Al Jazeera Television

Founded in 1996, the Qatari satellite broadcasting station Al Jazeera has become the most popular news network in the Arab world and has a worldwide reputation. The channel is generally recognized for making a breakthrough in the history of Arab television by having introduced a liberal TV model that is largely free of government control into the Arab media landscape. The network was founded by Qatar's ruler, Emir Al-Thani, who hired a large number of journalists from BBC's closed-down Arabic service. The “Arab CNN,” as Al Jazeera is often called, aims at combining U.S. news and politainment formats with BBC's journalism ethics of “neutrality” and “objectivity” while carrying out an Arab news agenda. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, in New York and ...