'Al Jazeera' to challenge 'CNN', 'BBC' from KL

'Al Jazeera' to challenge 'CNN', 'BBC' from KL

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 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.

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

Demographics showed rising interest among younger, educated
professionals and decision-makers aged 20 to 35 years old, which
is an "attractive group" for advertisers, Parsons said.

"These young people in large parts of the world, they've
stopped voting and they've stopped believing whatever they're
getting from old established players. That bit works in our
favor, because they see us being slightly different, slightly
anti-establishment," he said. "Al-Jazeera does actually have a
lot of 'street cred' among young people."