Al- Jazeera faces tough issues

The Qatar based Al-Jazeera station is on the brink of introducing a new channel that aims to voice the Middle East perspective to the rest of the world. having become one of the most successful new channels in history by broadcasting in Arabic, giving Arabs an inside, informative and blockbuster view into international events, the channel now looks to lauch its international English channel.

The task ahead of Al-Jazeera is daunting. And anyone with more than a rudimentary understanding of their aims realises the challenges that lie ahead for a station that has staked its reputation on a very risky venture.

The first big issue that arises for Al-Jazeera is how to present this Arab perspective. The truth is, that very few of their reporters are actually Arab, many of the biggest names that have been recruited are actually English or European names. And though, these celebrities of the news hour might be slightly left leaning/liberal, they are in no way looking at news issues from the "Arab perspective". Then, how do you actually succeed in this venture when the news staff of your station will either willingly or unwillingly change the content of your broadcast as they see it through their own eyes.

Take for example a basic issue like that of speaking about insurgents in Iraq. Now, the rest of the world looks upon these people as insurgents or terrorists or suicide bombers depending on the general tactic they have used/shall use. However, on al-Jazeera tv, they are referred to as freedom fighters; a debate that is currenty raging within the editorial boards of Al Jazeera- English, is whether to use this friendly term, or whether to refer to these elements as insurgents. This might not sound very important, but it causes a very significant shift in the reporting. One man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist; that old saying comes back to haunt us, again.

Its the same as the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan. Pakistan refers to the section of Kashmir under its control as Azad Kashmir, which means Free Kashmir, the other section (under India's rule) is known as Occupied Kashmir. On the opposing end, India reverses those distinctions. each country's news networks refer to the other as the culprit, hence putting a very nationalistic stamp on their perspective.

Al-Jazeera has vowed not to give into political pressure when it comes to what it reports on its English news channel, but this is much easier said than done. As they are finding out, the debate over mere semantics is deep enough to bog down any progress that is to be made, much less the task of getting around to actually reporting Mujahideen messages to the world in English.

The next few months will turn out to be very interesting for both Al-Jazeera tv and the Qatari government.