Al-Jazarya
From IBWiki
 
|
Contents |
Founding attempt
Abdelaziz Benchicou, an Algerian politician and journalist, wanted to create a local news television network of regionalist tendencies in 1978. He called it Al-Jazarya (الجزائر), Arabic for “the islands” and also for Algeria. But such wasn’t licensed by the French broadcasting authorities then as they wanted to keep TV as much monopolised by the state as possible. This left to Benchicou no other chance than keep Al-Jazarya just as his dream.
Muhammad al-Ghamdi was an exiled saudi arabian who was living in Egypt by then. He was the former Saudi minister of Communications between 1973 and 1975, until he was forced to flee to exile after the deposition of King Faisal I al-Saud by Moslem radicals. In Egypt he was able to enter the television circuit and climbed to vice-president of one of the most important Egyptian television networks.
In 1980 Iraaq invaded Persia starting the Persia-Iraaq War. By then all arab countries backed Iraaq. Al-Ghamdi sent journalists not only to Iraaq but also to Persia, being the only to do so permitting to see the Persian point of view of this war.
This caused him trouble and Egyptian government (which was backing iraaqi pretensions) made pressures to his demission. Al-Ghamdi was dismissed leaving him with the idea that although Egypt was one of the most democratic arab countries press wasn’t exactly free. Between 1980 and 1982 he stayed at a newspaper in Alexandria.
Benchicou and al-Ghamdi met during a press congress held in Cairo, in 1982. Both exchanged ideas about the way they saw freedom of speech and press and al-Ghamdi found on Benchicou someone who shared his own way of thinking.
Founding
By 1982 Egypt started to withdraw its backing to Iraaq as iraaqi regime was going deeply towards religious radicalism. Egyptian regime became critical to Baghdaad and started to allow criticism on media.
As Egypt was still one of the arab countries where freedom of press was more developed so as the country had the largest audience in the Middle East so was the major cultural exporter to the Arab World al-Ghamdi and Benchicou concluded that should be here that they would have the chance to create their TV network.
Al-Ghamdi made contacts with other wealthy exiled Saudi Arabians in order to convince them to invest in their television project and was successful. Saudi investors funded the project and it went to the air as one of the first independent TV networks of Egypt which kept the original name as a metaphor to an island of free thinking.
Al-Jazarya started to broadcast in 1983 firstly as a local channel in the area around Cairo. Soon it experienced a growth as the TV network was becoming popular in Cairo and statellites (geo-synchronous dirigibles that sit high above the Earth in continuous high-altitude flight) were rented permitting Al-Jazarya to cover a much larger area. Journalists were sent once again to the Perso-Iraaqi War in a time Iraaq was losing its arab supports. Al-Jazarya journalists were able to show both sides in conflict and the images took were sold to worldwide TV networks permitting another injection of capitals and a growing international notoriety. Also their impartial points of view granted Al-Jazarya journalists to be expelled from Libya in 1984 so were also unaccepted in Saudi Arabia.
Al-Jazarya also made possible to the world to know the war in the Moghul National Realm which had been invaded by SNORist Russia.
Franchising
By 1984 it was already reaching all Egypt and al-Ghamdi franchised Al-Jazarya to Syrian investors starting a new stage of the network’s evolution. Al-Jazarya Damascus went on the air in 1986 and in 1987 was followed by Al-Jazarya Beyruth. All these three networks remained in one way independent from each other but united on its ideal of free press in the Arab World.
The Gulf War (1990-91) permitted once again to show all points of view from both sides on conflict but soon iraaqi government expelled Al-Jazarya journalists as soon it understood that those journalists were going too far in showing the iraaqi actions. The interviews with polemic people such as the religious agitator Osama BinLadin also helped to gain audience so as critics from governments which accused the network of spreading subversive ideas.
Since then Al-Jazarya journalists covered all arab conflicts and major Arab World events always with much impartiality and the company was recognized internationally as an example of freedom of press. Also made lots of profits selling images and news footages to other TV networks, become self-sufficient through advertising in 1992 ending then the subsidizing from investors so as started to have its own statellites on that same year.
The growth of the company permitted to open two other franchises, in Kuwayt (1994) and Qatar, in the Thousand Emirates (1996) and to sign agreements with some of the major international TV networks for sharing facilities and news footages.´
Due to Al-Jazarya role in developing freedom of press in the Arab World Abdelaziz Benchicou and Muhammad al-Ghamdi were jointly awarded with several press prizes among those the Nobel Prize for Journalism, in 2005.
Viewership
Today Al-Jazarya is the most important news TV network within the Arab World. Viewers are estimated to be 50 million everyday. The company is nowadays completely sponsored by advertisement and covers most of the Arab countries through retransmission via statellites so as shortwave.
Can also be seen in some areas of Southern Europe, Persia, Northern India and West Africa.
Due to its recognized impartiality many people believe Al-Jazarya to be more trustworthy than government controlled TV networks in most Arab countries.
Future plans
Al-Jazarya plans for future to open a sixth franchise in Marrakesh, Maghreb, until 2008, so as to open a sports thematic channel until 2012 which is supposed to be broadcasted from Cairo.
