Al JazeeraAl Jazeera (Arabic: الجزيرة al-Ǧazīrä), meaning "The Island" or "The Peninsula" is an Arabic-language television channel based in Doha, Qatar. Its willingness to broadcast dissenting views, including on call-in shows, created controversies in the autocratic Persian Gulf Arab States. The station gained worldwide attention following the September 11, 2001 attacks, when it broadcast video statements by Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders (see Videos of Osama bin Laden). Al Jazeera operates several specialized television channels in addition to its primary news channel. These include Al Jazeera Sports, a popular Arabic-language sports channel, Al Jazeera Live, which broadcasts conferences in real time without editing or commentary, and the Al Jazeera Children's Channel. Future announced products include an English-language channel, Al Jazeera International, and a channel specializing in documentaries, and possible music channels or an international newspaper. In addition to its TV channels, Al Jazeera operates Arabic and an English language websites. It's English language website at http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage, should not be confused with Aljazeera.com, an unrelated English language website that publishes news and opinion pieces of an inflammatory nature about current affairs in the Middle East. HistoryAl Jazeera claims to be the only politically independent television station in the Middle East. It now rivals the BBC in worldwide audiences with an estimated 50 million viewers. Al Jazeera was started with a US$150 million grant from the emir of Qatar. It aimed to become self-sufficient through advertising by 2001, but when this failed to occur, the emir agreed to continue subsidizing it on a year-by-year basis (US$30 million in 2004,[1] according to Arnaud de Borchgrave). Other major sources of income include advertising, cable subscription fees, broadcasting deals with other companies, and sale of footage (according to Pravda,[2] "Al-Jazeera received $20,000 per minute for Bin Laden's speech".) In 2000, advertising accounted for 40% of the station's revenue.[3] The channel began broadcasting in late 1996. In April of that year, BBC World's Arabic language TV station, faced with censorship demands by the Saudi Arabian government, had shut down after two years of operation. Many former BBC staff members joined Al Jazeera. In the beginning, Al Jazeera tried to increase its viewership by means of presenting controversial views regarding the governments of many Gulf states including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain (ironically, Qatar is not included in this list), Syria's relationship with Lebanon, and the Egyptian judiciary. Its well-presented documentary on the Lebanese Civil War in 2000-2001 gave its viewer ratings a boost. However, it wasn't until late 2001 that Al Jazeera achieved worldwide popularity when it broadcast video statements by Al Qaeda leaders. In response to Al Jazeera, a group of Saudi investors created Al Arabiya in the first quarter of 2003. Unlike Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya focuses on covering the news without stirring controversies. Al Jazeera outside the Middle EastOn July 4, 2005 Al Jazeera officially announced plans to launch a new English-language satellite service called Al Jazeera International.[4] Al Jazeera has announced this long-expected move in an attempt to provide news about the Arab world, especially Israel, from the Middle Eastern perspective. The new channel will have broadcast centers in Doha (current Al Jazeera headquarters and broadcast center), London, Kuala Lumpur, and Washington D.C., when the station launches in March 2006. The channel will be a 24-hours 7-days a week news channel with 12 hours broadcasted from Doha and four hours from each of London, Kuala Lumpur, and Washington D.C. In September 2005, Josh Rushing joined Al Jazeera International. He was the press officer for the United States Central Command during the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, and in that role was featured in the documentary Control Room. Rushing will be working from the Washington DC Bureau. He commented that "In a time when American media has become so nationalised, I'm excited about joining an organisation that truly wants to be a source of global information..." [5] Former CNN and BBC news anchorwoman and award winning journalist Veronica Pedrosa and veteran UK broadcaster David Frost have also joined the team, along with Riz Khan, a former BBC reporter who most recently was host of the CNN talk show Q&A, CNN producer James Wright, and Kieran Baker, a former editor and producer for CNN. [6] [7] [8]. On 2 December 2005, Stephen Cole, a senior anchor on BBC World and Click Online presenter, announced he was joining Al-Jazeera International. [9] The network announced on 12 January 2006 that former Nightline correspondent Dave Marash would be the co-anchor from their Washington studio. He described his new position as "the most interesting job on Earth." [10] On 6 February 2006 it was announced that the former BBC reporter Rageh Omaar would host a daily weeknights documentary series, Witness [11]. With Al-Jazeera's growing global outreach and influence, some who thought of them as an "alternative media" source have changed their minds. [12]. ViewershipIt is widely believed internationally that inhabitants of the Arab world are given limited information by their governments and media, and that what is conveyed is biased towards the governments' views. Many people see Al Jazeera as a more trustworthy source of information than government and foreign channels. Some scholars and commentators use the notion of contextual objectivity[13][14], which highlights the tension between objectivity and audience appeal, to describe the station's controversial yet popular news approach [15]. As a result, it is probably the most watched news channel in the Middle East. Increasingly, Al Jazeera's exclusive interviews and other footage are being rebroadcast in American, British, and other western media outlets such as CNN and the BBC. In January 2003, the BBC announced that it had signed an agreement with Al Jazeera for sharing facilities and information, including news footage. Al Jazeera is now considered a fairly mainstream media network, though more controversial than most. In the United States, video footage from the network is largely limited to showing the mercy pleas of hostages. Al Jazeera's programming is available worldwide through various satellite and cable systems. In the US, it is available through satellite. Al Jazeera can be freely viewed with a DVB-S receiver as it is broadcast on the Astra and Hot Bird satellites. Al Jazeera's web-based service is accessible subscription-free throughout the world, though the English and Arabic sections appear to be editorially distinct, with their own selection of news and comment. StaffThe Chairman of Al Jazeera is Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer al-Thani, a distant cousin of Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. The current Managing Director of the Arabic channel is Waddah Khanfar, who is supported by Ahmed Sheikh, Editor-in-Chief, and Amen Jaballah. The managing director for the yet-to-be-launched Al Jazeera International is Nigel Parsons. The latest in a string of managing editors of the English-language site is Russell Merryman, who is currently caretaking the site after the departures of Omar Bec, Joanne Tucker, Ahmed Sheikh and Alison Balharry. The Editor-in-Chief of the Arabic website is Abdel Aziz Al Mahmoud, and the editorial head is Mohammad Dawood. It has more than a hundred editorial staff. Criticism and harassmentFrom AlgeriaThe Algerian government froze the activities of Al Jazeera's Algerian correspondent on July 4, 2004. The official reason given was that a reorganisation of the work of foreign correspondents was in progress. The international pressure group Reporters Without Borders says, however, that the measure was really taken in reprisal for a broadcast the previous week of a debate on the political situation in Algeria. Also, it is alleged that several Algerian cities lost power simultaneously to keep residents from watching a program that implicated the Algerian military in a series of massacres. From BahrainBahrain Information Minister Nabil al-Hamr banned Al Jazeera correspondents from reporting from inside the country on 10 May 2002, saying that the station was biased towards Israel and against Bahrain.[16] After improvements in relations between Bahrain and Qatar in 2004, Al Jazeera correspondents returned to Bahrain. From SpainReporter Taysir Allouni was arrested in Spain on 5 September 2003, on a charge of having provided support for members of Al-Qaida. Judge Baltasar Garzón, who had issued the arrest warrant, ordered Allouni held indefinitely without bail. He was nevertheless released several weeks later for health concerns, but was prohibited from leaving the country. On 19 September, a Spanish court issued an arrest warrant for al-Jazeera correspondent Taysir Allouni, before the expected verdict. Allouni asked the court for permission to visit his family in Syria to attend the funeral of his mother, but authorities denied his request and ordered him back to jail. Although he pleaded not guilty of all the charges against him, Allouni was sentenced on 26 September to seven years in prison for merely interviewing Bin Laden after the September 11th attack on the United States. [17]. Many international and private organizations condemned the arrest and called on the Spanish court to free Taysir Alony. Websites such as Free Taysir Alony and Alony Solidarity were created to support Alony. From the United StatesIn 1999, New York Times reporter Thomas L. Friedman called Al-Jazeera "the freest, most widely watched TV network in the Arab world."[18] The station first gained widespread attention in the west following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, when it broadcast videos in which Osama bin Laden and Sulaiman Abu Ghaith defended and justified the attacks. This led to criticism by the United States government that Al Jazeera was engaging in propaganda on behalf of terrorists. Al Jazeera countered that it was merely making information available without comment, and indeed several western television channels later followed suit in broadcasting portions of the tapes. Nevertheless, CNN cut its ties with Al Jazeera for several months over this controversy. On 25 March 2003, two of its reporters covering the New York Stock Exchange had their credentials revoked. NYSE spokesman Ray Pellechia claimed "security reasons" and that the exchange had decided to give access only to networks that focus "on responsible business coverage". He denied the revocation has anything to do with the network's Iraq war coverage. [19] From the US governmentWhile prior to September 11th, 2001, the United States government lauded Al Jazeera for its role as an independent media outlet in the Middle East, since then it has reversed course dramatically. Government spokespersons have often cited what they claim as bias on the part of the broadcaster. In 2004 the competing Arabic-language satellite TV station Al Hurra was launched, funded by the U.S. government. On January 30, 2005 the New York Times reported that the Qatari government, under pressure from the Bush administration, was speeding up plans to sell the station. [20] Al Jazeera staff in a symbolic gathering outside their offices in Doha in protest against the bombing allegation memoOn November 22, 2005, the UK tabloid The Daily Mirror published a story claiming that it had obtained a leaked memo from 10 Downing Street saying that U.S. President George W. Bush had considered bombing Al Jazeera's Doha headquarters in April 2004, when U.S. Marines were conducting a contentious assault on Fallujah. In light of this allegation, Al Jazeera has questioned whether it has been targeted deliberately in the past — Al Jazeera's Kabul office was bombed in 2001 and a missile hit its office in Baghdad during the invasion of Iraq killing correspondent Tariq Ayoub. Both of these attacks occurred despite Al Jazeera's provision of the locations of their offices to the United States. Al Jazeera cameraman Sami Al Hajj was detained in Afghanistan as an "enemy combatant" in December 2001, and is now held without charge in Camp Delta at Guantánamo Bay. From Muslim viewersAl Jazeera has been criticized by many of its Muslim viewers for giving air time to Israeli officials. Some have suggested the media outlet is a source of disinformation and a front for Western intelligence agencies. They have mockingly taken to calling it "Al-Khinzeera," which means "The Pig." Al Jazeera and IraqOn March 4, 2003, during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, the New York Stock Exchange banned Al Jazeera (as well as several other news organizations whose identities were not revealed) from its trading floor indefinitely, citing "security concerns" as the official reason. The move was quickly mirrored by Nasdaq stock market officials. Critics have drawn the conclusion that the Bush administration's distaste for the station's reporting of the invasion of Iraq was the underlying motivation, yet there is no evidence to support such a claim aside from mere speculation. The administration has voiced such criticisms of Al Jazeera. For example, on April 27, 2004, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, said, "On Iraq they have established a pattern of false reporting." (WSVN) During the Iraq war, Al Jazeera faced the same reporting and movement restrictions as other news-gathering organizations. In addition, one of its reporters, Tayseer Allouni, was banned from the country by the Iraqi Information Ministry, while another one, Diyar Al-Omari, was banned from reporting in Iraq (both decisions were later retracted). On April 3, 2003, Al Jazeera withdrew its