Al-Jazeera: The Inside Story of the Arab News Channel That is Challenging the West

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 with Washington, which continue to this day, and have resulted in strong direct and indirect pressures from Washington on the channel and the Qatari authorities and – some argue – in deliberate US strikes against Al-Jazeera offices and staff in Kabul and Baghdad.
Interestingly, Al-Jazeera is frequently accused of being funded and controlled by Israel and the USA in some Arab circles, and by al-Qaeda and other terrorists or extremists by Washington and Tel Aviv; this could be seen as a tribute to its editorial independence.
Miles also highlights US contradictions regarding non-Western media: whilst advocating free-speech in the Arab world Washington reserves its harshest critics for a channel which has truly opened up political debates in the Arab world.
It could be argued that Al-Jazeera is no more anti-American than many European media organizations. For instance, according to a February 2005 Media Tenor survey, the share of negative statements about the US on Germany’s leading news show “Tagesthemen” (produced by public broadcaster ARD) was higher than those on Al-Jazeera news in January 2005. Yet Western media are not targeted by Washington.
However, not all US officials are hostile to Al-Jazeera, Department of State Spokesman Dr Nabil Khouri is quoted as saying: “I would prefer to watch Al-Jazeera any time rather than Fox.”
At the same time, Miles says, the US is embarking on an ineffective media offensive in the Arab world by sponsoring costly advertising campaigns and launching a stream of broadcast media services targeting Arab audiences and often perceived as brazen propaganda.
Too often, this book appears overly “positive” about Al-Jazeera: the channel does no wrong and nearly all criticisms directed at it are too easily dismissed as irrelevant or unjustified. However, if Al-Jazeera has indeed transformed the Arabic broadcast media landscape, and is undoubtedly proving a popular success with a global audience estimated at nearly 50 million, it still has plenty of room for improvement and would certainly benefit from some tightening of its editorial practices, nothing surprising for this fairly new kid on the international broadcasting block.
Al-Jazeera – How Arab TV news challenged the world has a comprehensive index, but lacks notes.
It will prove a key book for those wanting to understand the Arab media scene and the deep transformations it went through in the past 10 years or so, thanks precisely to Al-Jazeera. It is also essential reading for all those interested in Middle Eastern politics, international broadcasting, public diplomacy and international relations.

About the reviewer

Morand Fachot is a media analyst and international broadcasting consultant. He worked as a journalist and media analyst with the BBC World Service (Monitoring Service), and media officer for the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). His publications include an FT Business Management Report on “European public broadcasting in the digital age” as well as articles and papers on international broadcasting; media, conflict and the military; hate media; and broadcast technology for BBC News Online, The Channel (Association for International Broadcasting, U.K.), International Affairs (U.K.), Transnational Broadcasting Studies Journal (Adham Center, The American University in Cairo, Egypt), Policy Options (Canadian Institute for Research on Public Policy), Commentaire (France), Diffusion Online (EBU).