(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
In January 1991, when the rocket attacks against Baghdad lit up the night sky, it was the American television company CNN and its reporter Peter Arnett who had a monopoly on the war pictures the world saw.
Today, as the bombs rain down on Kabul and other targets in Afghanistan, CNN, the BBC and the other Western stations must retrieve their images from al-Jazeera television station to give their viewers "breaking news".
Al-Jazeera, which means "peninsula" in Arabic, has taken the Arabs' everyday lives by leaps and bounds since it was founded in 1996. After the attack on Afghanistan, al-Jazeera is reaching the rest of the world as well. And the propaganda war has gained an Arab voice.
Complete shock
The Arabic-language satellite channel is something as rare as an independent TV channel in the Arabic context. In the 1990 century, the BBC made an unsuccessful attempt to launch an Arabic-language TV channel.
The BBC made the big mistake of hiring a Saudi satellite company to broadcast the programs in the region. But soon it became clear that Saudi Arabia authorities did not like what they saw and heard, and plugged out the channel.
Then the Emir of Qatar emerged with 100 million dollars in support of the start-up of a free-thinking TV channel. Finished trained journalists from the BBC skipped in numbers, and al-Jazeera saw the light of day.
The first reaction to al-Jazeera, both from the region's authorities and the ordinary Arabs, was complete shock. The channel brought news, debates and dial-up programs in which not only the views of the regimes were obediently referenced. In addition, critics and dissidents suddenly had the microphones and TV pictures at their disposal.
Failed US pressure
It was not that al-Jazeera raised debates and problems that people did not discuss at home in their private sphere. But the fact that it was broadcast in full public, in Arabic, broke a taboo.
"It makes a hell of a difference when you say it in Arabic," al-Jazeera deputy chief Yosri Fouda told The Guardian newspaper.
It was not long before authorities in Qatar's neighboring countries threatened diplomatic riots and boycotts to halt al-Jazeera. But the emir of Qatar responded by reporting the threats further on al-Jazeera air.
The censored Arab population eventually flocked to the channel's programs, and even many of the critics of al-Jazeera, such as President Salih of Yemen, were eager to join the programs.
The United States and the West paid little attention to al-Jazeera in the beginning. But last week, US Secretary of State Colin Powell decided to exchange a few words in the chamber with the emir of Qatar, where he was asked to tone down the TV channel's coverage of Afghanistan, which Powell thought had "an anti-American tone".
The Emir responded by telling the press what Powell had said.
- It was completely wild
Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif writes in The Guardian on Monday that al-Jazeera has made censorship of opinions and news meaningless within the Arab world.
- For us outside, it is a window that we can breathe through, he writes.
When Soueif first came across a debate program at al-Jazeera in a Cairo hotel room, he was also shocked:
- This particular debate was between two Algerians; one a dissident journalist in exile, the other a representative of the authorities. It was completely wild. They mentioned names, mention of events, citation of numbers. It was live – and alive.
Perhaps the best example of al-Jazeera's good journalism, according to the Egyptian novelist, is the documentary program they had about Egyptian prisoners of war killed by Israeli soldiers in 1967.
- An Israeli journalist and an Israeli academic presented their investigations. Egyptians and Israelis testified about what had happened. No authorities were interested, writes Soueif in The Guardian.
- Free of flag waving
Now when it comes to the attack on Afghanistan, al-Jazeera is a channel millions of Arabs are turning to for a different angle on the conflict.
- In the current crisis, al-Jazeera's coverage has been honest and sober; a welcome liberation from flag-waving and rhetoric, for example from CNN, Soueif believes.
Al-Jazeera is the only TV channel that has not been broadcast from Afghanistan. It has the images from the bomb, and it has Osama bin Laden's speech on film. Thus, many believe that the channel is about to take over CNN's role as agenda-setting newsreader during the war.
Even Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair has been interviewed on al-Jazeera, hoping to reach the Muslim countries that he has not gone to war against Islam.
- Now the non-Arab world has finally got a taste of what it lacks, writes Ahdaf Soueif.
Al-Jazeera – The Arab BBC
The Arabic-language TV channel al Jazeera currently has over 50 correspondents in more than 30 countries. The TV station is partly funded by the emir of Qatar, where the channel is headquartered. Al-Jazeera broadcasts news, debates and documentaries 24 hours a day. Some of the most popular programs are "The Opposite Direction", "Against the Current" and "One Opionion and Another".
Sources: Information and The Guardian
