In late June, almost a year after the announcement that the Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera was launching an English language edition called Al Jazeera International (AJI), AJI executive producer of programming for the Americas, Joanne Levine, authored an impassioned op-ed column in the Washington Post.

Levine spoke of AJI reporters in North Dakota whose mere presence triggered the interest of law enforcement authorities. She complained that her news organization couldn’t get liability insurance and was having difficulty finding anyone to distribute its programming in the U.S. She also wrote that many people were simply declining to be interviewed by AJI reporters.

“Each incident shrouded in bigotry,” Levine concluded, “has served to convince me ever more that the United States needs an outlet like Al Jazeera International, offering a wider panorama of views.”1

In some circles, the name Al Jazeera stirs up strong reactions, conjuring up Osama bin Ladin videos, raging anti-American sentiment in the Mideast, and allegations of journalistic tilt. (During the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, the network suspended regular programming to show continuous video of the victims of the Israeli attack in Qana.)And since its emergence as a powerful global news force — it was Al Jazeera that provided the world with the first images of the U.S. attack on Afghanistan in October 2001 – the network has endured an accusation-filled history with the Bush administration. (See the “timeline” of Al Jazeera/U.S. tensions.)

Not surprisingly, last year’s announcement that Al Jazeera was planning an English-language channel generated intense interest and in some quarters, anger. Soon, there were announcements about the roster of well-known personalities in the AJI fold – veteran British talk host and interviewer David Frost, former “Nightline” correspondent Dave Marash (AJI also made a highly publicized overture to Ted Koppel) and Josh Rushing, the ex-Marine best known as a lead character in the critically acclaimed 2004 documentary about Al Jazeera called Control Room.

But the road to launching AJI was strewn with potholes. Initial projections for a debut in the first half of 2006 proved overly optimistic as word spread of the network’s difficulties in finding satellite or cable distributors. In the meantime, a potential rival, the BBC World Channel, got a toehold in the New York market this spring. In June, an AP story on AJI’s embryonic operation began by declaring that “the English-language Al Jazeera International TV network faces enough hurdles to make Olympic champion Edwin Moses tremble.”2

Despite all this, AJI officials insist they will soon launch an ambitious operation that could include more than 400 employees from more than 40 ethnic backgrounds staffing more than 30 worldwide bureaus attached to four main broadcast centers in Doha, Qatar; Kuala Lumpur Malaysia; London; and Washington, D.C. Yet since the delay, much of this has been shrouded in doubt and confusion.

To try and separate myth from fact and to get a sense of what AJI is still planning, the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s Mark Jurkowitz sat down with AJI commercial director Lindsey Oliver, who is responsible for marketing and distribution, in AJI’s Washington offices. (Washington bureau chief Will Stebbins joined the conversation later. And Oliver responded to one question via email after the interview was completed. The interview below is an edited transcript of those discussions.)

While remaining circumspect about some of the details of distribution and programming, and insisting the problems are purely technical, not political, the AJI executives outlined the network’s editorial philosophy, described the obstacles to getting on the air, and explained its relationship with the Arab version of Al Jazeera. Put simply, AJI seems to be operating with the idea that Americans are ready for a different view of world events that includes a focus on underreported regions of the globe and provides a diverse set of perspectives.

(Research assistant Jessica Goldings helped produce the interview transcript and the Al Jazeera timeline.)

[has]

Oliver: You’re right; we were hoping that it would be on air before now. And because we set ourselves a schedule….of late spring early summer, and we found the technology, the connectivity wasn’t ready for then, it might not surprise you that we’re not going to give other dates now.

[launch]

Q: The biggest single obstacle…has it been simply connecting the four centers and making that work or is it the distribution issue? Is it a combination?

Oliver: No, it’s not a combination. It’s absolutely the technical challenges that we face…This channel is going to be available to people all over the world. Quite frankly, we would launch if we had zero households in the U.S.—that’s not going to happen…So no, it’s been purely the technology. This is something that hasn’t been done before. I personally think it’s going to be fabulous when it’s all up and running, when you have Kuala Lumpur speaking to, arguing with, debating with, discussing with Washington and London, and Doha all at the same time and getting these views from different parts of the world.

