Al Jazeera tv

[faceless]

LONDON (Hollywood Reporter) - After a gestation period that turned out to be a year longer than expected, the Western world on Wednesday got its first taste of Al Jazeera English, a sister channel to the controversial Arabic news network. Broadcasting from the Persian Gulf state of Qatar, the channel began broadcasting to more than 80 million cable and satellite households across the globe.

In the United States -- where politicians have condemned Al Jazeera as a mouthpiece for terrorists -- it failed to secure distribution on any of the major cable groups, It will be available to American customers of GlobeCast, the subsidiary of a French company that offers satellite TV service, as well as Houston-based soon-to-launch digital platform Fision. The broadcast also will be streamed live on Al Jazeera English's Web site.

In its debut, Al Jazeera English highlighted its editorial independence by broadcasting clips of former U.S. defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Saddam Hussein's former information minister both roundly condemning Al Jazeera Arabic's news coverage. News anchors Shiulie Ghosh and Sami Zeidan hosted the first news reports and coverage moved round the clock to broadcast centers Kuala Lumpur, London and Washington.

In addition to coverage of a Japanese tsunami and the death of an Israeli woman killed in a Palestinian rocket attack, the broadcast focused on reports relating to the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the deepening crisis in Sudan. Interviewees on the debut show included Hamas leader Khaled Mishaal. Reports about female mechanics in Nigeria and the damaging effects of skin-bleaching products also followed.

At launch, Al Jazeera English has 60 news bureaus, including five deployed in Israel and the Palestinian territories, and promised "unprecedented" coverage of regions including Latin America. The channel has feeds from Darfur, Somalia, Harare and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, while in Latin America the channel's correspondents will report live from Brazil and Venezuela.

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Sadly my cable company hasn't taken this channel on yet either, but I'm sure they will before long (it is available on Sky).

I've been reading the al-Jazeera online site for a good while now and have found it to be unbiased and well written. They are not a mouthpiece for terrorists in any sense...

Why are american companies refusing to take it when their sister companies here are carrying it though? It must be governmental pressure... or maybe they're scared of losing advertising contracts to companies who think that by showing something that doesn't go on the official government line that they will be seen as traitors? It's piss-poor either way.

[eefanincan]

I rather suspect that it has to do with advertising revenues....... in light of the war, I don't think many companies would advertise on Al Jazera..... but I think a lot of Americans will check it out on the internet on the sly!