journalists from the country, citing unreasonable interference from Iraqi officials. Also in the run-up to the war the US Pentagon hired the Rendon Group to target and possibly punish Al Jazeera reporters who did not stay on message. [21] On April 8, 2003 Al Jazeera's office in Baghdad was attacked by US forces, killing reporter Tareq Ayyoub and wounding another, despite the US being informed of the office's precise coordinates prior to the incident. Similarly, on November 13, 2001 the US launched a missile attack on Al Jazeera's office in Kabul during the US invasion of Afghanistan, also after being informed of its location. Al Jazeera cameraman Sami Al-Haj, a Sudanese national, has also been held by US forces since the start of 2002 at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. On 23 November 2005, Sami Al-Haj's lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith reported that, during (125 of 130) interviews, US officials had questioned Sami as to whether Al Jazeera was a front for Al Qaeda. The reasons for his detention remain unknown, although the US official statements on detainees is that they are security threats. In May 2003, the CIA, through the Iraqi National Congress, released documents purportedly showing that Al Jazeera had been infiltrated by Iraqi spies, and was regarded by Iraqi officials as part of their propaganda effort. As reported by the Sunday Times, the alleged spies were described by an Al Jazeera executive as having minor roles with no input on editorial decisions. On 23 September 2003, Iraq suspended Al Jazeera (and Al-Arabiya) from reporting on official government activities for two weeks for what the Council stated as supporting recent attacks on council members and Coalition occupational forces. The move came after allegations by Iraqis who stated that the channel had incited anti-occupation violence (by airing statements from Iraqi resistance leaders), increasing ethnic and sectarian tensions, and being supportive of the resistance. During 2004, Al Jazeera broadcast several video tapes of various kidnapping victims which had been sent to the network. The videos were filmed by the groups after kidnapping a hostage. The hostages are shown, often blindfolded, pleading for their release. They often appear to be forced to read out prepared statements of their kidnappers. Al Jazeera has assisted authorities from the home countries of the victims in an attempt to secure the release of kidnapping victims. This included broadcasting pleas from family members and government officials. Contrary to some allegations, including the oft-reported comments of Donald Rumsfeld on June 4, 2005, Al Jazeera has never shown beheadings which often appear on internet websites. [22] On August 7, 2004, the Iraqi Allawi government shut down the Iraq office of Al Jazeera, claiming that it was responsible for presenting a negative image of Iraq, and charging the network with fueling anti-Coalition hostilities. Al Jazeera vowed to continue its reporting from inside Iraq. News photographs showed United States and Iraqi military personnel working together to close the office.[23] Initially closed by a one-month ban, the shutdown was extended indefinitely in September 2004, and the offices sealed. On the InternetArabic languageThe Arabic version of the site was brought offline for about 10 hours by an FBI raid on its ISP, InfoCom Corporation, on September 5, 2001. InfoCom was later convicted of exporting to Libya and Syria, of knowingly being invested in by a Hamas member (both of which are illegal in the United States), and of underpaying customs duties.[24] English languageThe station launched an English-language edition of its online content in March, 2003. [25] Hacker attacksImmediately after its launch, the site was attacked by hackers, who launched denial-of-service attacks and redirected visitors to a site featuring an American flag. In November, 2003, John William Racine II, a.k.a 'John Buffo', was sentenced to 1000 hours of community service and a $2000 US fine for the online disruption. Racine posed as an Al Jazeera employee to get a password to the network's site, then redirected visitors to a page he created that showed an American flag shaped like a U.S. map and a patriotic motto, court documents said. In June 2003, Racine pleaded guilty to wire fraud and unlawful interception of an electronic communication. ProviderThe site was forced to change internet hosting providers several times, due, in its opinion, to political pressure. Initially its English-language site was provided by the US-based DataPipe, which gave it notice, soon followed by Akamai Technologies.[26] They later shifted to the French branch of NavLink, and then to (and currently) AT&T WorldNet Services. DocumentariesAl Jazeera's coverage of the invasion of Iraq was the focus of an award-winning 2004 documentary film, Control Room by Egyptian-American director Jehane Noujaim. In July 2003, PBS broadcast a documentary, called Exclusive to al-Jazeera on its program Wide Angle. Another documentary, Al-Jazeera, An Arab Voice for Freedom or Demagoguery? The UNC Tour [27] was filmed two months after the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack. Awards
Notes
Further reading
This page about Al Jazeera includes information from a Wikipedia article. Additional articles about Al Jazeera News stories about Al Jazeera External links for Al Jazeera Videos for Al Jazeera Wikis about Al Jazeera Discussion Groups about Al Jazeera Blogs about Al Jazeera Images of Al Jazeera |
|
Initially its English-language site was provided by the US-based DataPipe, which gave it notice, soon followed by Akamai Technologies.[26] They later shifted to the French branch of NavLink, and then to (and currently) AT&T WorldNet Services. M. The site was forced to change internet hosting providers several times, due, in its opinion, to political pressure. Enlistment quotas were met in the two years directly following the game's release.[17] But another recruitment breakdown in April 2005 proves the game's recruitment power is still quite limited, in light of the recent casualties that American soldiers experienced in Iraq.[18]. In June 2003, Racine pleaded guilty to wire fraud and unlawful interception of an electronic communication. At the United States Military Academy 19 percent of 2003's freshman class stated they had played the game. map and a patriotic motto, court documents said. A poll by I for I Research said that 30 percent of young people who had a positive view of the military said that they had developed that view by playing the game. Racine posed as an Al Jazeera employee to get a password to the network's site, then redirected visitors to a page he created that showed an American flag shaped like a U.S. The game has also been described as an extension of the military entertainment complex or so-called "militainment", further blurring the line between entertainment and war [15], with a few critics arguing that it contributes to a militarization of society.