Qatar against Qatar in the field of television batallla – The World

Al Jazeera has turned out an opponent in the confines of his own country. The powerful emirate of Qatar last launch of a new TV channel in Arabic that serve as an alternative to a chain in the region maligned for their enthusiastic coverage of the Arab uprisings. “It’s an attempt to create a television with a more restrained position in certain political issues, particularly in the section of the Muslim Brotherhood and its situation in Syria and Egypt,” he told THE WORLD Michael Stephens, assistant director of the Royal United Services Institute London and an expert in Qatar.

The station, registered in the UK with the name Al Araby, will have its headquarters in the British capital and send its signal to a market with over 400 million viewers. It will have 11 offices worldwide and is responsible are in the process of recruitment. Looking correspondents, editors, producers, cameramen and technicians, as job advertisements published in recent weeks. “Al Araby follows strict international standards of editorial balance, objectivity, accuracy and accountability,” promises the channel in its embryonic website. Although initially planned to start earlier this year, the debut of the chain is delayed and there is no definite date.

“ is create a new brand image to correct Qatar and serve a new foreign policy , “says political scientist. The world’s richest country with the highest GDP per capita in the world, lives time surviving. Last June, after the abdication of his father, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani, 33, took over the emirate. A week later, the coup that ousted from power in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood launched its increasing regional isolation. Petromonarquía became a haven of Islamist leaders and did not hesitate to use the soft power of Al Jazeera to give oxygen to the world’s most influential Islamist movement and denounce the fierce crackdown launched by army and police.

The crisis reached its peak in March when Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain withdrew their ambassadors from Doha and Riyadh said the Brotherhood terrorist organization. “The emirate recognize that they have to rethink some of the policies responsible for the current problems,” says Stephens. And one of the main headaches is Al Jazeera Television founded in 1996 by the father of the new emir who excelled in covering the war in Afghanistan in 2001 and the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and consolidated reference a decade after the lee of the Arab Spring.

“The new network will not replace Al Jazeera, a channel that has been a huge success and that is too large to make it disappear” analyst forecast. Not even looking for the same audience. The real competitor is the Saudi Al Araby Al Arabiya. In the past year, however, Al Jazeera-aware discredited in certain sectors-has renamed one of its channels. In early 2014 all stations Al Jazeera Sports moved its name and became known beIN Sports, a global brand owned Qatari company and a subsidiary of Tuner Warner a huge picture of sports broadcasting, including the League and Copa del Rey.

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Accused of bias in Egypt, Al Jazeera suffers a brutal campaign harassment in the land of the Pharaohs. Its facilities have been seized and four of its journalists have been imprisoned . One of them, Abdullah the Shami, takes hard bars since August without any charges being brought against him. Three other journalists were arrested in late December and have been accused of collaborating with a terrorist organization even though, as noted Stephens-belong to the English channel whose coverage is “much more balanced” than her sister in Arabic.

Unlike Al-Jazeera funded directly by the Emir, ownership of new media-that a news portal adds also based in London is more opaque. The brains of the operation is the Palestinian Azmi Bishara, director of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Doha and close associate of the young emir. “I do not think necessarily an initiative in which the emir’s in charge but that Bishara, known for his repudiation of the Brotherhood, who recommended it,” says the scientist. Moment and as debuts grilled counterweight Al Jazeera live the good intentions of their website: “Our channel will be the platform for Arab youth, their voices, their talent and energy,”

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