Q: What’s the potential audience reach of the network? Where will it ultimately be available?

Oliver: Well I would say everywhere, frankly. That sounds rather ambitious, but my target, that I actually set myself when we started just over a year ago, was to have 40 million households through contract deals at the time of launch… This is worldwide—that’s never been done before. And I’m very pleased to say that we’re going to hit that figure.

Q: Where are the 40 million households going to be?

Oliver: Well, everywhere in the world where English is spoken, frankly. I can give you some examples. We haven’t actually announced many deals yet…But I can tell you that we have many million households committed to us in Germany, France, UK, Scandinavia. We have parts of Africa, Southeast Asia, and many more…And of course in all of those areas cable and satellite capacities are severely constrained, so you do a deal with whichever carrier seems to be most appropriate. In order to fill in the gaps, at the outset, we’ll also be on the internet, which is going to be fairly radical for a news channel.

Q: What about the issue of carriage in the U.S.? What can you say at this point?

Oliver: Well, I can say the U.S. we always expected to be a tough market, and it hasn’t disappointed us (laugh)…It’s taken us about a year, I think, for us to go and speak to cable and satellite operators…about what this channel is and what it’s not. And it’s not something you can do just in one glib lunch or meeting. This is a channel and a brand that tends to inspire very strong feelings…And so, when you have your initial meetings with people you have to be ready to expect a lot of different reactions. To some people…they really think it’s a great thing. Other people are very skeptical…Other people are frankly concerned and frightened that you may be supporting something they don’t want to see supported.

I’ve had countless meetings with cable and satellite operators in the U.S., but I have to say that the tone of the meetings is now completely different from what it was a year ago. You know we are absolutely open about who we are and what we’re trying to do, and that openness I think has become appreciated by the cable operators and the more they hear about and the more they understand what we’re trying to do…the more they’re realizing that this is a channel they ought to have within their bouquet…I can’t give you any names I’m afraid, which is a little frustrating…But we will have carriage on major cable and satellite operators at launch in the U.S.

Q: I read the Joanne Levine piece in the Washington Post…and she described some of the sort of institutional resistance, particularly in this country. I assume that was an accurate assessment.

Oliver: Yes, there is a skepticism a lot of the time, or there has been—much less now. But, for me, that’s part of the challenge of what we’re trying to do here. We are expecting our channel to challenge people’s preconceptions; often I think they’re misconceptions, about all sorts of things throughout the world…I’ve never been treated anything but politely and frankly, I would rather somebody came out and told me what their real feelings are and what their interest is…than if they glossed over and politely ignored those issues, because these are issues that we have to deal with. As business, as a news network, we must deal with these misconceptions in certain markets that are there about Al Jazeera, and I’ve always found it fascinating talking to operators and other people in the industry there and I’ve usually found it extremely rewarding once I get into the conversation and they have the chance to talk to me and I have the chance to talk to them.

Q: Let me ask you about the editorial philosophy…Are you primarily an international news channel? I know from your media kit that there is plenty of sports and entertainment programming. How do you describe yourselves?

Oliver: We are the first international news channel in the English language to come and to be based from the Middle East looking out. Now what does that mean? What it means is that our coverage and our understanding of Middle East issues is second to none. At the same time, we’re broadening that. I mean, Al Jazeera in Arabic language has been very famous for a long time as being the expert with the access to issues and people, etc. in the Middle East. What we’re doing is taking that expertise, broadening that and taking it to other areas of the world that are also underreported. That’s why we have a bureau in Asia, in Kuala Lumpur. We have one in Europe and we have one here in Washington. Now London and Washington aren’t necessarily what I would describe as underreported areas of the world, but what they’re covering are the whole of these time zones that they’re situated in. So for instance, Will’s team here in Washington is not just covering Washington, the U.S.—it’s covering the whole of the American continent.

What we aim to do is to provide an insight into alternative points of view and news that’s going on in parts of the world that tends to be underreported. For instance, we’ll be very strong in Africa, our coverage of Africa, our coverage of South America, of course extremely strong in the Middle East… It’s always interesting to hear what the other side is saying, but you want to feel that you’re being heard in return, and that there is an exchange—a dialogue—rather than just sitting and receiving information… So not only will we take the western viewpoint into the Middle East—which I think is very important—we will also be taking the viewpoint of these other areas back into the places into the west where they don’t get a lot of coverage at the moment.

