If I say the words, "Al Jazeera", what do you think of? Terrorism? A Muslim cleric? An anti-American website? A popular Middle-Eastern weather reporter? Most have heard these words, but too many (perhaps unsurprisingly) have no real understanding of what, exactly, Al Jazeera "is".  

 

We've at least heard the term, because it is through Al Jazeera that Osama Bin Laden has communicated his messages and warnings to the world. Al Jazeera is, quite simply, a news broadcasting network, in the same vein as BBC or CNN. It has been the central news reporting network for the Middle East since 1996, where it quickly became controversial as the first information network of the region that endeavoured to provide objective news coverage that defied the political propaganda of much of the region. With healthy financial resources, the network defied political control, and went on to become the most watched source of news for the Middle East, and has been heralded by scholars and journalists (both Eastern and Western) as the most important evolution of contextual objectivity to hit global news.

Today, an important leap is finally made, as Al Jazeera unleashes it's English channel, broadcast from the Middle East into the Western world. It declares itself to be fundamental to bridging the ignorance between cultures, and to providing a perspective that exists outside of either political persuasion. On it's initial broadcast, it illustrated this point by beautifully juxtaposing two attacks against the network - one by the former Iraqi information minister, who accused Al Jazeera of spreading American propaganda, and another from Donald Rumsfeld, who accused the network of spreading Mulsim propaganda! In actual fact, the network refuses to "side" with anyone, and with great conviction, sees itself as a powerful cultural force who can frighten all political agendas, simply because it won't present the globe in a way that conforms to any party line. In other words, Al Jazeera rocks, and the potential in it's English venture cannot be underestimated.

America is particularly frightened - partly because it has used Al Jazeera as part of it's own propaganda, and has cast a deliberately misleading view of the network. The problem with the network finally arriving in the Western world is that it will highlight the spin of the Republican administration, as people will finally see something quite different to what has been presented to them by Bush and Co. This morning, Fox News was already preparing to combat this, by making utterly false accusations that it was the Al Jazeera network that showed beheadings of Western hostages. This isn't true, and the network has already made statements suggesting it will bring such defamation into a legal arena. Fox isn't used to being bitten back, of course, but it hasn't had to deal with a contender like this one.

Osama did, however, choose to send the network his tapes, and this is again going to worry Western media and politics. The problem with these tapes is that we are never shown them in their entirety, and without any political comment or interpretation being added to them. What many westerners don't know is that these recordings are often lengthy lectures, where Osama endeavours to explain the cultural tensions and the wrongdoings of the Bush administration - but it goes without saying that these excerpts are never used in major Western media, and the parts that are used are often heavily edited and have long been accused of being "conveniently" interpreted. Al Jazeera quite deliberately provides the videos in full, and gives no commentary either way on any of them - as it does with any footage of American politics, or any other global events. This is a welcome method in global news reporting, and could potentially redefine western media by lifting the veil on subjectivity that currently divides us through ignorant concepts of the Middle East and it's conflicts.

For many, even on a much simpler level, the network provides a glimpse into this world of the Middle East that breaks many of the ridiculous stereotypes formed through Western news coverage. I remember watching an Oprah special recently, where she interviewed the Queen of Jordania. The audience gasped to see a Versace store on the streets of Jordan, and to glimpse the lives of everyday Jordanian women, that were not particularly very different to our own lives. This, to many Westerners, is a revelation of it's own, challenging Western media's silly characterisations and depictions of this culture, it's people and it's leaders. Already, many have remarked how slick the network's production is - expecting some barbaric form of community television! We forget that the Middle East is a rich region - not only financially, but rich in culture, technology and intellect. And we forget that in a region where many questionable political leaders find power, there are in fact avenues that not only combat these political forces for freedom, but do so with a great deal more gusto and intelligence than we do here in this (arguably apathetic, disempowered) society. It certainly has problems (like any society and culture), and it's had some pretty big ones in recent history - but I have a great deal of respect for many elements of the Middle Eastern culture, and I hope this birth of Al Jazeera (which is beamed into the West from the heart of the Middle East) manages to confront the ignorance at the heart of a debate everybody likes to engage in, but too few know very much about.

Unfortunately, because of the small monopolised industry we have here in Australia, for Al Jazeera to be broadcast here, the only real avenue through which this can happen is with Fox (or Foxtel, more to the point). It has been confirmed that Foxtel has access to Al Jazeera on it's satellite network, but as you can imagine, they're not in any way keen to help the impending success of this netowrk, and have decided against providing it. This means we will be the only major Western country not to have Al Jazeera on our TV screens.

 

However, below is a video of the opening moments of the new Al Jazeera. You can also read further on the network on Wikipedia , and visit the Al Jazeera website (where news coverage can be streamed). There is also a wonderful documentary on the network called Control Room, which can be viewed online by clicking here . Apart from the streaming from the Al Jazeera website (with free audio streams and subscription video streams), Youtube and Google video will no doubt become a haven for posted Al Jazeera coverage. So, whilst we won't have the option here to engage the network directly, it will still be there for us to see, in some form. Al Jazera presents the most comprehensive perspective of the current global climate we have (it should be noted that whilst the attention the network is getting focuses on the Middle East vs America narrative, the network extends coverage to the entire globe, far beyond just this current obsession of ours). Get into it, I say... we have far too much yet to learn.