Since its inception on November 1, 1996 with the Arabic channel, the network has been a pathbreaker, holding major impact on the global news media, turning out to be the 'voice of the voiceless', said, a top official of Al Jazeera Television Network as the media house marks its silver jubilee on Monday.
“I am always concerned about the editorial correctness of news and not about its political correctness. Every day of Al Jazeera is a milestone for us as something new happens and we get the trust of more people by reporting the true facts. I always go with the news, facts, its correctness, honesty and objectivity,” Salah Negm, director of news at Al Jazeera English, told Gulf Times, recollecting the journey of the network for the last 25 years.
“Every event, since our inception, we have covered in a different way which made our competitors and their networks to review their ways. When we cover an event or a conflict, we make sure that we have correspondents or representatives from both sides, voicing the opinion of both sides,” Negm said.
He said that Al Jazeera was the only channel in Afghanistan that had a bureau and the satellite news gathering ability before 9/11.
“During Operation Desert Fox in Iraq, Al Jazeera had presence there. During the Palestinian Intifada, the channel had news gathering ability from both sides. When our office and that of Associate Press in Gaza were bombed, we had it live on our channel,” he said.
The news director maintained that there would be people who may or may not like the way the channel is covering the news.
“We have to get a balanced view from various angles for an impartial reporting. Covering every story is a challenge. Getting every rights and facts irrespective what the official version or other views, is one of the challenges. Apart from logical challenges, there are many other things. Security and logistics are very important for the safety of the staff,” Negm said.
Refuting the allegations of the channel having links with some organisations such as Al Qaeda, Negm said that any successful news organisation needs to have reliable contacts. “We get the information from these sources and that is not to having any links with them. If you don’t do that you are conveying a non-complete story. You have to present the views of all the parties and put them before people. These are normal journalistic works.”
He also claimed that the ‘Bin Laden Tapes’ aired by Al Jazeera were made available to some other channels and they did not broadcast them. “We released only what were news-relevant from the tape. The entire tape was more than 60 minutes,” he pointed out.
The official stressed that the channel always asks relevant and basic questions. “It is more important to ask the right questions at the right time than getting the answers. We do ask the right questions and we are deliberately keen to do that. When we cover some event we just don’t parachute and leave but we stay and try to unearth facts because there are consequences for every incident and we try to bring them forth. We want to highlight the impacts of the incidents on the people,” he said.
Box
Al Jazeera Network statistics
Al Jazeera Media Network:
• Five TV channels
• Two Centres - Centre for Studies & Human Rights
• One Media institute
• More than 70 Bureaus around the world
• Broadcasted to over 430mn unique homes in 150 countries
• Available at over 2.4mn hotel rooms.
• 5 digital channels
• 20 websites
• Media content in 7 languages
Social Media:
• Over 100mn followers on Facebook
• Over 25mn followers on Twitter
• More than 6mn followers on Instagram
• More than 14mn YouTube subscribers
• More than 3,000 employees, from over 90 nationalities
“I am always concerned about the editorial correctness of news and not about its political correctness. Every day of Al Jazeera is a milestone for us as something new happens and we get the trust of more people by reporting the true facts. I always go with the news, facts, its correctness, honesty and objectivity,” Salah Negm, director of news at Al Jazeera English, told Gulf Times, recollecting the journey of the network for the last 25 years.
“Every event, since our inception, we have covered in a different way which made our competitors and their networks to review their ways. When we cover an event or a conflict, we make sure that we have correspondents or representatives from both sides, voicing the opinion of both sides,” Negm said.
He said that Al Jazeera was the only channel in Afghanistan that had a bureau and the satellite news gathering ability before 9/11.
“During Operation Desert Fox in Iraq, Al Jazeera had presence there. During the Palestinian Intifada, the channel had news gathering ability from both sides. When our office and that of Associate Press in Gaza were bombed, we had it live on our channel,” he said.
The news director maintained that there would be people who may or may not like the way the channel is covering the news.
“We have to get a balanced view from various angles for an impartial reporting. Covering every story is a challenge. Getting every rights and facts irrespective what the official version or other views, is one of the challenges. Apart from logical challenges, there are many other things. Security and logistics are very important for the safety of the staff,” Negm said.
Refuting the allegations of the channel having links with some organisations such as Al Qaeda, Negm said that any successful news organisation needs to have reliable contacts. “We get the information from these sources and that is not to having any links with them. If you don’t do that you are conveying a non-complete story. You have to present the views of all the parties and put them before people. These are normal journalistic works.”
He also claimed that the ‘Bin Laden Tapes’ aired by Al Jazeera were made available to some other channels and they did not broadcast them. “We released only what were news-relevant from the tape. The entire tape was more than 60 minutes,” he pointed out.
The official stressed that the channel always asks relevant and basic questions. “It is more important to ask the right questions at the right time than getting the answers. We do ask the right questions and we are deliberately keen to do that. When we cover some event we just don’t parachute and leave but we stay and try to unearth facts because there are consequences for every incident and we try to bring them forth. We want to highlight the impacts of the incidents on the people,” he said.
Box
Al Jazeera Network statistics
Al Jazeera Media Network:
• Five TV channels
• Two Centres - Centre for Studies & Human Rights
• One Media institute
• More than 70 Bureaus around the world
• Broadcasted to over 430mn unique homes in 150 countries
• Available at over 2.4mn hotel rooms.
• 5 digital channels
• 20 websites
• Media content in 7 languages
Social Media:
• Over 100mn followers on Facebook
• Over 25mn followers on Twitter
• More than 6mn followers on Instagram
• More than 14mn YouTube subscribers
• More than 3,000 employees, from over 90 nationalities
