The Peninsula On-line: Qatar's leading English Daily

Al Jazeera – an iconoclast of Arab media world (by JABER AL HARMI)

Al Jazeera celebrates its 10th anniversary today. And it’s an important landmark because this channel has been and is still representing a phenomenon in the Arab world where media face suppression over its length and breadth, with a varying degree of intensity.

Since its inception, Al Jazeera has been making a splash breaking what was known in the Arab world media but never spoken out, and tackled even those banned issues. It not only opened up information in some places and allowed freedom to gain its breathing space, but also nurtured a new genre of freedom – a phenomenon hitherto extinct in Arab regimes. For the Arab national, dissemination of news about his own country, especially from the western media, was hard to imagine what with the Arab regimes holding the media under ‘tight’ wraps.

Indeed, the Arab citizen did not invest his faith in the local or Arab media simply because he did not know what has been happening in his or her homeland. When the western media, transcending all barriers of regions and borders, beamed back the news right from his hinterland, the local media was in fact caught napping; busy in its infinite focus on eulogising the officialdom.

The brutal Iraqi occupation of Kuwait and the second Gulf War in 1990 and 1991 are the classic example in this context.

The CNN, spearheaded by its famous war correspondent Peter Arndt, was the preferred channel in the Arab world. One would have assumed that it was a virtual CNN invasion of the region, when the channel was found tuned into in every household and office.

But what the region witnessed since 1997 was its best-known landmark transformation. Al Jazeera was born only to attain a meteoric rise. Be it Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq or Lebanon; the channel made its presence strongly felt and soon one could see the channel assuming an iconic image all over the region.

Al Jazeera’s rise to fame, thanks to its incisive edge, is strongly laced with its powerful reach to the masses. Such was its strength that it soon mocked all the conventions that the Arab media survived on. Arab media till then was a mere dependent on the West for its valuable news feed. And the irony, that it is, the feeder from the West now finds itself being fed by the region – thanks to Al Jazeera’s might.

The system today is mutual. The channel has become the major source of news not only for the Arab media, but also for the West. Isn’t it a great achievement for the Arab world that could have never dreamt of it so soon?

Not the wide range of optimists about Al Jazeera and perhaps even not those who made it – would have expected the channel to achieve all this success, and sweep the Arab and international arena and see it celebrating its 10th anniversary. What was the secret behind these successes in such a short span of time? In juxtaposition, it sure is a huge compliment for Al Jazeera to achieve so much so soon, surging far ahead of other competitors that might have been a little older.

There is more than one reason, I think, that helped this success: Worldwide credibility for what the channel is airing, unbiased attitude, balance and transparency in news coverage and last but not the least, unswerving commitment to addressing all the issues.

Aided by a battery of highly professional workforce, it was a dream journey that Al Jazeera set out on and there is no looking back.

The powers granted to the administration in charge of field work and supervisory free from any interventions from the board members is a silver lining in the channel’s functioning. This devolution of powers, so to speak, to the executive management to manage the daily work contributed significantly in making the channel do extremely well on several Arab satellite networks.

Al Jazeera’s quest for media acclaim, was not without hurdles. It’s unruffled approach to threats from Arab and Western countries, the US in particular, is a remarkable way forward in pursuing it’s professional goals. It remains undaunted despite the closure of its offices in some Arab capitals.

The channel’s strength lies in its journalists who proved, time and again, their gritty nerves and impeccable preparedness to embrace the situation at home or the battle fronts. Several correspondents either lost their lives or imprisoned doing the tough ‘tight-rope walk’ whenever the situation demanded. The channel’s bureaus were the targets of missile and bomb attacks. But nothing could dent the supreme confidence of the channel or its staff and the ‘most-talked about’ media approach in the region remains firmly in place.

But above all this, there is a significant factor that still drives Al Jazeera in its golden path; a cornerstone for what the channel has achieved the concerns that its host country (Qatar) is inundated with about the presence of the channel.

Despite the headaches caused by Al Jazeera to Qatar the state represented under the wise leadership of His Highness the Emir and His Heir Apparent, the regime refused to intervene in the policy of the channel, either to instruct or order what should be published and not, even under extreme external pressure.

Even the immense pressure exerted through closure of embassies turns futile to alter the approach of the national leadership in dealing with the channel broadcast from its territory. Al Jazeera, existing with such vigour and valour from any other Arab soil, is simply unimaginable. This is more of an understatement than praise for Qatar. It is a fact that the channel’s workforce knows the sanctity of the promise made by the Qatari leadership itself to respect the freedom of speech.

One may say: “What about the financial support and the budget allocated by the government to the channel?” It is a legitimate question. However, does the financial support impose control over the channel or interfere in its editorial policy?

If this is the prevailing perception in the Arab countries that used every monetary means to ‘silence’ the media and the media people, the answer could be quite loud and clear. “Qatar has nothing to hide or fear about.”

Qatar respects media and its fraternity. For it, freedom is in the air and not in exchange of money.

Then, why is it that, for example, the British government which finances and allocates budget to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and yet leaves the corporation untied from the government policy?

And why there was no objection from the Arabs to the BBC Arabic programmes? Why didn’t we see withdrawal of ambassadors by Arab states when “The Valiant Freedom” from London was aired by BBC Arabic? What more material that the BBC aired about the Arab capitals on a wide range of topics are a taboo in the Arab countries but the outcry is never so boisterous when Al Jazeera is in the picture.

There was hardly an instance of any Arab state pulling out its ambassador from London or even protest if any programme of sensitive nature was broadcast on BBC Arabic. It would, in this context, be hard to comprehend why some of the Arab states are quick to withdraw their ambassadors from Qatar whenever news came in a bulletin or programme or a telephone call from its citizens?

Everyone needs to take serious note of Qatar’s candid declarations day in and day out that it had nothing to do with Al Jazeera.

The only choice available for Qatar now is to send across the message loud and clear about its ‘non-association’ with Al Jazeera. And even if it did so, the aggrieved Arab regimes may well not settle for anything less than a ‘grand curtains down’ on the popular channel.

The success of Al Jazeera will truly reflect on the success of every free and noble Arab media structure, and symbolises the fact that the Arab media is capable of shouldering the responsibility and perform to its real potential despite the vagaries of power. The Al Jazeera success story is also a benchmark reality to show that Arab media can compete with the West.

There may have been a few aberrations in its march but Al Jazeera proved with its giant strides that it was born to be a winner.

And today, it is the solemn right of Al Jazeera to mark its momentous occasion, it’s 10th anniversary of leadership and excellence. All its achievements definitely lend lustre to the rejoicing but the revelry about the past should also be laced with a tinge of caution and not circumspect. A humble self-reminder for the people behind its success that the road ahead is still long and not devoid of obstacles. But since Al Jazeera has taken up the pioneering role for a ‘free’ Arab media with gusto, the enduring of hardships should not be a Herculian task.

We look forward to celebrating the 20 anniversary of Al Jazeera with this ‘legendary’ saga blooming and prospering across the Arab world. Can the Arab citizen afford the dream?

-The Peninsula

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