You only have to be professional in collecting news from reliable sourc- es, presenting all points of view and upholding the motto, The Opinion, and the Other Opinion. And leave other issues for us to tackle” (1) . A complex set of factors contributed to Al Jazeera’s phenomenal rise. Some have to do with the channel itself, such as the strength of the message it carried, the freedom of coverage available to it, the immuni- ty from commercial pressures, and the reliance on professional journal- ists capable of delivering high-quality news and programmes. On the technical side, starting from the year following the launch, Al Jazeera had the privilege of reaching a wider audience through the unencrypted satellite transmission technology provided by Eutelsat and Arabsat. Ar- absat alone covers the Middle East and North Africa, a “broadcasting area of about 13 million square metres, incorporating Western, Central and Eastern Africa, southern Europe, Turkey, Iran, a part of Pakistan and the former Soviet Union” (2) . In no time, Al Jazeera gained “the ad- miration of the elites, who in the absence of agreeable substance used to watch the Western media programmes. It also caught the admiration of audiences, who only understand the Arabic language, thus making it possible for them to have access to high quality news, reports and documentaries” (3) . All of these factors enabled Al Jazeera to position itself as a lead- ing broadcaster both in the Arab world and globally. From the very beginning, the newsroom and its producers had the liberty to control whatever appeared on screen around the clock. In broadcasting, priority is given to news of interest to the Arab and Islamic audiences based on newsworthiness. International news came next in the bulletins, which was not the case in other international news networks (4) . This editorial (1) Ibrahim Hilal, “Managing the newsroom”, in TV Journalism based on Al Jazeera’s Expe- rience , ed. by Mohammad Dawood et al., (Quality Control and Editorial Standards, Al Jazeera Media Network, 2016), p. 349. (2) Thorayya Jabees, Arab Satellite Televisions , pp. 59-60.
(3) Ibid, pp.156-157.
(4) Zayani and Sahraoui , The Culture of Al Jazeera , pp. 64-65.
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