Al-Jazeera is in partnership with the Venezuelan and Cuban Communist
governments to assist with a spanish TV network. The satellite was provided
by China.

Soon we will be watching re-runs of Mao and 8 hour Castro speeches live!
ZZZZZZzzzzzzz...


"running dogg" wrote in message
...
SWLer wrote:

Al-Jazeera Launching All-English Channel

Time to invest in a big 36 inch satellite dish and a good decoder. You
won't see THIS on DirecTV or Dish Network, kiddies.

By JIM KRANE, Associated Press WriterMon Jul 4, 1:41 PM ET

Al-Jazeera is nothing if not bold. It has fought repeatedly with
Washington,
which says its exclusive broadcasts of Osama bin Laden speeches show an
anti-American, pro-terrorist bias. Its freewheeling broadcasts have
decimated
state-run TV stations across much of the Arab world, leading some
countries to
close its bureaus down. So what does such a network do next? Plan a
massive
expansion.

By March, the network will launch Al-Jazeera International, a satellite
channel
that will beam English-language news to the United States - and much of
the
rest of the world - from its base in tiny Qatar.

The ever-contentious Middle East will be its specialty. And the news,
including
coverage of Israel, will be served up from an Arab perspective,
Al-Jazeera
executives say.

With a touch of the evangelist, perhaps, the station's executives say
their
mission is nothing less than reversing the dominant flow of global
information,
which now originates on TV channels in the West.

"We're the first news channel based in the Mideast to bring news back to
the
West," said Nigel Parsons, managing director of Al-Jazeera
International. "We
want to set a different news agenda."

The station's research shows some of the world's one billion English
speakers,
including Americans, thirst for news from a non-Western perspective.

Outside America, the station plans to compete with CNN International and
BBC
World, the two chief English-language satellite news channels. The new
station
will be headquartered in Doha and operate broadcast newsrooms in London,
Washington and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

But breaking into the U.S. market, with its established channels, might
be more
difficult. The station's anti-American reputation may win some early
"curiosity" viewers, Parsons said.

Overall, Al-Jazeera executives contend negative American opinions are
based on
"irrational and erroneous information." For instance, Parsons said,
Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld lambasted the station for showing
beheadings by
Iraqi insurgents. Actually, Al-Jazeera has aired portions of insurgent
videos
but never a beheading, he said.

Another irritant is Al-Jazeera's often-gory coverage of Iraq from both
perspectives. Before it was banned, the network embedded reporters with
both
Iraqi insurgents and with U.S. troops.

Nevertheless, Americans have shown curiosity. Al-Jazeera's
English-language Web
site gets most of its traffic from U.S. visitors, Parsons said.

In the end, Al-Jazeera might coax viewers from an elite segment of
American TV
watchers, perhaps those who tune into the BBC, some observers say.

But most Americans want to be comforted by the news, not challenged by
it, said
Jon Alterman, who heads the Middle East program at the Center for
Strategic and
International Studies in Washington.

If Al-Jazeera is a tough sell in the United States, it has natural
audiences
elsewhere. The world counts 1.2 billion Muslims, most of whom don't
speak
Arabic. That means Al-Jazeera stands to find quick popularity in
countries like
Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Alterman believes Al-Jazeera will help integrate the world's far-flung
Muslim
communities, giving them a common news source.

That's not necessarily what the station is after. "We're not a Muslim
channel,"
said Parsons, a Briton who, like many Al-Jazeera International staff,
does not
speak Arabic.

Indeed, the station is even less popular with governments in Muslim
countries
like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran and Tunisia, which currently ban it.

Those countries' rulers suggest it incites violence by giving airtime to
opposition politicians and radical clerics.

At one time or another, Al-Jazeera has had bureaus closed in 18
countries and
its signal blocked in 30. Its revenues still suffer under an advertising
boycott, believed to originate from Saudi government pressure.

The station has had three bureaus destroyed by bombings, two by the U.S.
military.

Two staff in Iraq have been killed. Two others were locked in Iraq's Abu
Ghraib
prison and released without charge. A third is being tried in Spain on
charges
of working for the al-Qaida terrorist group.

Yet because it is based in Qatar, an energy-rich Persian Gulf country of
less
than a million, the station has little opportunity to upset its home
government.

"They're in a unique position," said Mustafa Alani, director of security
and
terrorism studies at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai. "They can
criticize
everybody."

Arab viewers who previously had only staid state-run broadcasters to
watch have
apparently liked that, flocking to the station since its 1996 debut.

It now reaches more than 40 million viewers, and if it weren't for the
advertising boycott, Al-Jazeera's network would bring in some $35
million in
yearly ad revenue, enough to wean it from Qatar government money, said
managing
director Wadah Khanfar.

The station is expected to be privatized in a few years. But as long as
it
remains close to the Qatari royal family, the boycott poses few funding
worries.

Yet despite its protests to the contrary, Al-Jazeera is already
softening its
aggressive coverage of Saudi Arabia and other countries, Alani believes.
The
reason? It must regain access to those countries to boost its English
broadcasts, Alani said.

"If you're banned from half the Arab world, your ability to break news
is
limited," Alani said.

___

On the Net:

http://english.aljazeera.net

Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press.


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