[16]. In November, 2003, John William Racine II, a.k.a 'John Buffo', was sentenced to 1000 hours of community service and a $2000 US fine for the online disruption. Army to be a "cost-effective recruitment tool," aims to become part of youth culture's "consideration set," as Army deputy chief of personnel, Timothy Maude, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee.[14]. Immediately after its launch, the site was attacked by hackers, who launched denial-of-service attacks and redirected visitors to a site featuring an American flag. America's Army, considered by the U.S. [25]. Today they need to know that the Army is engaged around the world to defeat terrorist forces bent on the destruction of America and our freedoms.". The station launched an English-language edition of its online content in March, 2003. It reads, "In elementary school kids learn about the actions of the Continental Army that won our freedoms under George Washington and the Army's role in ending Hitler's oppression. InfoCom was later convicted of exporting to Libya and Syria, of knowingly being invested in by a Hamas member (both of which are illegal in the United States), and of underpaying customs duties.[24]. In the Frequently Asked Questions section of the game's official website, its developers argue its suitability for teenagers. The Arabic version of the site was brought offline for about 10 hours by an FBI raid on its ISP, InfoCom Corporation, on September 5, 2001. The Army Game and its official webpage, which must be visited to be able to play the game, contain links to the army recruitment website goarmy.com, another recruiting tool that, according to the Army Subcommittee Testimony from February 2000, has a higher chance of recruiting than "any other method of contact."[12] Leading American players to the website is a major goal of the game, and it was confirmed that twenty-eight percent of all visitors of America's Army's webpage click through to this recruitment site.[13]. News photographs showed United States and Iraqi military personnel working together to close the office.[23] Initially closed by a one-month ban, the shutdown was extended indefinitely in September 2004, and the offices sealed. Galloway, an assistant professor at New York University notes that, "What is interesting about America's Army, is not the debate over whether it is thinly-veiled propaganda or a legitimate recruitment tool, for it is unabashedly and decisively both, but rather that the central conceit of the game is one of mimetic realism." In his analysis, Galloway concludes that America's Army, despite being a fairly realistic game, with graphics approaching photorealism as well as real-life settings, does not make even the least attempt to achieve narrative realism -- that is, accurately representing what serving a tour in the Army would actually be like. Al Jazeera vowed to continue its reporting from inside Iraq. As well, Alexander R. On August 7, 2004, the Iraqi Allawi government shut down the Iraq office of Al Jazeera, claiming that it was responsible for presenting a negative image of Iraq, and charging the network with fueling anti-Coalition hostilities. Specifically, a graduate of Utrecht University concluded the game "with its governmental background, is instead of an advergame, better to be described as a propagame."[8] Chris Chambers, the deputy director of development for America's Army, admits it is a recruitment tool,[9] and "the Army readily admits [America's Army is] a propaganda device," wrote Chris Morris, a CNN/Money columnist and director of content development.[10]. [22]. Hence the critics claim that the game creates a false impression of reality. Contrary to some allegations, including the oft-reported comments of Donald Rumsfeld on June 4, 2005, Al Jazeera has never shown beheadings which often appear on internet websites. Army, as well the emotional trauma that real soldiers experience when they are confronted with bloodshed and corpses. This included broadcasting pleas from family members and government officials. For example, it has been accused of playing down or excluding negative facets of Army life from its portrayal, such as collateral damage and harassment in the U.S. Al Jazeera has assisted authorities from the home countries of the victims in an attempt to secure the release of kidnapping victims. Unsurprisingly, a game of this nature has come under criticism. They often appear to be forced to read out prepared statements of their kidnappers. Army is.". The hostages are shown, often blindfolded, pleading for their release. In the official Frequently Asked Questions page the developers, too, confirm that in a statement giving the reason why people outside the United States can play the game: "We want the whole world to know how great the U.S. The videos were filmed by the groups after kidnapping a hostage. Army. During 2004, Al Jazeera broadcast several video tapes of various kidnapping victims which had been sent to the network. America's Army is intended to give a positive impression of the U.S. The move came after allegations by Iraqis who stated that the channel had incited anti-occupation violence (by airing statements from Iraqi resistance leaders), increasing ethnic and sectarian tensions, and being supportive of the resistance. Apart from the common controversy that surrounds games rewarding the virtual killing of other human beings, America's Army caused additional debate and disagreement that made it become the subject of journalistic and academic research. On 23 September 2003, Iraq suspended Al Jazeera (and Al-Arabiya) from reporting on official government activities for two weeks for what the Council stated as supporting recent attacks on council members and Coalition occupational forces. One, which is always available, allows the "dead" player to choose a member of his own team and see through their eyes; another allows the ghost to rotate his view around the chosen player; there are also certain fixed viewpoints that allow the "dead" player to observe the entire map. As reported by the Sunday Times, the alleged spies were described by an Al Jazeera executive as having minor roles with no input on editorial decisions. Depending on server configuration, spectators can watch the rest of the round in up to three ways. In May 2003, the CIA, through the Iraqi National Congress, released documents purportedly showing that Al Jazeera had been infiltrated by Iraqi spies, and was regarded by Iraqi officials as part of their propaganda effort. As is not uncommon in multiplayer online games, cheating (such as through the use of wallhacks or aimbots) is still prevalent in America's Army, despite the game being supported by the cheat-prevention utility PunkBuster. The reasons for his detention remain unknown, although the US official statements on detainees is that they are security threats. Players whose protagonist is dead receive information through the chat and the view as spectator and are