How (not) to manage global media

An enlightened view of the media: Britain’s public broadcaster the BBC launched an Arabic television service on Tuesday with funding from the government to provide what it said would be independent news, analysis and current affairs. The corporation said the channel would broadcast for an initial 12 hours a day to anyone with a satellite…

Reporter under fire

Yet another victim of the “war on terror”. An al-Jazeera cameraman was kidnapped in Pakistan in 2001 and transferred to Guantanamo Bay, where he has resided for years without charge. His brother in Sudan said the following to Democracy Now!: I don’t simply want to appeal to people’s feelings. I want them to use their…

War by committee

Arguably the most essential new site of the year, Wikileaks, reveals yet more secrets from the “war on terror” and Iraq: Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld launched the failed April 2004 assault on the Iraqi town of Fallujah before marines were ready because it had become “a symbol of resistance that dominated international…

Happy birthday

Al-Jazeera English turns one and has proven that the Western-centric perspectives of CNN, BBC and a host of other news networks is only one way to view the world. Despite limited availability in the US and Australia, the Arabic service regularly upstages rival channels in terms of coverage, perspective and challenging establishment power:

Text and images ©2024 Antony Loewenstein. All rights reserved.

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