tion, especially when it comes to major events in the Middle East, such as the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine. Salah Negm, one of the founding team members and now Director of News at Al Jazeera English, describes the advent of Al Jazeera as the biggest humanitarian relief campaign in modern Arab history. It was a challenging but great mission “to introduce the values of freedom of opinion and freedom of the press that belong to the 20th century to peoples who have entered the 21st century without being allowed to even come close to them” (1) . Along the same lines, Imad Musa, a senior journalist with the network, believes the humanitarian relief campaign launched by Al Jazeera, which started by liberating the Arab citizen from the hegemony of authoritarian media, was just a prelude to anoth- er more important phase. According to Musa, “the motto ‘The Opinion and the Other Opinion’ laid the foundation for the multitude of opinions in Arab media and reversed the traditional flow of international news from North to South that prevailed for so long, in a way that has now become a two-way flow” (2) . In that sense, and by putting “the Opinion and the Other Opinion” into effect in talk shows and news coverage, Al Jazeera succeeded in striking a double balance. First, at the level of Arab media, by push- ing the boundaries for different opinions and views; and second, at the global level, by relaying the South narrative and perception of events within its local and regional contexts. To achieve this mission in the best way possible, the Network’s channels and digital platforms work alternately in a synchronised way. For example, when the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster hap- pened in Japan, Al Jazeera Arabic was the first international channel to arrive there and carry an extensive live coverage. Soon after, it was joined by its sister channel, Al Jazeera English. With time, the Ara- bic channel’s coverage decreased to sporadic reports while the English channel maintained massive coverage. The reason behind this change is “the difference in audience preferences and interests. The Arab audi-
(1) Salah Negm, personal interview, Doha, June 2019
(2) Imad Musa, personal interview, Washington D.C., February 2020.
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