JERUSALEM -- From its first appearance, the new satellite channel broadcast from Qatar lived up to its name. Al-Jazeera -- Arabic for "the island" -- represented a haven of professional, independent, current-affairs programming in a sea of one-sided, government-controlled Arab media.
Until Al-Jazeera's mostly BBC-trained journalists arrived on the scene, the average Arab citizen's news television diet was nothing more than protocol news, wire-service video reflecting the latest in the Palestinian conflict, and dramatic photos of earthquakes or wild fires.
Al-Jazeera not only provided live interviews and broadcasts from the field; it introduced live debate to the Arab world. Its program "Al Itijah al Mufakess" (The Opposite Direction) brought the sort of verbal jousts that most of the world takes for granted but Arabs had never seen televised. The guests that Faisal Qassem brought to the Doha studios (or via satellite) included people from the same Arab country or region but representing completely opposing points of view.
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