Stebbins (entering the discussion) : I think what’s going to distinguish us from the rest is that we’re not going to be your standard cable news channel. We will have a great variety of programming. We will be informative. We will be a source for breaking news. We will have half-hour bulletins on the hour, but we will also have longer format programming. Every hour will consist of a half-hour block of news, but in the second block will be longer format, and a lot of these programs in that second half hour will be commissioned pieces. So each broadcast center…will be combing its region looking for original voices from that region.

Q: Since you talked about all those conversations you had with people who may initially have reservations, what do you say to people…who automatically link you with the Arab satellite channel?

[When people say]

[question]

Q: How do you respond specifically to allegations that Al Jazeera is an outlet for anti-American sentiment or propaganda?

Oliver: Al Jazeera is a news channel and as such it is by definition not pro or against any country and least of all an outlet for anti-American sentiment or propaganda. Al Jazeera hosts American analysts, commentators, and guests on a regular basis to ensure that they have balanced representation in their reports. They’ve built their reputation on being independent, impartial, and unprejudiced and you can see that reflected on the screen in their news and current affairs programming. Their very vision, mission, and code of ethics clearly articulate that they look at issues from all sides. Inevitably some of their reports and programmers do challenge the official version of events. But they make no apology for that. One of the key roles of the journalist in society has been to challenge, to look carefully at all sides of an issue and present these points of view so that the audience can decide for themselves.”

[Americans]

Oliver: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I think it’s a vicious circle. You can’t be interested in something that you know nothing about. And so if information and good news coverage of the rest of the world isn’t very available to you, it’s not surprising that you’re not going to have a great interest…I think there’s an awful lot going on that does both directly and indirectly affect people in the States that they just don’t know about.

Stebbins: I think we’ve begun from the premise that geography and culture inevitably affects one’s outlook and affects one’s perception of world events. And if one reports strictly from a single national context, that’s clearly going to affect the way one reports. So what we’ve done is we’ve established these broadcast centers in four different parts of the world. So we’re going to offer news from four distinct cultural perspectives to avoid this variation—that we’ll be giving a complete picture.

[the Washington Center]

Stebbins: Well we’ve been running a lot of exercises…stories that have a bit of shelf life. So we’ve had crews in Haiti, we’ve had crews up in Canada, we’ve had crews in Latin America and Central America, and…we’ve had crews in Texas and along the border. So we’ve been producing stories that have some shelf life. Stories that we know will be issues that people want to deal with, editorial themes that we will be dealing with fairly regularly.

Q: Anything else you want to mention?

Stebbins: In terms of official attitudes towards Al Jazeera, there’s certainly been a sea change in the U.S.. I think it can be dated with the appointment of Karen Hughes, the undersecretary of public affairs. There’s clearly a recognition that there’s a certain urgency that the U.S. needs to communicate to certain parts of the world that it’s having a hard time doing. And that you need to communicate across a legitimate platform, no matter what the message…And we’ve been using our time off air to establish relations with places like the Pentagon and the Whitehouse… and there’s certainly a recognition there that we might be very valuable to them.”

Footnotes

1. “Al-Jazeera, as Amerian as Apple Pie,” Washington Post, June 25, 2006.

2. “Al-Jazeera TV delays its debut in English,” Associated Press, June 11, 2006

In an interview with the PEJ, Al Jazeera International Washington bureau chief Will Stebbins argues that the relationship between the U.S. government and Al Jazeera has changed for the better, a development he traces to last year’s appointment of former presidential counselor Karen Hughes to the position of undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs. But in the post 9/11 world, the history between the Arab news channel known for airing Osama bin Laden videos and the Bush administration has often been marked by hostility and tension. (It is worth noting that Al Jazeera has angered some Arab governments as well. Saudi Arabia has barred Al Jazeera from its soil and Tunisia, Morocco and Libya all temporarily recalled their ambassadors to Qatar to protest Al Jazeera’s reporting).