capable of using VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) communication programs to gain information, especially on players' positions. On 23 November 2005, Sami Al-Haj's lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith reported that, during (125 of 130) interviews, US officials had questioned Sami as to whether Al Jazeera was a front for Al Qaeda. In contrast to the blacking out of the screen when dead in Counter-Strike, for example, the developers of America's Army have done little so far to prevent spying spectators from communicating with those still playing, which has become a common type of cheating, widely referred to as ghosting. Al Jazeera cameraman Sami Al-Haj, a Sudanese national, has also been held by US forces since the start of 2002 at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Any player character killed before the round is over become "spectators"; their chat/voice messages cannot be seen/heard by the players still alive, but they can watch the rest of the round. Similarly, on November 13, 2001 the US launched a missile attack on Al Jazeera's office in Kabul during the US invasion of Afghanistan, also after being informed of its location. [7] Players with a high "HONOR" level are sometimes insulted as addicts. On April 8, 2003 Al Jazeera's office in Baghdad was attacked by US forces, killing reporter Tareq Ayyoub and wounding another, despite the US being informed of the office's precise coordinates prior to the incident. For this purpose, a separate company has undertaken the task of tracking players and administrating servers. [21]. Players are automatically banned from all servers when their overall score is too low. Also in the run-up to the war the US Pentagon hired the Rendon Group to target and possibly punish Al Jazeera reporters who did not stay on message. Punished are friendly fire and eliminating objectives which are assigned for protection. On April 3, 2003, Al Jazeera withdrew its journalists from the country, citing unreasonable interference from Iraqi officials. Rewarded are the achievement of specific mission objectives, killing enemies and healing injured teammates. In addition, one of its reporters, Tayseer Allouni, was banned from the country by the Iraqi Information Ministry, while another one, Diyar Al-Omari, was banned from reporting in Iraq (both decisions were later retracted). The game features a kind of honor system making use of operant conditioning, which means that gamers who obey to the rules, dubbed "Rules of engagement", are rewarded with experience points or else punished with a decrease of them. During the Iraq war, Al Jazeera faced the same reporting and movement restrictions as other news-gathering organizations. For example, the objective on the SF Hospital map, one of the most played maps, is to kill the rebels' VIP, while the other team's mission is to keep him alive and escort him to the escape zone. For example, on April 27, 2004, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, said, "On Iraq they have established a pattern of false reporting." (WSVN). This happens when the objectives are achieved, all members of the enemy team are killed, or when the round's time limit is reached. The administration has voiced such criticisms of Al Jazeera. The round ends with only one team winning. Critics have drawn the conclusion that the Bush administration's distaste for the station's reporting of the invasion of Iraq was the underlying motivation, yet there is no evidence to support such a claim aside from mere speculation. This equipment normally consists of one or two firearms and several grenades. The move was quickly mirrored by Nasdaq stock market officials. Each round starts with the two teams spawning simultaneously and each always starting with the equipment of their soldier class. On March 4, 2003, during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, the New York Stock Exchange banned Al Jazeera (as well as several other news organizations whose identities were not revealed) from its trading floor indefinitely, citing "security concerns" as the official reason. Unlike common first-person shooters, players are required to use iron sights for aiming to shoot more accurately. They have mockingly taken to calling it "Al-Khinzeera," which means "The Pig.". Pacing is fast in the sense that players can be killed very quickly, but the players' movements are a lot slower and the gameplay contains fewer firefights than Unreal Tournament and Counter-Strike, especially on larger maps. Some have suggested the media outlet is a source of disinformation and a front for Western intelligence agencies. The game is a medium-paced tactical shooter, similar to the Tom Clancy series of shooters. Al Jazeera has been criticized by many of its Muslim viewers for giving air time to Israeli officials. Their opponents usually appear as non-uniformed people carrying Warsaw Pact weapons such as the AK-47. Al Jazeera cameraman Sami Al Hajj was detained in Afghanistan as an "enemy combatant" in December 2001, and is now held without charge in Camp Delta at Guantánamo Bay. weapons such as the M16A2. Both of these attacks occurred despite Al Jazeera's provision of the locations of their offices to the United States. soldiers carrying U.S. In light of this allegation, Al Jazeera has questioned whether it has been targeted deliberately in the past — Al Jazeera's Kabul office was bombed in 2001 and a missile hit its office in Baghdad during the invasion of Iraq killing correspondent Tariq Ayoub. The players on either team appear as U.S. Marines were conducting a contentious assault on Fallujah. The other side is always identified as the enemy (or OPFOR in the case of training maps.). Bush had considered bombing Al Jazeera's Doha headquarters in April 2004, when U.S. Army. President George W. The player's side, whether Assault or Defense, is always identified as U.S. On November 22, 2005, the UK tabloid The Daily Mirror published a story claiming that it had obtained a leaked memo from 10 Downing Street saying that U.S. The Assault loses the round if the time limit, usually set to ten minutes, runs out. [20]. The players characters' are divided into two teams: usually an Assault group and a Defense one. On January 30, 2005 the New York Times reported that the Qatari government, under pressure from the Bush administration, was speeding up plans to sell the station. One of America's Army's unusual features is the design of the player's opponents. government. Army" or, on "Special Forces" maps, as Indigenous forces against an opposing enemy team. In 2004 the competing Arabic-language satellite TV station Al Hurra was launched, funded by the U.S. The main section of the game is the multiplayer part, in which players fight either as the "U.S. Government spokespersons have often cited what they claim as bias on the part of the broadcaster. Accomplishing the other ten training levels enables the player to become medic, special forces unit and sniper. While