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AL-JAZEERA: THE INSIDE STORY OF THE ARAB NEWS CHANNEL THAT IS CHALLENGING THE WEST
By Hugh Miles


Reviewed by Morand Fachot
OCT 24, 2007

This review first appeared in The Channel In recent years no broadcast media outlet in the world has attracted as much attention, and controversy as the Qatar-based pan-Arab satellite news channel Al-Jazeera. Earlier this year, a survey by a worldwide branding consultancy ranked the network the world’s fifth most influential brand, behind Apple, Google, Ikea and Starbucks. No mean achievement for a channel launched in 1996 and virtually unknown outside the Arab world before the 9/11 attacks on the United States. Al-Jazeera – How Arab TV news challenged the world, details the origins and gradual expansion of the network which changed the Middle Eastern and global broadcast media landscapes. The author, Hugh Miles, an Arabic speaker born and partly educated in the Middle East, claims the particular situation of Qatar and the vision of its ruler allowed the creation of an independent channel in the emirate. From the distinctive nature and shortcomings of the Arabic media scene and the collapse of the BBC Arabic TV channel, to the working practices of the channel and reactions to its broadcasts in the Muslim and Western world, Miles gives a comprehensive account of what made Al-Jazeera such a special phenomenon. “The BBC Arabic [TV] service was the beginning. For the first time Arabs had the chance to watch Arab journalists doing the news and making programmes to the same standards as Western news channel,” an Al-Jazeera journalist told Miles. The sudden collapse of the BBC Arabic TV channel, a joint venture with the Saudi-owned Orbit satellite television company in April 1996, over a dispute regarding editorial control of the channel, left scores of BBC-trained journalists and other media staff out of a job overnight. Some 120 of these were immediately taken on by Al-Jazeera, providing editorial experience and a solid foundation for the young channel. Miles offers a broad overview of Al-Jazeera’s unique [in the Arab world] and often provocative programming. In particular, lively talk shows and interviews which saw officials and dissidents from all Arab countries discussing contemporary issues and arguing angrily. These proved very popular among Arab viewers, but angered many governments, leading to the closure of several Al-Jazeera bureaus throughout the region and a widespread Saudi-backed ban on advertising on the network. The channel achieved a first international breakthrough with its comprehensive coverage of the second intifida which, according to Miles, forced Arab governments to react following widespread popular protests in the Arab world. Amazingly, the Palestinian Authority also temporarily closed down the Al-Jazeera bureau in Ramallah following what it considered to be an offensive image of Yasser Arafat in a trailer program. Miles recalls how the 9/11 attacks on the USA and their aftermath proved a watershed for Al-Jazeera and established its global status. The channel was the only one with a bureau in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, and western networks started vying for its footage after the US launched its offensive and after it broadcast tapes from Osama bin Laden. This enhanced status also marked the beginning of tense relations…...  -->

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