Whether you love or hate the idea of a US-funded, Arabic-language satellite news station broadcasting to the Arab world, Al-Hurra - which launched regionally in mid-February - appears set to stay the course. When asked about what the channel had to prove in order to secure its annual funding from …
Read More »Alhurra—Dialogue with the Deaf
The United States Government's new Arabic-language satellite television channel claims to be bringing something new to the Arab world. The message is impossible to miss, as it is incessantly hyped in the clumsily cued station promos: If you look, you must surely see; a new horizon; a new window on the …
Read More »A New Look to Arab News
There is something very important to be said about competition, especially within the media. With the onslaught of cable and satellite networks in the United States, Americans can easily watch a news story on four or five different channels, to ensure they get a balanced and accurate idea of what …
Read More »Showtime: Profit, At Last
On May 26,2004, Viacom's Sumner Redstone and Faisal al-Ayyar of Kipco (Kuwait Investment Projects Co) will perform a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Showtime's brand-new broadcasting centre at Dubai Media City. The two major shareholders in Showtime have much to celebrate. Showtime is, without doubt, the Middle East's most successful Pay-TV platform. …
Read More »Access and Bias in Arab Satellite Journalism: A Dialogue between Salah Negm, Chief Editor of Al-Arabiya, and S. Abdallah Schleifer, Senior Editor of TBS
SAS: In recent weeks, and in particular in reference to the coverage of the Falluja and Mahdi Army uprisings, Coalition spokesmen in Baghdad have alleged biased reporting from Al-Arabiya as well as Al Jazeera. Your comment before mine. Salah Negm: I would say first that generalizing judgments like this one are not …
Read More »Interview with Ahmed Sheikh, Chief Editor, Al Jazeera
S. Abdallah Schleifer interviewed the new chief editor at Al Jazeera early in mid- April only a few weeks after he had taken up the position following a stint running Al Jazeera's new English-language website. TBS: You were a member of the original BBC Arabic TV group that founded Al Jazeera. …
Read More »The Gulf Media Mood: As Good As Ever
Usually when I get to Qatar I check into a hotel and make my way over to Al Jazeera. Not this time around. This time, my first stop was the new Ritz Carleton, where I stayed there for the next couple days to attend a conference on development and democracy …
Read More »The Future of Al Jazeera
Over the past seven years Al Jazeera has introduced a new culture and a new paradigm into the Arab world. A culture and a paradigm that rest upon the free exercise of journalism and public affairs broadcasting. During the early days of Al Jazeera it was something exciting to have …
Read More »The Satellite, the Prince, and Scheherazade : The Rise of Women as Communicators in Digital Islam
A professor at Mohamed V University in Rabat (Morocco), Fatema Mernissi is currently a full-time researcher at the IURS (Institut Universitaire de Recherche Scientifique) where she splits her time between animating writing workshops for civic actors seeking to influence public opinion through publications and conducting her own field-work based analysis …
Read More »Counter Programming: Danny Schechter Interviews Jehane Noujaim about her Documentary on Al Jazeera
The 1991 war in Iraq propelled an American satellite channel, known colloquially as the Chicken News Network and by its initials, CNN, into a global news power. In the second Iraq war, another broadcaster, Al-Jazeera, became famous - or infamous, depending on your point of view. Most Americans know Al-Jazeera for …
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