Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera (pronounced /al yasíra/ in Spanish phonetics; in Arabic, الجزيرة, al- Ǧazīra pronounced /el (d)ʒæˈziːrɐ/), meaning "the peninsula", alluding to to the Qatar peninsula, is an international subscription television channel founded in 1996 by the Government of Qatar. Originally free and supported by the Government (the Qatari Royal Family), the station gradually began to charge for its services and became financially independent, as it had been intended since its creation. It is the main news channel in the Arab world and one of the most important in the world with an audience of more than 270 million homes.
History
Since the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States, Al Jazeera gained fame in the Western world as a privileged channel for disseminating messages from Osama bin Laden and other members of the Al Qaeda network. This distinction earned the Arab chain an exclusive contract in the West with the American news chain CNN; the contract fell apart months later after a dispute.[citation needed]
The station claims to be the only politically independent television station in the Middle East and the Arab world. His tone has come to annoy the US government on several occasions, which on at least one occasion has asked the Qatari government to take action on the matter, but to no avail.
In Iraq, after the 2003 war, the local government, supported by the United States, banned Al Jazeera on several occasions. In addition, the Saudi monarchy receives frequent criticism from Al Jazeera, which means that this television channel is not viewed favorably by the former.[citation required]
In May 2021, in the Gaza Strip, Palestine; the government of Israel bombed a building which was the headquarters of the American news agencies Associated Press and the Qatari television network Al Jazeera.
Because of its independent nature, Al Jazeera has recently received much criticism during protests in the Arab world, for broadcasting everything that happens without censorship.
The Al-Jazeera Network
Al Jazeera has a number of thematic channels in addition to its flagship Arabic news channel. Al Jazeera's network includes:
- Al Jazeera
- The original channel of the chain that broadcasts 24 hours of news in Arabic
- Bein Sports Arabia
- Sports version of the channel (launched in 2003). She has several sister chains:
- Al Jazeera Sports +1
- He had a great audience because he had Spanish League matches in his programming. It was launched in 2004.
- Al Jazeera Sports +2
- Sports pay channel. It emits the UEFA Cup, the Spanish League and the Italian League.
- Al Jazeera Sports +3
- Sports channel with comments in English.
- Al Jazeera Sports HD
- Also called “Al Jazeera Sports +4”. It emits high definition content. Transmit the UEFA Cup in that format.
- Al Jazeera Mobasher (“Al Jazeera Live”)
- Launched on 15 April 2005, this signal broadcasts live and live conferences without editing, comments or interventions by journalists or commentators. The signal also uses subtitles when translation is needed. It is similar to channels such as C-SPAN or BBC Parliament. He's the first of his kind in the Arab world.
- JeemTV
- It is airborne on 9 September 2005, this sign of Al Jazeera is aimed at children between 3 and 15 years of age. It is available in several countries of the Middle East and some parts of Europe.
- Al Jazeera in English
- Al Jazeera's English signal emits 24 hours of news in that language. His main studies are in the city of Doha, the capital of Catar, but a programming segment is broadcast from his studies in London. It is the sister chain of the sign in Arabic of Al Jazeera. The channel transmits news, analysis, documentaries, debates, news, business and sports. It was launched on 15 November 2006.
- Al Jazeera English is the first English news channel based in the Middle East.
- Al Jazeera Documentaries
- Channel of the Al Jazeera network that broadcasts documentaries relating preferably to the Middle East. It was launched on 1 January 2007. The channel points out that it produces 15% of its content, while the rest of the documentaries get it from other Arab producturas and other countries around the world.
- beIN Sport
- Network of cable television and sports satellite channels.
- Al Jazeera America
- The signal emits news in America. U.S.
- Al Jazeera Balkans
- Al Jazeera network channel broadcasting news from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was launched on 11 November 2011; it broadcasts news in Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian languages.
Al Jazeera international television
- Al Jazeera in the peninsular language
- Al Jazeera in Mandarin Chinese Language
- Al Jazeera in Spanish
- Al Jazeera in French
- Al Jazeera in English
- Al Jazeera in Russian
- Al Jazeera in Serb language
- Al Jazeera in Urdu language (for premiere, for the moment it is only a project)
Al Jazeera Radio International
- Al Jazeera in the peninsular language
- Al Jazeera in Mandarin Chinese Language
- Al Jazeera in Spanish
- Al Jazeera in French
- Al Jazeera in English
- Al Jazeera in Russian
- Al Jazeera in Serb language
- Al Jazeera in Urdu language (for premiere, for the moment it is only a project)
Criticism and bullying
Al Jazeera has been banned in Jordan, Syria, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Algeria.
In Spain
Tayseer Allouni, correspondent for Al Jazeera in Spain, was arrested in 2003 and sentenced by the National Court on accusations of belonging to Al Qaeda. He was given an exclusive interview by Osama bin Laden in 2001 during the war against Afghanistan, which was broadcast by Al-Jazeera. Video footage of the interview was used during the trial as evidence of Allouni's relationship with al Qaeda. He was released under house arrest on October 7, 2006 due to his state of health. Allouni was sentenced on September 26, 2005 to seven years in prison for being a financial courier for Al Qaeda.
In the United States
In the United States, Al Jazeera has been classified as a propaganda tool for terrorists following the dissemination of video messages delivered by Osama bin Laden and the interview that the latter gave to Tayseer Allouni. The US government says that Al Jazeera has a biased point of view and to counter this it opened an Arabic-language news channel, Alhurra, which broadcasts from Saudi Arabia.
On November 22, 2005, the British newspaper Daily Mirror revealed that it had a memorandum of the transcript of a conversation between Tony Blair and George W. Bush, in which Blair tried to persuade Bush to not to bomb Al Jazeera's headquarters in Qatar, a US ally and where the US has military bases. This latest incident reopened the controversy over the bombings of Al Jazeera's offices in Kabul in 2001 and in Baghdad in 2003, which were supposed to have been accidental.
The Al Jazeera office bombing occurred days before US forces entered the Iraqi capital during the Second Gulf War. The station's facilities were hit by a "smart" bomb. One of the chain's employees died in the attack.
Syria
Al-Jazeera has been accused of unfair coverage of events in Syria during the armed conflict that began in 2011. The reporting channel has been described primarily as propaganda in support of terrorists, while the Syrian government is demonized. The Lebanese daily As-Safir cited excerpts from interviews, suggesting that channel staff instructed witnesses and fabricated victims of Syrian government persecution. Sources suggest that Al-Jazeera has become the target of the emir of Qatar's aggressive policy abroad, which supports terrorists in Syria and calls for military intervention in the country.
In March 2012, Al Jazeera correspondents Ali Hashim and two others resigned their jobs over objections to reporting the conflict. Al-Jazeera reportedly paid $50,000 for smuggled phones and satellite communication tools for terrorists in Syria. Hashim said: "The channel was going to take an opportunistic stance, it was lying with all the details of the reports on the Syrian revolution."
Ahmad Ibrahim, who is responsible for Al-Jazeera's coverage in Syria, is the brother of a prominent member of the Syrian National Council. Al-Jazeera is reportedly pressuring its journalists to use the term "martyr" to refer to dead Syrian terrorists, but not to pro-government forces.
Future Plans
Future plans for Al Jazeera are to launch an Urdu-language news channel targeting people from Pakistan and India, as well as partnering with local media to create a Spanish-language channel targeting a Hispanic audience. It also plans to launch an international Arabic-language daily.