Figure (3) Al Jazeera’s mark and effect on the media environment
Some researchers tend to interpret the emergence of these chan- nels, especially Arab satellite channels, as the wish to rob Al Jazeera of the importance it enjoys in its media environment (1) , and an attempt to take away some of its audience. Therefore, they were quick to expand media freedoms to compete with Al Jazeera. Moreover, “some of the major powers revived their media projects to counter Al Jazeera’s influ- ence on the Arab street” (2) , but were unsuccessful because the freedom they promoted remained subject to political references that dictate the frameworks and field of journalism. This rendered the majority of these channels as political platforms that serve the foreign policy of the coun- tries that fund them.
(1) Miles, Al Jazeera , p. 335.
(2) Ahmed Sheikh, phone interview , Ibid.
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