The new Arab media phenomenon: Qatar's al-Jazeera

Middle East Policy

Volumn 8, Issue 2, 2001, Pages 88-99

  Bahry, Louay Y ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0035631960     PISSN: 10611924     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1475-4967.00020     Document Type: Article

References (37)

1. David Hir, "The Television Studio Arab Leaders Hate the Most," Chicago Tribune, April 9, 2000.
2. For a more detailed study of the elections to the Municipal Council, see Louay Bahry, "Elections in Qatar," Middle East Policy, Vol. 6, No. 4, June 1999, pp. 118-127.
3. Louay Bahry, "A Qatari Spring," Middle East Insight, Vol. 15, No. 3, September-October 2000, pp. 39-44.
4. The Qataris had been thinking about introducing a new type of TV broadcast even earlier. In January 1996, Qatari TV offered a sort of prototype for al-Jazeera, when two leading opposition figures from Bahrain publicly expressed views against the Bahrain government. This program was perceived as a dramatic innovation in Bahrain and elsewhere in the Gulf. It was the first time that a TV program in any GCC country had expressed criticism of the government of a member state. The two debaters were Dr. Mansur al-Jamri and Shaikh Ali Salman, then both living in exile in London.
5. Interview with Shaikh Hamad Bin Thamir Al Thani, chairman of the Board of Directors of al-Jazeera, Doha, May 15, 2000.
6. Edmund Ghareeb, "New Media and the Information Revolution in the Arab World," Middle East Journal, Vol. 54, No. 3, Summer 2000, p. 405.
7. The BBC had been receiving 100 million Saudi riyals ($26.66 million) a year from the Saudi government. Eliminating this subsidy was a considerable blow to the BBC.
8. Khalij News, Abu Dhabi, April 16, 2000.
9. The name al-Jazeera was chosen "because it means the peninsula (al-Jazirah-l-Arabiyyah), . . . of which Qatar is an important part" (interview with Shaikh Hamad Bin Thamir, Doha, May 15, 2000).
10. Al-Jazeera has offices in Tehran, Baghdad, Ramallah, Cairo, Kabul, Sanaa, Khartum, Moscow, Paris, London and Washington, DC. The most important office abroad is London (Called Studio Number 2), which is staffed with some 25 employees (interview with Salah Najim, Doha, May 15, 2000). Salah Najim is head of programs at al-Jazeera.
11. Faisal al-Qasim told this author that there are more people watching al-Jazeera in North Africa than in the Persian Gulf.
12. In a recent example of this recognition, The Washington Post referred to al-Jazeera as its source in reporting on an Israeli military raid on a stronghold of the Islamic Palestinian group, HAMAS. The attack took place in Nablus, on the West Bank (The Washington Post, August 27, 2000).
13. Interview with Abd Allah Ibrahim al-Haj, assistant general manager, al-Jazeera, Doha, May 16, 2000.
14. Interview with Faisal al-Qasim, Doha, May 8, 2000.
15. Ahmad Jawad, "The Direction that is no Longer Opposite," al-Hayat (London), September 25, 2000.
16. Faisal al-Qasim interview.
17. Ahmad Jawad, "The Direction that is no Longer Opposite," al-Hayat, September 25, 2000.
18. Faisal al-Qasim interview.
19. The program, "al-Ittijah al-Muakis," is the subject of at least two books in Arabic, both of them by a Saudi university professor, Dr. Sulaiman Jazia al-Shammari. The first is Burnamaj al-Ittijah al-Muakis [The Opposite Direction Program] (Doha: Dar al-Sharq, 1998). The second is al-Buad al-Qawmi fil Qannat_al-Jazeera [The National Dimension in al-Jazeera Channel] (Doha: Dar al-Sharq, 1999).
20. The program, "al-Ittijah al-Muakis," is the subject of at least two books in Arabic, both of them by a Saudi university professor, Dr. Sulaiman Jazia al-Shammari. The first is Burnamaj al-Ittijah al-Muakis [The Opposite Direction Program] (Doha: Dar al-Sharq, 1998). The second is al-Buad al-Qawmi fil Qannat_al-Jazeera [The National Dimension in al-Jazeera Channel] (Doha: Dar al-Sharq, 1999).
21. Dr. al-Qardhawi is a well known Sunni scholar advocating modern, flexible, Islamic ideas, and he has many followers in the Arab world.
22. Ehud Yaari, http://www.JerusalemReport.Com, "The Al-Jazeera Revolution," March 23, 2000.
23. One of al-Jazeera's officials told this author that one Arab ambassador told him that he is not the ambassador to Qatar but the ambassador to al-Jazeera, due to the frequency of his visits to the station. Another told the same source that even while he is presenting an official protest to al-Jazeera, he personally agrees with what al-Jazeera is saying about his country and encourages the station to continue to broadcast in all frankness.
24. Interview with Abd al-Aziz Ibrahim al-Mahmud, editor-in-chief, al-Sharq, Doha, May 3, 2000.
25. Jon Alterman, New Media, New Politics: From Satellite Television to the Internet in the Arab World (Washington, DC: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy) 1998, p. 16.
26. Interview with Shaikh Hamad Bin Thamir Al Thani, head, Board of Directors, al-Jazeera, Doha, May 15, 2000.
27. Saudi Arabia now controls a network of Arabic newspapers and magazines. It controls advertisements and press agencies. All this gives Saudi Arabia advantages in controlling the advertising industry in the Arab world.
28. Interview with Ali Kamal, director of marketing, al-Jazeera, Doha, May 16, 2000.
29. An example was criticism by al-Jazeera of Israeli participation in the Economic Summit Conference held in Doha in November 1997.
30. Abd Allah al-Haj interview.
31. Al-Zaman (Arabic daily), London, May 15, 2000, p. 3.
32. Edmund Ghareeb, "New Media," p. 410.
33. Husni Abu al-Maali, al-Quds al-Arabi (London), June 16, 1999.
34. Al-Watan (Qatari daily), Doha, May 9, 2000.
35. Interview with Dr. Ahmad Abd al-Malik, professor of communications. Qatar University, Doha, May 13, 2000.
36. The whole concept of such a zone came under severe pressure when the Egyptian information minister attacked al-Jazeera's coverage of the Arab Summit Conference in Cairo, held in October 2000, and Egypt's policy during and following the conference. The minister stated: "Al-Jazeera is launching a demogogic attack against Egypt . . . and I am considering certain steps, such as cutting all ties with al-Jazeera, including its studios and its correspondents . . . . I hope I will not have to take such measures." Al-Quds al-Arabi (London), October 27, 2000.
37. Shaikh Hamad Bin Thamir Al Thani interview.