Al Jazeera to Offer English Internet Site
Al Jazeera, the Arab satellite television channel known to broadcast statements from Osama bin Laden, will reach out to the West starting in February with an English-language Web site.
“It will be original news in English tailored to a Western audience. We are very conscious of our pole position in world media terms at the moment,” Joanne Tucker, managing editor of Al Jazeera’s English-language Web site, said Friday.
Al Jazeera -- based in the tiny Gulf Arab state of Qatar -- began broadcasting in 1996, bringing scrutiny to governments in the Middle East where many of the region’s news outlets are under some form of official control.
It started the Arabic Web site https://www.aljazeera.net in January 2001, offering news, analysis, video clips and programming from the channel. About 39% of the Arabic Internet site’s visitors come from North America and Europe, according to the Web site.
The English Web site is set to be the first step in the network’s English-language plans, which could include an English-language television channel, Tucker said.
Plans to begin operating the English-language Web service were in place even before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, Tucker said.
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