The timeline below—compiled with the help of a variety of media sources, including Al Jazeera, as well as the Committee to Protect Journalists—chronicles some of the major elements of the relationship between Al Jazeera and the US government and its allies.

November 1, 1996 – The Arab news channel Al Jazeera is launched with a start-up grant of $140 million from the emir of Qatar. “Free from the shackles of censorship and government control,” according to its website, Al Jazeera “has offered its audiences in the Arab world much needed freedom of thought, independence, and room for debate.”

January 1, 1999 – Al Jazeera expands from six hours a day to 24 hours a day. Today, it has more than 30 bureaus and an estimated worldwide audience of 50 million viewers.

[and]

October 3, 2001 – U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell expresses concern about Al Jazeera to the Qatari emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani in a meeting. Following the meeting, one senior State Department official said the emir was “defensive” about the issue and countered that he did not feel Al Jazeera was any more inflammatory than any other Arab media outlet. Still, according to the official, the emir said he “would take it under advisement.”

October 7, 2001 – Al Jazeera broadcasts a statement by Osama bin Laden two hours after the US-led coalition begins military strikes against Afghanistan. In it, bin Laden says the U.S. will have no rest until the Middle East conflict is resolved and U.S. military bases in the region are shut down.

October 30, 2001 – When asked by correspondent Muhammad Al-Alami of Al Jazeera’s Washington bureau about the authenticity of pictures showing Afghani children as war casualties, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld accuses the network of propounding Taliban propaganda. He adds that Al Jazeera has “a pattern of not making judgments about the accuracy of the propaganda.”

November 3, 2001 – Al Jazeera airs another tape of bin Laden, dressed in camouflage and armed with an AK-47. Bin Laden says that the war in Afghanistan is in a religious war and that “the people of Afghanistan had nothing to do with this matter. The campaign, however, continues to unjustly annihilate the villagers and civilians, children, women and innocent people.” Bin Laden also calls the U.N. an instrument of crime against Muslims. White House spokeswoman Anne Womack says the statement “just shows how isolated bin Laden is from the rest of the world.”

November 13, 2001 – The U.S. launches a missile attack on Al Jazeera’s office in Kabul, Afghanistan. In making the case that this was a deliberate attack, Al Jazeera’s managing director, Mohammed Jasim al-Ali, says “This office has been known by everybody, the American airplanes know the location of the office.” Although no Al Jazeera staff was hurt in the attack, the building was destroyed and some employees’ homes were damaged. In a letter to Al Jazeera dated December 6, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense Victoria Clarke says “the building we struck was a known Al Qaeda facility in central Kabul.”

December 26, 2001 – Al Jazeera releases another video tape of bin Laden. “Our terrorism against the United States is worthy of praise to deter the oppressor so that America stops its support for Israel, which is killing our children,” bin Laden states in the video. “This is nothing more than the same kind of terrorist propaganda we have heard before,” says White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

March 4, 2003 – The New York Stock Exchange bans Al Jazeera (as well as several other news organizations whose identities were not revealed) from its trading floor indefinitely, citing “security concerns” as the official reason. A few months later the ban was rescinded, according to a New York Stock Exchange spokesperson.

May 2003 – With the help of the U.S.-supported Iraqi interim government, the CIA releases documents showing that Al Jazeera had been infiltrated by Iraqi spies, and was regarded by Iraqi officials as part of their propaganda effort. Al Jazeera spokesman Jihad Ballout tells Reuters the network was unaware of “any member of Al Jazeera who is working for any foreign intelligence” organization.

April 8, 2003 – U.S. bombs hit Al Jazeera’s office in Baghdad, killing reporter Tareq Ayyoub and wounding cameraman Zohair al-Iraqi. Al Jazeera’s Baghdad correspondent Majed Abdel Hadi calls the U.S. missile strike and Ayoub’s death a “crime.” At a briefing in Doha, Qatar, Brigadier General Vincent K. Brooks says of the Al Jazeera attack: “This coalition does not target journalists. We don’t know every place journalists are operating on the battlefield. It’s a dangerous place, indeed.”

April 27, 2003 –During a briefing, U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher says of Al Jazeera: “On Iraq they have established a pattern of false reporting.”

