24 June 1999
Letter from the Levant
Al
Jazeera: Mirroring change in Qatar
To understand what’s going on at Al Jazeera, the outspoken satellite news channel, one has to come to grips with what’s going on in Qatar. The three-year-old news channel, based in Doha, is becoming a source of constant headache for many Arab governments. In recent months, the station’s office in Amman was closed in retaliation for airing a talk show where one obscure professor attacked the kingdom, its history and everything that its stands for. The office was later reopened.
Last week, the Kuwait information minister ordered Al Jazeera’s office shut and banned all its activities for allowing a caller to insult the Kuwaiti emir on air. In fact since the news channel took off from where its predecessor, the BBC Arabic TV station keeled over, it has become a source of controversy between its financier, the government of Qatar, and the rest of the Arab countries. Today Al Jazeera is not only a source of news but is news itself.
In the glut of Arab satellite stations, Al Jazeera 24-hour news and information channel stands out as the most prominent, but not the most widely received and seen by Arab viewers. That achievement goes to stations dedicated to entertainment not news.
Al Jazeera has broken all the traditional taboos that have kept Arab media at a short leach by openly tackling sensitive political, social, religious and economic issues. Its philosophy rests on a concept that is novel only in the Arab world; free speech and ?allowing people to express their points of view. The main cause of contention is the station’s political talk shows where government officials go head to head against opposition figures. In most cases these talk shows turn into talk circuses with both sides exchanging insults and accusations. Naturally viewers relish the thrill of seeing both sides engaged into all sorts of verbal bashing. But that is not all that Al Jazerra offers.
The news channel became an important source of alternative information and viewpoint on Iraq, especially during the last US-British aggression. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein gave copies of his televised speeches to Al Jazeera which aired them before Iraqi TV or even CNN! Even the station’s religious talk show, hosted by Shiekh Yousif Al Qaradwai, touches on the most sensitive subjects. It has both been praised and condemned for its openness and candor.
The station employs a host of the best journalists and broadcasters in the Arab world who follow western tradition in reporting and researching their stories. Such traditions have helped the station maintain a great deal of objectivity even though its critics dare it to be as bold when covering local Qatari issues.
When Arab governments get angry with Al Jazeera they put pressure on Qatar. The channel is after all funded by the Gulf state and accordingly the Qatari government is seen to be in a position to influence the channel’s editorial policy. But Qatar was able, so far, to withstand such pressure. Al Jazeera remains as controversial and bold as ever. But it is now a reflection of the important changes that have been taking place in Qatar itself.
It is clear that the mood of democratic reform has not wavered in Doha. Only recently Al Jazeera and local Qatari newspapers were allowed to publicize citizens’ views on the ruling family’s financial appropriations-an unprecedented topic of public discussion even in the most liberal Arab countries. Ever since the 1995 bloodless palace coup, Qatar’s new ruler, Sheikh Hamad, has sought to put his small country on a road of democratic reform. Qatar’s foreign policies have shocked and angered most of its GCC partners. Qatar was the first Gulf state to allow Israel to set-up a commercial office in its capital, the first to call for Iraq’s post-Gulf war rehabilitation and the first to order free municipal elections with the full participation of women. It holds a special political and economic relation with Iran, and in recent years has been able to disengage from Saudi political orbit and take contentious stands within the GCC.
It is within such important developments that Al Jazeera has emerged. The channel is today’s Qatar’s most important export after oil and gas. It has redefined the role and responsibilities of regional TV stations, allowing dissidents and victims as well as officials to voice their opinions on various thorny issues.
Such boldness, resulting in an unprecedented public appeal, has positively affected government-run satellite and terrestrial TV stations. The concept of talk shows slowly found a place on the program roster of many of these stations. Many Arab broadcasters even dared to allow on air discussions inviting viewers to call in and voice their opinions. Such progress can be traced to Al Jazeera’s influence and can be counted among its prime contributions.
Qatar’s democratization process is not only setting precedents, but also an example to be followed and studied in the entire region. Kuwait’s recent decision to give women the vote must have been influenced by the Qatari municipal elections. Al Jazeera’s importance gets a boost every time its host country moves along democratic transition.
But the station will continue to face hurdles and challenges. So far it has been able to surmount them only because its benefactor has stood firmly by it. Arab governments, in a hopeless attempt to bring the rouge station into the fold, have called on it to respect the Arab Broadcasting Union’s code of honor, a surreptitious attempt at arm-twisting.
The success or failure of Al Jazeera will ultimately be decided by two factors. One is the durability of Qatar’s democratic experiment and the other is the fruition of Al Jazeera’s plans to succeed commercially as well as professionally.