GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

How a TV Station Put Qatar on the Map

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Hilal Khashan
Board of Contributors

Oct 1, 2017 | 13:30 GMT

Officials from Al Jazeera English welcome journalist Baher Mohamed back to the network after his release from prison in Egypt, where he was convicted of disseminating "false news."

Al Jazeera has made a name for itself, and for Qatar, by reporting on issues that rival outlets in the Arab world usually avoid because of government censorship. But its practices have also earned it notoriety among Qatar's fellow Gulf Cooperation Council members.

(FAISAL AL-TAMIMI/AFP/Getty Images)

It wouldn't be outlandish to say that Al Jazeera is a political project masquerading in the guise of journalism. The claim, however, doesn't detract from the news outlet's achievements. Al Jazeera changed the rules of traditional Arab journalism with its motto, "the opinion … and the other opinion." And along the way, it brought outsize international attention -- and scrutiny -- to a tiny country in the Persian Gulf....

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