Al Jazeera Arabic ( , ) is a Qatari state-funded Arabic-language news television network. It is based in Doha and operated by the Al Jazeera Media Network, which also operates Al Jazeera English. It is the largest news network in the Middle East and North Africa region. It was founded in 1996 by the then Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.
Noted for its journalistic professionalism, especially when contrasted with other Arab news organizations, Al Jazeera gained popularity in the Arab world as an alternative to the previous landscape of largely local state-owned broadcasters, with its early coverage being openly critical of autocratic leaders in the region, as well as hosting a wide range of viewpoints, gaining credibility through its extensive frontline coverage of the Second Intifada and the Iraq War. By the early 2000s, Al Jazeera had become the primary source of news for a majority of Arab viewers. The channel's reach and credibility also gave Qatar a powerful diplomatic tool and an outsized influence in regional affairs. Al Jazeera Arabic is editorially independent from Al Jazeera English.
History
Launch and initial coverage (1996–1999) Al Jazeera Satellite Channel, now known as AJA, was founded by Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, the then-Emir of the State of Qatar. He first publicly floated the idea of launching an international news channel in August 1994, when he was still crown prince. It was originally founded as a state-owned channel by an emiri decree on 8 February 1996. By the time the network was launched on 1 November 1996, many former workers of the first BBC Arabic television station, which had closed down in April of that year following censorship attempts by the Saudi government, were hired by Al Jazeera. Following a London screening of a six-hour test broadcast, the emir dropped his initial idea to mix news and entertainment, and decided on an all-news format. The channel was funded by Qatari government with a loan-turned-grant of approximately $137 million for its first five years of operations, and the government continued to cover more than $100 million per year in losses in the following years.
Al Jazeera's first day on the air was 1 November 1996. It offered 6 hours of programming per day; this increased to 12 hours of programming by the end of 1997. It was broadcast to the immediate neighborhood as a terrestrial signal, and on cable. Al Jazeera is also available through satellites (which was also free to users in the Arab world), although Qatar, and many other Arab countries barred private individuals from having satellite dishes until 2001.
At the time of the Al Jazeera Media Network launch, Arabsat was the only satellite broadcasting to the Middle East, and for the first year could only offer Al Jazeera a weak C-band transponder that needed a large satellite dish for reception. A more powerful Ku-band transponder became available as a peace-offering after its user, Canal France International, accidentally beamed 30 minutes of pornography into ultraconservative Saudi Arabia.
Al Jazeera was not the first such broadcaster in the Middle East; a number had appeared since the Arabsat satellite, a Saudi Arabia-based venture of 21 Arab governments, took orbit in 1985. The unfolding of Operation Desert Storm on CNN International underscored the power of live television in current events. While other local broadcasters in the region would assiduously avoid material embarrassing to their home governments (Qatar has its own official TV station as well), Al Jazeera was pitched as an impartial news source and platform for discussing issues relating to the Arab world.
Shortly after its airing in 1996, Al Jazeera became the first Arabic language television station to include Israelis (often speaking Hebrew) as guests on its programs. Lively and far-ranging talk shows, particularly a popular, confrontational one called El-Itidjah el-Mouakass (Arabic for The Opposite Direction), were a constant source of controversy regarding issues of morality and religion. This prompted a torrent of criticism from the conservative voices among the region's press. It also led to official complaints and censures from neighboring governments. Some countries, including Egypt, which banned Al Jazeera in 2013, and Bahrain, which banned Al Jazeera temporarily in 2010, have jammed Al Jazeera's terrestrial broadcast or expelled its correspondents. In 1999, the Algerian government reportedly cut power to several major cities in order to censor a broadcast of El-Itidjah el-Mouakass. There were also commercial repercussions: a number of Arab countries, like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, reportedly pressured advertisers to avoid the channel, to great success.
Al Jazeera was the only international news network to have correspondents in Iraq during the Operation Desert Fox bombing campaign in 1998. In a precursor of a pattern to follow, its exclusive video clips were highly prized by Western media.
Beginning of 24/7 broadcasting (1999) On 1 January 1999, Al Jazeera began to broadcast for 24 hours daily. Employment had more than tripled in one year to 500 employees. The agency had bureaus at a dozen sites as far away as the EU and Russia. Its annual budget was estimated at at the time.
However controversial, Al Jazeera was rapidly becoming one of the most influential news agencies in the whole region. Eager for news beyond the official versions of events, Arabs became dedicated viewers. A 2000 estimate pegged nightly viewership at 35 million, ranking Al Jazeera first in the Arab world, over the Saudi Arabia-sponsored Middle East Broadcasting Centre (MBC) and London's Arab News Network (ANN). There were about 70 satellite or terrestrial channels being broadcast to the Middle East, most of them in Arabic. Al Jazeera launched a free Arabic-language web site in January 2001. In addition, the TV feed was soon available in the United Kingdom for the first time via British Sky Broadcasting.