prior to September 11th, 2001, the United States government lauded Al Jazeera for its role as an independent media outlet in the Middle East, since then it has reversed course dramatically. Before being allowed to play online a player must first go through four training maps and have his progress saved online in a player account. [19]. Army from the first person perspective instead of Counter-Terrorists or Terrorists. He denied the revocation has anything to do with the network's Iraq war coverage. America's Army is a round- and team-based tactical shooter with a gameplay similar to Counter-Strike in which the player controls a soldier of the U.S. NYSE spokesman Ray Pellechia claimed "security reasons" and that the exchange had decided to give access only to networks that focus "on responsible business coverage". government agencies, including the Secret Service, resulting in the development of a training version, similar to the public version, which is for internal government use only. On 25 March 2003, two of its reporters covering the New York Stock Exchange had their credentials revoked. According to Colonel Wardynski the game generated interest from other U.S. Nevertheless, CNN cut its ties with Al Jazeera for several months over this controversy. The Xbox version was released in November, 2005. Al Jazeera countered that it was merely making information available without comment, and indeed several western television channels later followed suit in broadcasting portions of the tapes. Army. This led to criticism by the United States government that Al Jazeera was engaging in propaganda on behalf of terrorists. A different version of the game for Xbox and PlayStation 2, America's Army: Rise of a Soldier, is being developed by Ubisoft in collaboration with the U.S. Friedman called Al-Jazeera "the freest, most widely watched TV network in the Arab world."[18] The station first gained widespread attention in the west following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, when it broadcast videos in which Osama bin Laden and Sulaiman Abu Ghaith defended and justified the attacks. After the game proved successful, the project was withdrawn from the Naval Postgraduate School due to allegations of mismanagement[6] in March 2004. In 1999, New York Times reporter Thomas L. Army. Websites such as Free Taysir Alony and Alony Solidarity were created to support Alony. For not mentioning the contribution of the US Navy, there were tensions between the Naval Postgraduate School and the U.S. Many international and private organizations condemned the arrest and called on the Spanish court to free Taysir Alony. In a booklet produced by the MOVES Institute, an article by Wagner James Au explains that "the Department of Defense want[ed] to double the number of Special Forces soldiers, so essential [had they proven] in Afghanistan and northern Iraq; consequently, orders [had] trickled down the chain of command and found application in the current release of America's Army."[5]. [17]. On November 6, 2003, version 2.0 of America's Army was published, with the full title of America's Army: Special Forces. Although he pleaded not guilty of all the charges against him, Allouni was sentenced on 26 September to seven years in prison for merely interviewing Bin Laden after the September 11th attack on the United States. Army to be used for testing soldiers' skills. Allouni asked the court for permission to visit his family in Syria to attend the funeral of his mother, but authorities denied his request and ordered him back to jail. In 2003, Ubisoft 's commercial Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield was licensed by the U.S. On 19 September, a Spanish court issued an arrest warrant for al-Jazeera correspondent Taysir Allouni, before the expected verdict. Army, was never released and has yet to show any signs of re-development. He was nevertheless released several weeks later for health concerns, but was prohibited from leaving the country. America's Army: Soldiers, which was a role-playing game in development stage that was to elucidate career paths in the U.S. Judge Baltasar Garzón, who had issued the arrest warrant, ordered Allouni held indefinitely without bail. The Army currently spends US $3 million a year to develop future versions of the game and US $1.5 million annually for server support. Reporter Taysir Allouni was arrested in Spain on 5 September 2003, on a charge of having provided support for members of Al-Qaida. Army. Bahrain Information Minister Nabil al-Hamr banned Al Jazeera correspondents from reporting from inside the country on 10 May 2002, saying that the station was biased towards Israel and against Bahrain.[16] After improvements in relations between Bahrain and Qatar in 2004, Al Jazeera correspondents returned to Bahrain. The game was easily available, the gameplay was similar to Counter-Strike, and it had the then brand-new Unreal Engine as well as free servers sponsored by the U.S. Also, it is alleged that several Algerian cities lost power simultaneously to keep residents from watching a program that implicated the Algerian military in a series of massacres. Distributed as a free download or CD it quickly became one of the ten most often-played online first-person shooters. The international pressure group Reporters Without Borders says, however, that the measure was really taken in reprisal for a broadcast the previous week of a debate on the political situation in Algeria. On July 4, 2002, the United States' Independence Day, the first version of America's Army, named Recon, was released after three years of development and production costs of US $7.5 million. The official reason given was that a reorganisation of the work of foreign correspondents was in progress. [4]. The Algerian government froze the activities of Al Jazeera's Algerian correspondent on July 4, 2004. According to Professor Zyda, the September 11, 2001 attacks had a positive effect on the future acceptance of the game. It has more than a hundred editorial staff. In 2001 the Department of Defense licensed Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear from the French software company Ubisoft for training military personnel. The Editor-in-Chief of the Arabic website is Abdel Aziz Al Mahmoud, and the editorial head is Mohammad Dawood. Army to create the game. The latest in a string of managing editors of the English-language site is Russell Merryman, who is currently caretaking the site after the departures of Omar Bec, Joanne Tucker, Ahmed Sheikh and Alison Balharry. In May 2000, the MOVES Institute at the Naval Postgraduate School was contracted by the U.S. The managing director for the yet-to-be-launched Al Jazeera International is Nigel Parsons. After convincing them of the project's cost-effectiveness Wardynski, who later became director of the Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis at West Point and the head of the Army Game Project, began working with Professor Zyda. The current Managing