As the wave of unrest which has pitted pro-democracy demonstrators against the entrenched autocrats that are common in the Middle East has spread across the region, the role of Al Jazeera in facilitating the uprisings is hard to overstate. Al Jazeera first appeared on the scene in 1996 when the Emir of Qatar founded a 24hr Arabic language news network to compete with the state controlled media. Until Al Jazeera arrived, citizens of countries in the Middle East received their news through state controlled media who restricted their coverage to talking heads who presented nothing controversial. Al Jazeera changed the game and rapidly became the most watched network in the region. In 2006 Al Jazeera English began broadcasting and is now widely available around the world except in the US. (US availability is restricted to Toledo, Ohio, Burlington, Vermont and Washington, DC.)
When the initial uprisings began in Tunisia, Al Jazeera was a little slow on the uptake, but once they realized the significance of the story they grabbed it and ran. Their impact was particularly important in Egypt where ordinary Egyptians were able to follow the demonstrations in real time and were inspired to join. The Mubarak regime rapidly realized that unfettered information was their worst enemy and attempted to shut Al Jazeera down. Al Jazeera responded by broadcasting satellite coordinates showing where to train your satellite in order to continue to receive the channel.
As the uprisings spread, the autocratic regimes severely restricted Al Jazeera’s coverage by shutting down it’s bureaus and arresting it’s correspondents. In Libya, Al Jazeera responded by asking ordinary citizens to send their pictures and stories which were then posted. They, thereby, created thousands of freelance amateur journalists. Since Al Jazeera was the only news agency with images, they took the unusual step of offering their images to other news agencies free of charge with the caveat that Al Jazeera received credit. (CNN declined the offer. They would rather have no images than Al Jazeera images.)
Their effective coverage of, not only the Middle East, but also of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, has produced demand for increased availability in the US. (President Obama used Al Jazeera to follow events in Egypt.) Al Jazeera is now in carriage discussions with Comcast Cable. The idea that Americans would have access to a network whose motto is “If it is newsworthy, it airs; whether it is Bush or bin Laden.” seems to have frightened some on the political right. At a recent conference at the National Press Club Cliff Kincaid of American Survival called for hearings by the Homeland Security Committee on the security risk of Al Jazeera’s expansion into American cable markets. Right wing blogger Pamela Geller called for Al Jazeera to be designated a terrorist organization.
When Al Jazeera English began broadcasting, Comcast, Dish Network and DirecTV had plans to carry the network. They changed their minds, however, when the Bush administration applied pressure. It is one thing for the US to support these undemocratic regimes, but is another thing altogether to imitate them.
(If would like to have access to Al Jazeera English go here.)
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