Al Jazeera to Challenge CNN, BBC From Asian Hub in Malaysia

Al Jazeera to Challenge CNN, BBC From Asian Hub in Malaysia

Chan Tien Hin Bloomberg/Singapore

Al Jazeera, an Arabic broadcaster accused by U.S. officials of biased reporting in Iraq, will begin airing an English-language television channel from Malaysia next year to win over viewers in Asia.

The English-language channel is an "attempt to gain credibility among" Western and Asian audiences, said Bruce Gale, a political risk analyst at Hill & Associates Ltd. in Singapore. "It will be interesting" to see how they fare, he said.

Al Jazeera plans to operate a 24-hour English-language channel with 500 staff in four regional broadcasting centers worldwide, including Washington, London and Doha, Qatar, with Malaysia as its Asian hub, taking on Cable News Network (CNN) and the British Broadcasting Corp. starting in the first quarter of 2006.

The broadcaster has been banned in some Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, for featuring guests who challenge the legitimacy of those nations' ruling families. Saudi Arabia, the largest Arab economy and Qatar's neighbor, discourages its companies from advertising on Al Jazeera.

U.S. officials have repeatedly criticized Al Jazeera for its graphic portrayal of the war in Iraq.

Al Jazeera "covers all sides of the story, but they do show the dirty side as well, and that's clearly upset some elements within this administration in Washington," Al Jazeera Managing Director Nigel Parsons said in an interview in Kuala Lumpur on Nov. 22.

The Qatar-based network's Asian broadcasting center will operate from an entire floor of the 88-story Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Parsons said.

"We're starting to build up quite quickly. At the moment we have only a dozen people" in Kuala Lumpur, Parsons said. "We are recruiting energetically and want to bring the staff numbers to at least 60."

Malaysian government support, lower costs and close cultural and political ties to Qatar convinced Al Jazeera to select the Southeast Asian nation over Hong Kong or Singapore as its Asian base for the English-language channel.

The government "told us we would be free to operate here, which was obviously important," Parsons said. "They were keen to have us based here. It will raise the profile of Malaysia."

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who advocates a moderate brand of Islam, has long sought closer cooperation among Islamic countries.

Kuala Lumpur "is a natural place in the political sense," said Gale of Hill & Associates. Malaysia's government "has always called for an alternative news organization."

Qatar, the richest Arab country in per-capita terms, set up Al Jazeera in 1996, investing US$350 million in the first Arabic satellite news channel. It hired staff from a failed Arabic- language station run by the British Broadcasting Corp. Last year, it added a sports channel.

"We looked at Hong Kong and felt it's really part of China. We're not sure how much freedom we would have had there," Parsons said. "It's also a more expensive location. Singapore had all the facilities, but we felt costs were slightly higher and that it was a more sterile environment."

Malaysia is also located between Sydney and Beijing, so it covers the whole region, Parsons said.

"There are cultural and political ties with Qatar," Parsons said. Malaysia being a Muslim country "wasn't an overriding reason. Indonesia has an even bigger Muslim population. Malaysia has a good infrastructure, fairly low costs and a good labor force."

"Kuala Lumpur's brief is to cover Asian regional news. Kuala Lumpur is responsible for news from China down to Australasia," Parsons said. "Doha will carry the signal for about half of the 24 hours and the rest will be divided among Washington, London and Kuala Lumpur," he said.

The network hired CNN International's Veronica Pedrosa as news anchor for the Kuala Lumpur center. It has hired other veterans for its other English broadcasting centers, including BBC journalist David Frost and CNN's Riz Khan.

The channel will focus on current affairs, features, business, sports and documentaries.

"We will create revenue streams through a mixture of sponsorship and advertising, but the brief from day one is to get the product right," Parsons said. "Get the audiences and advertising will follow."

Still, Al Jazeera has been criticized, especially by U.S. officials who have accused it of bias in its coverage of events in war-torn Iraq.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said on April 19 that Al Jazeera fosters terrorism by broadcasting images of beheadings and insurgent strikes.

"In terms of criticism from the White House, there has been some, although every time Donald Rumsfeld criticizes us, our ratings go up," Parsons said.

Still, Al Jazeera International will probably moderate its approach in Asia.

"It will be an experience for them. People in Asia are more moderate and live under the shadow of Christian, Buddhist and other communities," Rohan Gunaratna, head of terrorism research at Singapore's Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies, said on Thursday in a telephone interview. "They will have to conform to the norms and practices."

Al Jazeera International is counting on a younger audience to help boost viewer numbers, Parsons said.