Jazeera English sets sights on N America

THE new boss of Al Jazeera English is setting his sights on North America – saying growing frustration with the US media makes the region “perfect” for the Doha-based channel to strike.

Speaking exclusively to Gulf Times, Tony Burman said: “I think a lot of Americans are looking at their own media and being very dissatisfied; they are not getting an understanding of the world that one expects from the media.

“AJE is perfect for Americans because it provides a kind of detached, independent look at a lot of events that are very important to them. It’s also important for AJE to give a unique coverage of what’s going on in the US.”

Launched in November 2006, the English-speaking channel promised to cover international events from a ‘fresh perspective’ to viewers in Africa, Asia and throughout the Europe. However, tapping into the American market has proved elusive.

“The channel is not widely distributed in Canada or the US on TV,” explained Burman. “It’s available on the Internet and that is a very difficult way for a lot of people to access it.”

In order to change that, Al Jazeera’s commercial division is now working “very aggressively to make this happen” with hopes for a breakthrough next year.

According to Burman, who is the former editor-in-chief and executive director of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC News), the time is ripe for change in the US – as shown by the current popular support for Democratic Party nominee Barack Obama.

“What’s going on is quite real and quite substantial,” said Burman, “and I’ve a feeling that as we look ahead five to 10 years from now, that we’ll look back at 2008 as being very much a turning point for American democracy. So, it’s important that not only Americans understand what is going on but also those of us outside of America.”

Burman, who was born in Montreal, Canada, also blames the US media for exacerbating the nation’s ignorance of world events.

He said: “Part of the ignorance of a lot of the American people towards international events is because their media – broadcast media – have just abandoned coverage of the world.

“I think that is sad and the end result is that you have a population that is really clued-out in a serious way and I believe AJE can help fill that vacuum.”

When asked whether the network’s Arabic channel – that was initially described as ‘reckless’ and apparently later toned down – would have an impact on the content of its sister channel, Burman said: “I am not certain if the Arabic channel has toned down. I do know that the importance of the Arabic channel is very much linked to the fact that it has presented bold, controversial and provocative programming and I embrace that.

“I think that AJE must do more of that too. We should be bold and provocative, which does inevitably mean that we’ll be controversial, but that is something that we should welcome.

“We should be careful in assessing how we are doing, but to the extent that some people worry that maybe there are parts of AJE that have become too bland, then that is something we should look at because bland doesn’t work anymore in a complicated media environment.”

Burman, 59, also batted away claims that the Doha-based channel played down events in Qatar and that it was facing a staff crisis.

He insisted: “When you are dealing with an international channel that has so many international issues in front of it, I think the expectation that there will be obsessive coverage of Qatar is totally impractical.

“But if AJE’s mission is to be fearless then it clearly has to be fearless in its coverage of the Gulf. Although we have to be realistic as to what we expect of AJE.

“Putting together an international news channel like this one is a complicated enterprise and inevitably there are pressures. What is important is that it shouldn’t affect the content that viewers see on screen.”