East was breaking the monopoly held by government controlled broadcasters. The new station will be competing with well established rivals including the BBC and CNN.
Judge for yourself by watching the stream on
![](/img/extlink.gif)
n
Comments
Hide the following 9 comments
took some time getting it
15.11.2006 15:13
mobo
ah, the 'raw stuff'
15.11.2006 19:30
sceptic
Sceptic - comment or racist smear
16.11.2006 09:59
Not sure what I'm meant to make of Sceptics' 'enlightening' hypelink? He makes no comment himself but gives us a link to website full of remarks by people from the Middle East when most white people in the UK would regard these remarks as mad.
What conclusion are we supposed to make? That Al Jazeera will air such 'mad' remarks? That the Middle East is full of mad people? That you can't take anything Al Jazeera says seriously because it's a Middle East broadcaster and Middle Eastern people are mad?
Al Jazeera gives people an opportunity to see an alternative perspective on the world. It will reveal alternative facts and alternative views in comparison to the Western media. In terms of the debate on Iran and the nuclear issue this can be valuable because there is no evidence that Iran has breached any part of the Non-Nuclear Proliferation Treaty and according to that treaty Iran is entitled to pursue nuclear technology. You get none of this from the Western media.
So, what is Sceptic's response? To seek to smear Al Jazeera. The nastiness of Sceptic's post is breath taking because he makes no comment himself. We are supposed to think it is difficult to attack Sceptic on the basis of anti-Arab (or is that anti-Semitic) racism because he makes no comment. But the conclusion you come as a result of looking at the website is Arabs and people from the Middle East are mad.
insidejob
insidejob
The inference is obvious even to the most intellectually challenged
16.11.2006 12:00
sceptic
Extremist TV stations
16.11.2006 13:20
It reminds me of Fox News. You know, Ann Coulter saying we should invade all the muslim countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity. And I quite like the air-time given to Pat Robertson, saying the US should assassinate Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.
How can anybody take TV stations that give air-time to those lunatics seriously?
Fox News, CNN...these stations seem to churn out hundreds of commentators you spew out such garbage like 'Saddam Hussein is a threat with weapons of mass destruction'. The Dodgy Dossier, like our own little version of the Protocols, a load of garbage cooked up in order to demonise another people, pave the way for their murder, and the seizing of their resources.
I am happy to see Al Jazeera in English. I was getting worried that I would have to learn Arabic properly. For those that can speak Spanish, Telesur is also good
Hermes
blatantly rascist material ?
16.11.2006 13:45
Haidar
'blatantly rascist'
16.11.2006 14:14
I must apologise for my 'nastiness' in posting this link. But, if you have a mind, you can make it up for yourself.
Ah yes, another meme: 'such garbage like 'Saddam Hussein is a threat with weapons of mass destruction'.'
Well, quite.
Try
Apologies for my 'nastiness' in bringing this to your attention.
sceptic
Al - JAZ who calls the tune?
16.11.2006 14:36
Do you know how much western pump prime has gone in to this project and the original al-jaz? Of course Doha and Qatar have governments that are willing client states ready to promote an oppositional view in order to quell their increasingly militant peasants and fool people from the west into thinking this is something new and not at all like the western pro war corporate media. It may bark on about this and that raise the odd embarrassing issue in the name of independence but when the real big stuff comes its way even from its own reporters it says nothing and speaks the voice of its masters!
shame that so many decent reporters from al-jaz have been slaughtered purposely to earn its authenticity
infodog
Thanks again
16.11.2006 19:46
I seem to remember a lot of that on the television before the invasion.
Still, tell you what, if you can find some evidence that all those things weren't actually blatantly false, I'll see if I can prove that the Protocols were actually genuine, and we can post to each other again in a couple thousand years to see what we actually found out.
Hermes