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Courtesy of Al Jazeera
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Hamad Al-Nuaimi,
Al Jazeera's Marketing Director
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Since its launch in 1996, with its mixture of hard
news, controversial talk shows and documentaries,
Al Jazeera has become the largest Arabic news channel
in the Middle East. Along the way, it has become
one of the most recognized brands in the world.
In a recent global survey, Al Jazeera was ranked
as the world’s most influential brand among
all media networks and as the world’s fifth
most influential brand overall, behind Apple, Google,
IKEA and Starbucks.
Sometime in 2006, along with ESPN, Fox News, and
HBO, a new English language news channel, called
Al Jazeera International, will be available for
the viewing pleasure of the American public. When
Americans flip through their television channels,
they will come across a station displaying the familiar
Al Jazeera logo stamped in Arabic on the lower right
hand corner of the television screen.
Internationally renowned figures have already signed
on to be part of Al Jazeera International, including
uber-interviewer Sir David Frost; former BBC World
and CNN International presenter Riz Khan; former
ABC News Nightline correspondent Dave Marash; and
Stephen Cole, formerly of BBC World. Additional
personalities of interest include Captain Josh Rushing,
a retired, 14- year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps
who has signed on as a program presenter.
When asked what makes Al Jazeera successful, Hamad
Al-Nuaimi, Al Jazeera’s Marketing Director,
said "Al Jazeera is the first independent Arabic
language satellite channel dedicated wholly to news.
The channel revolutionized public opinion and the
media in the Arab world by maintaining independence
from the censor, something that was quite alien
to traditional Middle Eastern media. In essence,
Al Jazeera has become a rallying point for change
in Arab media, and at the forefront of the new Arab
school of journalism."
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Courtesy of Al Jazeera
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Live broadcast from Al Jazeera
studio in Doha.
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The American-educated Mr. Al-Nuaimi went on to
insist that Al Jazeera is misunderstood in the United
States. For example, he says, "We endeavor
to get to the truth and declare it in dispatches,
programs and news bulletins unequivocally in a manner
that leaves no doubt about its validity and accuracy."
He concluded with, "We welcome fair and honest
media competition without allowing it to affect
adversely our standards of performance; and thereby
having a ‘scoop’ would not become an end
in itself."
Following that formula, Al Jazeera International,
the 24-hour English-language news and current affairs
channel is set to broadcast globally this year.
It will be the world’s first English language
news channel to be headquartered in the Middle East.
From this unique position within the Arab and Muslim
world, looking outwards, Al Jazeera International
will report inclusively by examining all perspectives
on a story and providing a 360-degree approach to
news coverage.
Program output will come from each of Al Jazeera
International’s individual broadcast centers
around the world, reflecting a unique perspective
on world news. The broadcasting centers are located
in Doha, Kuala Lumpur, London and Washington DC
and with supporting bureaus world-wide, the channel
will provide both a regional voice and an international
perspective to what is hoped will be a global audience
of over one billion English speakers.
Al Jazeera International is being touted as more
than just a 24-hour news channel in English. Building
on the Al Jazeera Network’s groundbreaking
developments in the Arab and Muslim world, it is
being trumpeted as a world channel broadcasting
news with thousands of hours a year of factual programming.
Al Jazeera International steadfastly claims no interest
in pursuing a domestic agenda. The channel’s
mission is to broadcast factual programming including
news features and analysis, documentaries, live
debates, current affairs, entertainment, business
and sport.
Al Jazeera was the first to bring together all
the pieces of a story for a complete picture of
the Middle East in Arabic. With the new English
format, Al Jazeera International will build on the
heritage of the Arabic language channel, revolutionizing
viewer choice by offering an alternative to traditional
Western news media. Offering all perspectives of
a story, the channel will provide a fresh approach
to news coverage. It will cover all sides of the
story from all over the globe.
Speaking on Aljazeera’s recent developments,
Nigel Parsons, Managing Director of Al Jazeera International
said, "We have hand picked our bureau chiefs,
and strategically placed our news broadcast centers
across the globe, to ensure that our reporting will
bring together a complete picture of world news
and address the many perspectives of complex current
affairs."
The bureau chiefs are Trish Carter, Sue Phillips
and Will Stebbins as bureau chiefs for the channel's
Kuala Lumpur, London and Washington D.C. news broadcast
centers respectively. As bureau chiefs of the channels
news broadcast centres, Carter, Phillips and Stebbins
will be responsible for over-seeing the production
of news and current affairs in their regions.
Trish Carter's career includes high level positions
as Head of Current Affairs and News at Television
New Zealand. Sue Phillips is an experienced broadcast
professional whose career includes senior roles
as London Bureau Chief for the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation (CBC). Will Stebbins joins the channel
from Associated Press Television News (APTN) where
he was a regional editor.
"Our news reporting will uphold the strictest
guiding principles of accuracy, impartiality and
objectivity, whilst being fearless in its reporting.
On the air, Al Jazeera International will be innovative
and provocative, but above all we will earn viewer
trust through the impact of accuracy, integrity
and speed," added Steve Clark, director of
news.
When it went on the air ten years ago, Al Jazeera
started by broadcasting a few hours a day. Today,
it is the satellite news channel of choice for the
Arabic speaking world, drawing an estimated 35 million
viewers per day. With the same hard-hitting perspective
on world news, Al Jazeera International aims to
offer English-speaking viewers an objective and
independent news channel. In the process, Al Jazeera
plans to steadily expand while peeling viewers away
from established giants such as CNN and MSNBC.
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