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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hope Praytochange who wrote (676804)	3/24/2005 4:00:17 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 769670

Al-Jazeera to Be Launched in English in America Barbara Ferguson, Arab News WASHINGTON, 22 March 2005 — Al-Jazeera news channel, the bete noire of both the Bush administration and many Arab governments, is shown on a daily basis to 35 to 50 million Arab households throughout the world. Soon Americans will be viewing it in their homes — in English. Since it began broadcasting in 1996, Al-Jazeera has made a name for itself by annoying both the US government and Arab regimes for its controversial coverage. Love it or hate it, it has revolutionized reporting in the Middle East. Now its executives say they want to launch an English-language news channel from the US, to provide English speakers in the US and elsewhere with more accurate and informed reporting about the world’s most turbulent region. This may not be such a bad thing, said experts during a recent briefing, who say the US should not vilify Al-Jazeera, but rather work to help it succeed. “The US needs to find a way to engage the Arab media, rather than shut down, marginalize, and ostracize news mediums such as Al-Jazeera,” said Rajiv Chandrasekaran, the Washington Post’s former Baghdad bureau chief. Speaking during a panel discussion organized by the John Hopkins University School of Advance International Studies, SAIS, Chandrasekaran, said: “The US needs to find a more constructive way to deal with Al-Jazeera, which is key to further the US agenda of democracy in the region.” His comments came following the viewing of “Control Room,” a documentary about Al-Jazeera during the 2003 launch of the US invasion of Iraq. SAIS assembled a strong lineup of panelists: Chandrasekaran; Josh Rushing, the former Marine Corps captain and Central Command spokesman who is prominently featured in the film; Mohamed Alami, a Washington-based reporter for Al-Jazeera; and Ambassador Patrick Theros, former US ambassador to Qatar, Al-Jazeera’s home base. Alami echoed Chandrasekaran’s remarks, accusing the US of “behaving like an Arab regime by insisting the problem is not the message, but the messenger.” “The Arab world is suffering from a great deficiency of freedom, and many of our bureaus have been shut down in Arab countries.” Al-Jazeera has changed the Arab media and the Arab people’s perspective of what they can expect from their media forever, he said. Patrick Theros, US ambassador to Qatar when the Al-Jazeera was launched, agreed: “It is in the interest of the US government to encourage new Arabic channels to be as free as Al-Jazeera.” arabnews.com