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| Volume VIII, June 2001, Number 2 |
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| EXCERPT: The New Arab Media Phenomenon: Qatar's Al-Jazeera |
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| Louay Y. Bahry |
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Dr. Bahry is adjunct professor of political science at the
University of Tennessee. This paper was given at the thirty-fourth annual meeting of the Middle East Studies
Association, November 16-19, 2000, in Orlando, Florida.
On a visit to Doha, Egyptian President Husni Mubarak wanted to satisfy his curiosity about the most famous satellite TV station in
the Arab world, one that has annoyed him and many other Arab rulers. It was
past midnight when he arrived unannounced at al-Jazeera's studio, located in
the compound that houses Qatari Radio and Television. After touring the station's compound, he turned to Safwat Sharif,
leader of Egypt's vast media empire, and exclaimed: "All this trouble from a
match box like this?"1
Nothing distinguishes al-Jazeera's modest studios from the hundreds of new buildings in Doha except its
exceptional security measures and official procedures. Al-Jazeera is the first
Arab TV station based on Arab soil that is expressly critical of Arab regimes
and governments and even dares insult them occasionally. This paper will
attempt to address several questions about this new phenomenon. How was
al-Jazeera born and how did it become what it now is? What kinds of changes has
it brought to Arab media, and what has been its impact on the Arab people? What
is the content of the programs which have made it famous? What are the criticisms leveled against it?
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| 1 David Hir, "The Television Studio Arab Leaders Hate the Most," Chicago Tribune, April 9, 2000.
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