broke the taboo of the single undisputed truth and had, for the first time in the modern history of the Arab region, Islamist, nationalist and fem- inist oppositionists appear on screen (1) . It also differentiated between state propaganda and opinion journalism, and enabled its audience to engage in the information age that put an end to censorship (2) . These values have become the founding principles of news bulletins and talk show programmes. The freedom that journalists enjoyed, especially during the early days, faced a particular challenge, because some of them, before joining Al Jazeera, had worked for state-run media. It took them some time to overcome certain habits including self-censorship (3) . b) Reflecting Reality without Whitewashing News and Images From the moment it was launched, Al Jazeera adopted a new ap- proach in which its coverage is centred around the human being, wheth- er in news bulletins or talk shows, focusing on his or her concerns, “listening to people at the far ends of the world and conveying news and stories that the media long ignored or distorted their image. Al Ja- zeera’s journalists have no agendas when it comes news stories except for observing the professional rules and freedom that frame our work; and that is the source of our credibility and strength” (4) , remarks Dima Khatib. This focus on reporting from the field helped Al Jazeera to deal with a “rich, diverse and vibrant content, that was not seen before in Arab media. It formed a public space that challenges dictatorships and totalitarian governments”. (5) .
(1) Lamloum, Ibid. , pp. 32-33.
(2) Gloria Awad, “Aljazeera.net: Identity Choices and the Logic of the Media” in Zayani (ed.), The Al Jazeera Phenomenon: Critical Perspectives on New Arab Media , p. 80.
(3) Jafar Abbas, phone interview, Ibid.
(4) Dima Khatib, phone interview, Ibid.
(5) Sadiq Rabeh, email interview, Ibid.
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