NewsMine — war-on-terror — iraq — 2003-invasion — media — Viewing Item

Europeans flock to aljazeera { March 25 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)    http://media.guardian.co.uk/iraqandthemedia/story/0,12823,921694,00.html http://media.guardian.co.uk/iraqandthemedia/story/0,12823,921694,00.html Europeans flock to al-Jazeera Claire Cozens Tuesday March 25, 2003 The Arabic-language TV network al-Jazeera has seen its European subscriber numbers double since the start of the war in Iraq amid huge demand for an alternative to western media coverage. The controversial broadcaster said it has signed up 4 million new subscribers in Europe since last Wednesday, doubling its viewership on the continent. "We had 4 million subscribers in Europe and I would estimate we have added another 4 million over the last week," said Alan Marmion, al-Jazeera's media consultant. "There are a lot of Arabic speakers in Europe - around 4 million in France alone. Canal Plus have even given us a transponder just so they could broadcast us. "It's not just because of the war - we were already pushing out our distribution before the war began. But the fact that we provide alternative images means people are coming to us rather than us going to them." Al-Jazeera had around 35 million Arabic-speaking viewers before the start of the war in Iraq but the vast majority of these were in the Arabic world, where it is free. Outside the Middle East, only 10 million people had access to the network, but this figure has swollen since the outbreak of hostilities last week. Al-Jazeera has been given greater freedom than western broadcasters in Iraq, with as many as eight camera crews operating outside the confines of the military although it does also have some journalists embedded with the allied forces. Although western TV crews remain in Baghdad, al-Jazeera has the only camera crew known to be operating in Basra, Iraq's second city which is still under attack. It also has crews in Baghdad and Mosul. It was an al-Jazeera camera crew that helped ITN establish the whereabouts of Terry Lloyd, the veteran reporter who died after coming under fire on Saturday. He was taken to a Basra hospital where al-Jazeera were allowed to film. The channel has also been at the centre of the controversy surrounding the broadcasting of footage of Iraqi and American casualties that many western news organisations considered too shocking to screen. One image shown repeatedly on Sunday showed the head of a child aged about 12 that had been split apart, reportedly in the US-led assault on Basra. Others came from northern Iraq, where American missiles targeted the Kurdish Islamist Ansar al-Islam organisation. Al-Jazeera made its name in the west during the war in Afghanistan, when its exclusive access to Osama bin Laden made it the envy of its European and US rivals. Although the channel is available free of charge throughout the Arab world, in Europe it is mainly a pay-TV channel. In the UK, where 87% of Arabic-speaking households have access to al-Jazeera, it is available on BSkyB's family package of channels, although it is also possible to pick up the French signal via satellite. An English-language version of al-Jazeera is planned and could launch by the end of this year.

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