In the March edition of the National Geographic, there is an article about Qatar. I first read about this country years ago in the Readers’ Digest, then it was a couple of years ago when Hong Kong applied to host the Asian Games and lost to Doha, Qatar’s capital city. What caught my interest was Al Jazeera, the Arab TV station.
I knew nothing about Al Jazeera. I knew that they seem to get all the latest bin Laden audio and video tapes, but I didn’t know, or really care about its significance.
Al Jazeera is the Arab equivalent to the CNN. This is what NG said:-
A wake-up call went out to Qatar, and the Arab world, when Sheikh Hamad launched Al Jazeera in 1996 with a pledge of 140 million dollars. At about the same time, he dismantled Qatar’s Ministry of Information, abolished censorship, and gave his new television network license to follow its journalistic mission.“What a headache,” he (the emir) responded, chuckling. “It has caused me no end of problems, I must admit. But those same people who protested against it are following it too. For a headache, I use aspirin, and I can live with it.”
Very interesting article.