Nov 16 2006
A changing channel
By Daoud Kuttab
When it first appeared, the new satellite channel broadcast from Qatar reflected its own name. Al-Jazeera – Arabic for “the island” – represented a haven of professional, independent, current affairs programming in a sea of one-sided, government-controlled Arab media. Until al-Jazeera’s journalists, mostly BBC-trained, arrived on the scene, the average Arab citizen’s news television diet was nothing more than protocol news, wire service video reflecting the latest in the Palestinian conflict, and dramatic photos of earthquakes or wild fires. Continue Reading »