- Related Stories
-
With oil supplies rising, price crunch easing
November 21, 2005 -
Search specialist stakes its claim on names
August 26, 2005
The media company, which operates an Arabic-language news TV channel and Web sites, will open a 24-hour English-language news channel starting in spring 2006 with broadcasting centers in Kuala Lumpur, London and Washington, D.C.
It will also relaunch its English-language Web site, complete with features like Short Message Service (SMS) publishing. The new station and the revamped Web site will be branded Al Jazeera International.
Subjects covered by the station will run the gamut, including talk shows, sports, international news and regional stories. It will also hire correspondents around the globe, opening up to 30 bureaus worldwide.
Currently, Al Jazeera is negotiating with Astro, a Malaysian satellite TV provider, to carry the channel. No potential U.S. carriers have been named.
The company launched in 1996 with the permission of Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the ruler of Qatar, who is trying to diversify and modernize the small nation on the Arabian Peninsula. The government does not interfere with the content of the news operation, and that policy will continue with Al Jazeera International.
The station gained fame for playing videotapes of Osama Bin Laden dropped off at its doors, and it has become a source of news in the region for many. U.S. security analysts also watch the station, sometimes with the help of simultaneous translation software.
Like many large companies in the Middle East, Al Jazeera International will largely be managed and staffed by foreigners. Al Jazeera's management looks like the alumni club of a British boarding school. Nigel Parsons, formerly with CNN and the BBC, will be the managing director, while Steve Clark, director of news, hails from England's Sky News. David Foster, another Sky alumnus, will serve as the main presenter, or anchor, from Doha.
Parsons earlier this month held a press conference in Malaysia to launch the effort.
Although the company is speaking to local media about the effort, it currently is refusing interviews with western reporters. The company wants to time news stories about the international push to coincide with the launch of the station and Web site, according to Al Jazeera International spokeswoman Charlotte Dent. Dent, however, did provide a document outlining the strategy.
- More from News.com on this story's topics
TVs
International governments
Politics
Government
See more CNET content tagged:
Qatar,
station,
CNN,
U.S.
Electronics & Computers Deals here!
Freedom is indeed a wonderful thing!
and it can be frighteningly anti-American, but I am interested in
thier audience's perspective, that they actually believe that crap.
The USA needs thier own mass media voice to dispell these
outrageous claims against the USA, and Jews. They need to
promote the positive of what can be if they move to Democracy,
and explain to Al Jazeera's audience our side of the story. We want
a stable, peaceful and prosperous MiddelEast.
has the guts to tell the Muslims that the Quran does not permit the
suicide bombers or their killing of their fellow Mulsims.
If Islam isn't going to part of the solution, then it is part of the
problem.
I would totally disagree with this part especially for Saudi Arabia. SABAC (and its many subsideries) , Aramco, SaudiTelecom, Saudi Airlines, AEC, Banks ..etc has average of 80% Saudi employees especially at the management and technical levels.
They have foreigners? yes. Largely managed and staffed by foreigners? ABSOLUTELY NOT!