Al Jazeera -Rewriting the definition of a 'News' Channel

When Osama bin Laden’s spectre loomed large over US all of us waited to get those blurred images of the Taliban or Bin Laden to announce the future intentions of his band of brigands. In the ten years since, all this has changed. Al-Jazeera brings you crisp News from all corners of the Globe, with Newscasts from Washington, London, Doha, Kuala Lumpur and a desk that has the best talent drawn from reputed institutions across the globe.

Any wonder then that watching Al Jazeera’s News is no more a limited vision of the Gulf region, the Muslim world or the channel for developments in the world of Osama and his boys. Interestingly the Al Jazeera News often turned its spotlight on the Asian region, much to the chagrin of the US which has all along wallowed in media glare.

“Under its slogan of “The opinion and the other opinion,” Al-Jazeera gave an Arab world hungry for information and debate the means to talk to itself and shape its future. It spawned imitators across the region and has launched an English channel station that is beginning to challenge the western monopoly of international news as a “voice of the global south”- George Galloway, British MP(The Hindu, June 18, 2007)

We have to remind ourselves that the US decides “What is News?” for us. Therefore they would not be delighted about a recent arrival on the scene altering priorities. Further it has the support of the despotic regimes in the Gulf who would not be too comfortable with the Al-Jazeera kind of journalism.

Neutering that voice must be achieved and what better way than get a pro-US man on the board of the newspaper. Pro-US voices have now found a position on the Board of Directors, what better way could there be to set the agenda for a media house. The US which has held centre-stage as far as ‘Newsmaker’ status is concerned cannot reconcile itself to not featuring among the items in an Al Jazeera newscast which is looking Asia-centric.

Al-Jazeera brings you News in a highly professional manner, and has earned the reputation of being “anti-Us and anti-Arab” which only amply shows how well it holds up the mirror on the region it reports.