Director of the Arabic channel is Waddah Khanfar, who is supported by Ahmed Sheikh, Editor-in-Chief, and Amen Jaballah. Army computer game to the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel and the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Military Manpower. The Chairman of Al Jazeera is Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer al-Thani, a distant cousin of Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. Casey Wardynski, at that time an economics professor at the United States Military Academy, West Point, took the idea of an online U.S. Al Jazeera's web-based service is accessible subscription-free throughout the world, though the English and Arabic sections appear to be editorially distinct, with their own selection of news and comment. Lieutenant Colonel E. Al Jazeera can be freely viewed with a DVB-S receiver as it is broadcast on the Astra and Hot Bird satellites. Navy's Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, to create a research centre to develop advanced military simulations. In the US, it is available through satellite. Army to provide US$45 million to the U.S. Al Jazeera's programming is available worldwide through various satellite and cable systems. A report by Professor Zyda induced the U.S. In the United States, video footage from the network is largely limited to showing the mercy pleas of hostages. The new slogan, "An Army Of One" was invented and used in numerous publicity efforts, such as the sponsorship of a NASCAR racing team. Al Jazeera is now considered a fairly mainstream media network, though more controversial than most. Army's image. In January 2003, the BBC announced that it had signed an agreement with Al Jazeera for sharing facilities and information, including news footage. The Department of Defense raised its spending for recruitment to more than US$2.2Bn, which not only paid for the Army Game Project, but also an entire promotional campaign to polish up the U.S. Increasingly, Al Jazeera's exclusive interviews and other footage are being rebroadcast in American, British, and other western media outlets such as CNN and the BBC. Army recruiting numbers had hit their lowest point in thirty years[3], and after two straight years of missed recruiting targets, the Congress of the United States decided to carry out "aggressive, innovative experiments" in military recruiting. As a result, it is probably the most watched news channel in the Middle East. In 1999, U.S. Some scholars and commentators use the notion of contextual objectivity[13][14], which highlights the tension between objectivity and audience appeal, to describe the station's controversial yet popular news approach [15]. A 1997 report of the National Research Council, which Professor Michael Zyda was a member of[2], observed that Department of Defense's simulations were lagging behind commercial games and advised joint research with the entertainment industry. Many people see Al Jazeera as a more trustworthy source of information than government and foreign channels. Marine training and released to the public. It is widely believed internationally that inhabitants of the Arab world are given limited information by their governments and media, and that what is conveyed is biased towards the governments' views. The game was both used for U.S. [12]. This was the first game funded and developed by both the Department of Defense and the commercial game industry. With Al-Jazeera's growing global outreach and influence, some who thought of them as an "alternative media" source have changed their minds. Marine Corps to contract with MÄK Technologies for the development of Marine Expeditionary Unit 2000 the following year. He described his new position as "the most interesting job on Earth." [10] On 6 February 2006 it was announced that the former BBC reporter Rageh Omaar would host a daily weeknights documentary series, Witness [11]. The success of Marine Doom led the U.S. [9] The network announced on 12 January 2006 that former Nightline correspondent Dave Marash would be the co-anchor from their Washington studio. Marine simulation experts created Marine Doom, a modification of the commercial game Doom II as a tactical training tool. On 2 December 2005, Stephen Cole, a senior anchor on BBC World and Click Online presenter, announced he was joining Al-Jazeera International. Marines, U.S. [6] [7] [8]. Although the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) has had plans for using video games since the early 1980s, it was not until 1996, shortly after computer-based wargames were permitted on government computers for U.S. He commented that "In a time when American media has become so nationalised, I'm excited about joining an organisation that truly wants to be a source of global information..." [5] Former CNN and BBC news anchorwoman and award winning journalist Veronica Pedrosa and veteran UK broadcaster David Frost have also joined the team, along with Riz Khan, a former BBC reporter who most recently was host of the CNN talk show Q&A, CNN producer James Wright, and Kieran Baker, a former editor and producer for CNN. By comparison, under the same counting conditions the most often played online game, Counter-Strike, has between 70,000 and 100,000 players.[1]. Rushing will be working from the Washington DC Bureau. Statistics show that the game has had an average of roughly 3,000 to 6,000 players playing online at any one time between 2002 and 2005 and thus ranking in the ten most played online games tracked by GameSpy. He was the press officer for the United States Central Command during the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, and in that role was featured in the documentary Control Room. A counter on the homepage of the PC version claims over six million registered accounts as of 2005 which is often confused with the number of players. In September 2005, Josh Rushing joined Al Jazeera International. The game is used as a playable recruiting tool and critics have charged the game serves as a propaganda device. The channel will be a 24-hours 7-days a week news channel with 12 hours broadcasted from Doha and four hours from each of London, Kuala Lumpur, and Washington D.C. America's Army is the first computer and video game to make recruitment an explicit goal and the first well-known overt use of computer gaming for political aims. The new channel will have broadcast centers in Doha (current Al Jazeera headquarters and broadcast center), London, Kuala Lumpur, and Washington D.C., when the station launches in March 2006. The game is relatively authentic in terms of visual and acoustic representation of combat —especially pertaining to weaponry—but its critics have alleged that it fails to convey wartime conditions as accurately as it claims. On July 4, 2005 Al Jazeera officially announced plans to launch a new English-language satellite service called Al Jazeera International.