this regional and international context, Al Jazeera was born as a free media outlet embracing all opinions across the board. In a few years, it evolved from a regional news channel into a global giant with hu- man-centred approach and editorial line. This policy is not limited to the Arab world; it concerns all humans in the global South as well as the disenfranchised and marginalised people of the North. This chapter examines the human dimension in Al Jazeera’s edito- rial policies and its impact on field reporting. To analyse this strategy, we will follow the network’s evolution using the following four phases: - First phase: (1996-2000)
- Second phase: (2001-2006) - Third phase: (2007-2010) - Fourth phase: (2011-2021)
The First Phase: “The Opinion and the Other Opinion” For decades, the media in the Middle East and Arab world in particular, have been characterised with monotonous, unidimensional discourse controlled by autocratic governments that used these media outlets to consolidate their powers. When Arab leaders allowed private media to emerge in certain countries to contain the mounting pressure caused by the unprecedented technological development and counter the effect of global satellite channels that started to bring to the region new ideas and liberal values, some governments controlled them indi- rectly through their business cronies who owned these outlets. Even with the advent of the first wave of satellite channels, Arab media re- mained captive to centres of power, reflecting a single voice and opin- ion until Al Jazeera was born in 1996. The main goal of Al Jazeera from day one was to break up the monopoly maintained by dictatorships in the Middle East for so long. To achieve this goal the new channel introduced a vanguard motto that heralded a new era in the region, not only in media but also, and more importantly, in political life. This motto was “The Opinion and the Oth- er Opinion”. In a region, where only one opinion was voiced, i.e. that
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