Al Jazeera

**Al Jazeera** (in Arabic: الجزيرة al-Jazi'yra) is an Arabic-language television channel from Doha, Qatar. **Al Jazeera** means _The Peninsula_ in Arabic. It is named that way because it claims to be the only independent news network in the Middle East. At first it was a satellite TV channel which broadcast in Arabic only. Now there is also a channel in English, a sports channel, a conference channel, a documentary channel and a children's channel.

## Channels

Next to its original channel Al Jazeera also has many other channels about specific things.
- ***Al Jazeera***
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- ***Al Jazeera Sports***
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- ***Al Jazeera Mobasher** (or Al Jazeera Live)_
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- ***Al Jazeera English***
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- ***Al Jazeera Documentary Channel**_
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## History

The first Al Jazeera channel was created in 1996. This was made possible with 150 million US$ from the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa.

In April 1996 the BBC World channel, which operated in Arabic, was shut down. This channel was partly owned by Saudi-Arabia. Many of the journalists from this station started working with Al Jazeera. The channel started broadcasting at the End of 1996.

Because Al Jazeera was available in the whole region via satellite, it changed the television landscape of the region. Before that people could only watch channels that were censored by the different states. Al Jazeera brought a new level of freedom of speech in television to the Middle East. Al Jazeera has always shown controversy on many governments in the Middle East, for example Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar. It also was critical about Syria's relationship with the Lebanon and of the judiciary in Egypt.

For example, on January 27, 1999 Al Jazeera had critics of the government of Algeria on their live program _El-Itidjah el-Mouakass_ (Arabic for _The Opposite Direction_). To stop people from watching this program in Algeria, the government of Algeria cut the electricity in large parts of the country. At that time many people outside the Middle East did not know about Al Jazeera. Those people who knew it said generally good things about Al Jazeera. Because of good reporting from the Lebanese Civil War in 2000-2001 Al Jazeera got even more viewers. However it only became known worldwide after it broadcast statements from al-Qaeda leaders in 2001.

## Viewership

Most people think that people that live in the Middle East are given little information and that what they get is biased toward the government. Many people in the Arab world see Al Jazeera as a good and true source of information. Some scholars use the word of _contextual objectivity_, which means that Al Jazeera shows both sides of a story, but still manages to be popular with the audience. Because of this it is probably the most watched news channel in the Middle East. More and more channels, for example BBC and CNN, are using material from Al Jazeera.

## Availability

The first Al Jazeera can be watched all over the world with several different satellite and cable systems. In the U.S. Al Jazeera can be watched on DVB-S on the Galaxy 25 and 23 satellites. In Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East it can be received via DVB-S on the Astra and Hot Bird satellites. In Australia Al Jazeera can be watched via the Optus C1 satellite and in the United Kingdom it can be watched via Sky and Freesat.

## Controversy

Al Jazeera has had many controversies and criticism.

## Other websites

- Al Jazeera homepage
- Al Jazeera in English

## Infobox (tv channel)

- **name**: Al Jazeera Channel
Al Jazeera Arabic
- **logo**: AlJazeera logo only (cropped).jpg
- **logo size**: 500px
- **founded**: 8 November 1996
- **launch date**: 1 November 1996
- **picture format**: 1080i HDTV, (HD)
576i SDTV, (SD)
- **owner**: Al Jazeera Media Network
- **headquarters**: Doha, Qatar
- **slogan**: "The Opinion and The Other Opinion"
- **sister channels**: Al Jazeera English
Al Jazeera Mubasher
Al Jazeera Balkans
Al Jazeera Documentary Channel
- **web**: [http://www.aljazeera.net/ Al Jazeera Arabic]
- **country**: Qatar
- **language**: Arabic language, Arabic
- **area**: Worldwide
- **network**: Cable television, Cable and Satellite television, Satellite television network
- **sat serv 1**: Arabsat
- **sat chan 1**: 11604 H – 27500 – 3/4
- **sat serv 2**: Nilesat
- **sat chan 2**: 10972 V – 27500 – 3/4 **(SD)**
11219 H – 27500 – 5/6 **(HD)**
- **sat serv 3**: Hotbird
- **sat chan 3**: 12111 V – 27500 – 3/4
- **sat serv 4**: beIN Channels Network, beIN (MENA)
- **sat chan 4**: Channel 200 (HD)
- **sat serv 5**: Canal (TV channel), Canal (France)
- **sat chan 5**: Channel 400 (SD)
- **sat serv 6**: DStv
(South  Africa)
- **sat chan 6**: Channel 406
- **sat serv 7**: D-Smart (Turkey)
- **sat chan 7**: Channel 298 (SD)
- **cable serv 1**: Virgin Media (UK)
- **cable chan 1**: Channel 831
- **cable serv 2**: Mozaic TV
- **cable chan 2**: Channel 100
- **cable serv 3**: CableVision (Lebanon)
- **cable chan 3**: Unknown
- **cable serv 4**: Ziggo (Netherlands)
- **cable chan 4**: Channel 784
- **cable serv 5**: Hot (Israel), Hot (Israel)
- **cable chan 5**: Channel 137
- **cable serv 6**: NetCologne (Germany)
- **cable chan 6**: Channel 490 (SD)
- **cable serv 7**: Ooredoo, Mozaic TV (Qatar)
- **cable chan 7**: Channel 100 (SD)
- **iptv serv 1**: Fetch TV (Australia)
- **iptv chan 1**: Channel 187
- **iptv serv 2**: PEO TV (Sri Lanka)
- **iptv chan 2**: Channel 26
- **online serv 1**: Virgin TV Anywhere
- **online chan 1**: [http://anywhere.virginmedia.com/channels/live/al-jazeera/ Watch live] (UK only)
- **online serv 2**: Sling TV
- **online chan 2**: Internet Protocol television