[4] Al Jazeera has announced this long-expected move in an attempt to provide news about the Arab world, especially Israel, from the Middle Eastern perspective. Professor Michael Zyda, the director and founder of the MOVES Institute, acknowledged Counter-Strike as the model for America's Army. Unlike Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya focuses on covering the news without stirring controversies. The gameplay is similar to that of Counter-Strike, a Half-Life modification and the most widely played online first-person shooter at the time and for the past few years. In response to Al Jazeera, a group of Saudi investors created Al Arabiya in the first quarter of 2003. Army recruiting centers. However, it wasn't until late 2001 that Al Jazeera achieved worldwide popularity when it broadcast video statements by Al Qaeda leaders. The PC version can be found as a download on the Internet or as free CDs at U.S. Its well-presented documentary on the Lebanese Civil War in 2000-2001 gave its viewer ratings a boost. America's Army has been developed since 2000 and still changes through add-ons and patches. In the beginning, Al Jazeera tried to increase its viewership by means of presenting controversial views regarding the governments of many Gulf states including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain (ironically, Qatar is not included in this list), Syria's relationship with Lebanon, and the Egyptian judiciary. The game falls into the subgenres of an advergame, serious game and militainment. Many former BBC staff members joined Al Jazeera. . In April of that year, BBC World's Arabic language TV station, faced with censorship demands by the Saudi Arabian government, had shut down after two years of operation. Army, Ubisoft and Secret Level. The channel began broadcasting in late 1996. Rise of a Soldier is the subtitle for the Xbox and PlayStation 2 version that was developed by the U.S. Other major sources of income include advertising, cable subscription fees, broadcasting deals with other companies, and sale of footage (according to Pravda,[2] "Al-Jazeera received $20,000 per minute for Bin Laden's speech".) In 2000, advertising accounted for 40% of the station's revenue.[3]. It has been developed by the MOVES Institute at the Naval Postgraduate School and uses the Unreal engine. It aimed to become self-sufficient through advertising by 2001, but when this failed to occur, the emir agreed to continue subsidizing it on a year-by-year basis (US$30 million in 2004,[1] according to Arnaud de Borchgrave). tax dollars and distributed for free. Al Jazeera was started with a US$150 million grant from the emir of Qatar. It is financed through U.S. It now rivals the BBC in worldwide audiences with an estimated 50 million viewers. The PC version was released on July 4, 2002 subtitled Recon, Operations and currently Special Forces. Al Jazeera claims to be the only politically independent television station in the Middle East. Army recruitment. . Army and help with U.S. It's English language website at http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage, should not be confused with Aljazeera.com, an unrelated English language website that publishes news and opinion pieces of an inflammatory nature about current affairs in the Middle East. government and released as a global public relations initiative to present an image of the current U.S. In addition to its TV channels, Al Jazeera operates Arabic and an English language websites. America's Army (also known as AA or Army Game Project) is a tactical multiplayer first-person shooter owned by the U.S. Future announced products include an English-language channel, Al Jazeera International, and a channel specializing in documentaries, and possible music channels or an international newspaper. 2.6 (AA:SF Link-Up) - February 9, 2006. These include Al Jazeera Sports, a popular Arabic-language sports channel, Al Jazeera Live, which broadcasts conferences in real time without editing or commentary, and the Al Jazeera Children's Channel. Xbox (AA:Rise of a Soldier) - Nov 16, 2005. Al Jazeera operates several specialized television channels in addition to its primary news channel. 2.5 (AA:SF Direct Action) - October 13, 2005. The station gained worldwide attention following the September 11, 2001 attacks, when it broadcast video statements by Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders (see Videos of Osama bin Laden). 2.4 (AA:SF Q-Course) - May 16, 2005. Its willingness to broadcast dissenting views, including on call-in shows, created controversies in the autocratic Persian Gulf Arab States. 2.3 (AA:SF Firefight) - February 18, 2005. Al Jazeera (Arabic: الجزيرة al-Ǧazīrä), meaning "The Island" or "The Peninsula" is an Arabic-language television channel based in Doha, Qatar. 2.2.1 (AA:SF Vanguard) - Nov 18, 2004. Naomi Sakr (2002), Satellite Realms : Transnational Television, Globalization and the Middle East, I.B.Tauris. 2.2.0 (AA:SF Vanguard) - October 19, 2004. Mohammed El-Nawawy and Adel Iskandar (2003), Al Jazeera: The story of the network that is rattling governments and redefining modern journalism, Basic. 2.1 (AA:SF Downrange) - June 1, 2004. Hugh Miles (2004), Al Jazeera: how Arab TV news challenged the world, Abacus. 2.0a (AA:SF) - December 21, 2003. Marc Lynch (2005), Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, al-Jazeera, and Middle East Politics Today, Columbia University Press. 2.0 (AA:Special Forces) - Nov 6, 2003. Mohamed Zayani (2005), The Al Jazeera Phenomenon: Critical Perspectives On New Arab Media, Paradigm Publishers. 1.9 (AA:O) - August 8, 2003. ^ (da) “Al-Jazeera oversatte ikke redaktørens beklagelse,” Politiken, 2006-01-31. 1.7 (AA:O) - April 21, 2003. New York Times: A27.. 1.6 (AA:O) - March 16, 2003. Fathers and Sons. 1.5 (AA:O) - December 23, 2002. (12 February 1999). 1.4 (AA:O) - November 15, 2002. ^ Friedman, Thomas L. 1.3 (AA:O) - October 10, 2002. ISBN.. 1.2.1 (AA:O) - October 3, 2002. Al-Jazeera: How the free Arab News Network Scooped the World and Changed the Middle East, Westview. 1.2.0 (AA:O) - August 22, 2002. ^ El-Nawawy and Iskandar. 1.1.1 (AA:O) - August 1, 2002. [31]. 1.0.1b (AA:O) - July 25, 2002. In 2004, Al Jazeera was voted, by brandchannel.com, the fifth most influential global brand behind Apple Computer, Google, Ikea and Starbucks. 1.0.1 (AA: Operations) - July 12, 2002. [30]. 1.0 (AA: Recon) - July 4, 2002. In December 1999, Ibn Rushd (Averoes) Fund for Freedom of Thought in Berlin awarded the "Ibn Rushd Award" for media and journalism for the year to Al Jazeera. [29]. According to Tifanny Schlain, the founder of the Webby Awards, this caused a controversy as [other media organisations] "felt it was a risk-taking site," . In April 2004, Webby Awards nominated Al Jazeera as one of the five best news Web sites, along with BBC News, National Geographic, RocketNews and The Smoking Gun. In November 2005, Al Jazeera was awarded by Index on Censorship for its "courage in circumventing censorship and contributing to the free exchange of information in the Arab world." [28]. |