There is something refreshingly professional about the New MBC, which is new both by virtue of its location in Dubai instead of (at this time of year) wet and windswept Battersea in London and because this great pioneer of independent pan-Arab satellite television (it all began with MBC broadcasting from …

On the first anniversary of 9-11, the Arab World's three leading transnational TV news broadcasters-MBC, Abu Dhabi Space Channel, and Al Jazeera-brought an intense scrutiny to bear on the events that have caused so much soul-searching in the Arab World. Predictably enough, the Arab satellite stations' treatment of those events, …

Despite the fact that the media has long been the most important state apparatus in the Middle East, now, in light of the amazing developments in the field of media, it is impossible to find a correlation between the views promoted by a state or party and those promoted by …

APRIL 20, 2002: Media organizations and watch groups around the world have complained to the Israeli government after multiple incidents of journalists being harassed, barred from covering the news, and in some cases shot at or expelled from the country. On April 3, BBC World News Editor Jonathan Baker protested to …

Chris Forrester reports on new technology developments from the Satellite 2002 conference in Washington. "Consolidation is Inevitable" Small, regional and national satellite operators have little or no future, according to one of the major satellite consolidators. Giuliano Berretta, CEO of Paris-based Eutelsat, says satellite consolidation is not just about merging …

Almost four years ago I went to meet with Orbit's vice president of programming Ross Chalder at the Egyptian Media Production City (EMPC), where Orbit was setting up in preparation for their first broadcast out of the new facilities during their World Cup 98 coverage. It was still the early …

The events of September 11 took center stage through intercultural eyes at the 19th Intercultural Communication Conference (ICC). Over a period of three days, February 21-23, the University of Miami's School of Communication hosted its annual convention at its beautiful, lush campus in Coral Gables, Florida. The keynote speakers for …

An excerpt from the book "Al-Jazeera: How the Free Arab News Network Scooped the World and Changed the Middle East," by Mohammed El-Nawawy and Adel Iskandar. Cambridge, MA: Westview Press, 2002. Thanks to Westview Press and the authors for permission to publish this excerpt. "Has the American media slogan become: 'No voice is louder than …

From the very beginning of Fouad Ajami's critique of Al-Jazeera television ("What the Muslim World is Watching," New York Times Magazine, November 18, 2001), it is evident that there is something amiss. All of the Muslim world cannot be watching Al-Jazeera since most of its 1.2 billion souls do not …

This article originally appeared in the Nov. 18, 2001 issue of the New York Times Magazine and is republished here by permission of the author. Al-Jazeera is not subtle television. Recently, during a lull in its nonstop coverage of the raids on Kabul and the street battles of Bethlehem, the …