September 23, 2003 – The Iraqi interim government suspends Al Jazeera (and Al-Arabiya, an Arab news channel based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates) from reporting on official government activities for two weeks for what it says was support of recent attacks on government members and U.S. forces.

January 20, 2004 – In his State of the Union Address, President Bush refers to Al Jazeera as a source of “hateful propaganda” coming from the Arab world.

April 15, 2004 – When a reporter asks Rumsfeld, “Can you definitively say that hundreds of women and children and innocent civilians have not been killed?” Rumsfeld, referring to Al Jazeera’s coverage of civilian casualties in Iraq, replies: “I can definitively say that what Al Jazeera is doing is vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable.”

July 2004 – Al Jazeera’s banner is taken down at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. A DNC spokeswoman says politics had nothing to do with the sign moving and cites logistical reasons for the decision. However, she adds that “w e’re trying to create the kind of atmosphere we want to best present John Kerry and the Democratic Party.” An Al Jazeera spokeswoman responds: “I don’t think anyone would deny that the Al Jazeera logo and name are not part of John Kerry’s communications plan.”

July 31, 2004 – Al Jazeera airs a tape of a 22-year-old American named Benjamin Vanderford being beheaded, but the tape turns out to be a hoax. The tape was produced and distributed over the internet by 23-year-old Robert Martin and his girlfriend 20-year-old Laurie Kirchner, in San Francisco. “We never intended this to be taken as real,” said Martin.

August 7, 2004 – The Iraqi interim government shuts down the Baghdad office of Al Jazeera for one month, citing national security concerns. “This decision was taken to protect the people of Iraq and the interests of Iraq,” Prime Minister Iyad Allawi tells a news conference. Although it was only a one-month ban, the shutdown was extended indefinitely in September 2004, and the offices sealed. The bureau is still closed, but Al Jazeera continues to report from Iraq through a network of stringers.

January 30, 2005 – The New York Times reports that the Qatari government, under pressure from the Bush administration, is speeding up plans to sell the channel.

June 2005 – Rumsfeld accuses Al Jazeera of encouraging Islamic military groups by airing beheadings of American troops in Iraq. In response, the network says in a statement that “Al Jazeera … has never at any time transmitted pictures of killings or beheadings and … any talk about this is absolutely unfounded.” A Reuters report notes that Al Jazeera has shown video of hostages pleading at gunpoint for their government to withdraw its troops, but does not broadcast footage of killings posted on the Internet by militants.

July 4, 2005 – Al Jazeera officially announces plans to launch a new English-language satellite service called Al Jazeera International

September 2005 – Josh Rushing joins Al Jazeera International as a reporter based in Washington D.C. Rushing gained recognition in the film Control Room—a documentary about media coverage of the Iraq war—as the military public affairs officer who begins to understand Al Jazeera’s perspective on the news.

November 22, 2005 – The British tabloid, the Daily Mirror, publishes a story claiming it had obtained a leaked memo from someone in Prime Minister Tony Blair’s cabinet saying that President George Bush had considered bombing Al Jazeera’s Doha headquarters in April 2004. “We are not interested in dignifying something so outlandish and inconceivable with a response,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan tells the Associated Press in an e-mail. Then after refusing to comment on the story for close to a week, Blair calls the Mirror report a “conspiracy theory.” British Cabinet Office civil servant, David Keogh, and parliamentary researcher, Leo O’Connor, are later charged with violating the Official Secrets Act for their roles in leaking the memo to the Mirror . They plead not guilty.

July 11, 2006 – Dima Ayyoubthe widow of the Al Jazeera reporter who was killed in the 2003 bombing of the Baghdad bureau, sues the Bush administration for $30 million for the death of her husband. New Jersey attorney Hamdi Rifai is her counsel.

July 19, 2006 – Al Jazeera broadcasts a bin Laden tape in which he praises Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq—killed three weeks ago by U.S. coalition forces—as a “lion of holy war.”

July 30, 2006 – Following the Israeli attack in Qana, Lebanon, Al Jazeera takes its anchors off the air and continuously plays images of the resulting damage for several hours. The video also closed-in on the dead bodies as they were removed from the rubble. According to the Lebanese Red Cross, at least 28 Lebanese died there, including 16 children.