War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) Al Jazeera came to the attention of many in the West during the search for Osama bin Laden and the Taliban in Afghanistan after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States. It aired videos it received from Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, deeming new footage of the world's most wanted fugitives to be newsworthy. Some criticized the network for "giving a voice to terrorists". Al Jazeera's Washington, D.C., bureau chief, Hafez Al Mirazi, compared the situation to that of the Unabomber's messages in The New York Times. The network said it had been given the tapes because it had a large Arab audience.
Many other TV networks were eager to acquire the same footage. CNN International had exclusive rights to it for six hours before other networks could broadcast, a provision that was broken by the others on at least one controversial occasion. Prime Minister Tony Blair soon appeared on an Al Jazeera talk show on 14 November 2001, to state Britain's case for pursuing the Taliban into Afghanistan.
Al Jazeera's prominence rose during the war in Afghanistan because it had opened a bureau in Kabul before the war began. This gave it better access for videotaping events than other networks, which bought Al Jazeera's footage, sometimes for up to $250,000.Mohammed El-Nawawy, 2003. Al-jazeera: The Story of the Network That Is Rattling Governments and Redefining Modern Journalism. Cambridge, MA: Westview Press, p. 166,
A United States missile destroyed the Kabul office in 2001. Looking to stay ahead of possible future conflicts, Al Jazeera then opened bureaux in other troubled spots.
The network remained dependent on government support in 2002, with a budget of and ad revenues of about . It also took in fees for sharing its news feed with other networks. It had an estimated 45 million viewers around the world. Al Jazeera soon had to contend with a new rival, Al Arabiya, a venture of the Middle East Broadcasting Center, which was set up in nearby Dubai with Saudi financial backing.
On 21 May 2003, Al Jazeera broadcast a three-minute clip from a tape that was obtained from Al Qaeda. In the tape, Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian physician and an intellectual supporter of Al Qaeda, mentioned the 11 September attack and other instances of terrorism against Western countries, saying that "The Crusaders and Jews understand only the language of killing and blood. They can only be persuaded through returning coffins, devastated interests, burning towers and collapsed economies."
In 2005, Tayseer Allouni, an Al Jazeera journalist who was tasked to interview Osama bin Laden several weeks after the 9/11 attacks was arrested in Spain while he was investigating the Madrid train bombings. Allouni was accused of being close to Al Qaeda, eventually was found guilty, and sentenced to seven years of house arrest.
In October 2003, the managing editor of the Saudi newspaper Arab News, John R. Bradley, recounted that the Bush administration had told the Qatari government that "If Al Jazeera failed to reconsider its news context, the US would, in turn, have to consider its relation with Qatar."
Iraq War (2003–2011) Before and during the United States-led invasion of Iraq, where Al Jazeera had a presence since 1997, the network's facilities and footage were again highly sought by foreign networks. The channel and its web site also were seeing unprecedented attention from viewers looking for alternatives to embedded reporting and military press conferences.
Al Jazeera moved its sports coverage to a new, separate channel on 1 November 2003, allowing for more news and public affairs programming on the original channel. An English language web site had launched earlier in March 2003. The channel had about 1,300 to 1,400 employees, its newsroom editor told The New York Times. There were 23 bureaux around the world and 70 foreign correspondents, with 450 journalists in all.
On 1 April 2003, a United States plane fired on Al Jazeera's Baghdad bureau, killing reporter Tareq Ayyoub. The attack was called "a mistake" by The Pentagon; however, Al Jazeera had supplied the US with a precise map of the location of the bureau in order to spare it from attack.Robert Fisk: The Independent, 2 November 2011. Retrieved 5 November 2011
Arab Spring (2010s)
Al Jazeera became the first channel to air the 2010 Tunisian protests following the death of Mohamed Bouazizi. In a short period, the protests in Tunisia spread to the other Arab states, becoming known as the Arab Spring, often leading to scrutiny from other Arab governments.
Qatar diplomatic crisis (2017–2021)
The closing of the Al Jazeera Media Network was one of the terms of diplomatic reestablishment put forward by Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt during the 2017 Qatar diplomatic crisis.
On 23 June 2017, the countries that cut ties to Qatar issued a list of demands to end the crisis, insisting that Qatar shut down the Al Jazeera network, close a Turkish military base and scale down ties with Iran. The call, included in a list of 13 points, read: "Shut down Al Jazeera and its affiliate stations." Agencies, media outlets, journalists and media rights organizations decried the demands to close Al Jazeera as attempts to curb press freedom, including Reporters Without Borders; The Guardian, The New York Times, and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Earlier, Saudi Arabia and the UAE blocked Al Jazeera websites; Saudi Arabia closed Al Jazeera's bureau in Riyadh and halted its operating licence, accusing the network of promoting "terrorist groups" in the region; and Jordan also revoked the license for Al Jazeera. Saudi Arabia also banned hotels from airing Al Jazeera, threatening fines of up to 26,000 dollars for those violating the ban.
On 6 June 2017, Al Jazeera was the victim of a cyber attack on all of its platforms.