Speech of Mohammad Jasim Al-Ali, Managing Director
of Al-Jazeera
The Adham Center Annual Awards Dinner, June 13, 2000

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“It gives me pleasure to be among you on such a special day in the lives of many of us in this room, particularly our graduating sons and daughters. I am twice-honored, once to be your guest of honor and speaker, and once to be named Associate of the Adham Center for Television Journalism.

This honor bestowed on me by your respected university is an honor for Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel and all its members. It is an appreciation for the role it has played and continues to play on the stage of Arab TV journalism, especially since you are also honoring a distinguished member of Al-Jazeera, Yosri Fouda, who also happens to be a graduate of the Adham Center.

Al-Jazeera was established on some journalistic, professional, and administrative values and standards which I am sure we share with the Adham Center. In spite of the natural difference between theory and practice, each of us was a unique phenomenon for which the Middle East has long been awaiting. You did not build your philosophy on a national, geographical, ethnic, or religious basis, nor did we. Diversity, objectivity, and mastering professional work has long been your drive, as has been, and still is, ours—“The opinion and the counter-opinion.” You are based in an Arab capital, as are we, and you do face sometimes, like we do, some air of frustration in a reality that still struggles to understand a professional philosophy, pure from any agenda, be it political, religious, or ethnic. It is no longer appropriate, nor is it realistic, for slogans such as “freedom of the press” “freedom of information” “freedom of thought” and the likes of these to remain as such—slogans, especially in a region that is rapidly transforming itself economically, socially, and culturally. I claim that we, and those who believe in our philosophy, have given sociologists a big headache, as they try to establish just what is actually taking place in this part of the world.

We are happy with this headache. We are happy because we did not restrict ourselves to the mere talk of slogans. We actually applied them on the ground. We first of all applied them on ourselves, our style of administration, and our understanding of the nature of journalistic work. We secondly applied them to our perception of reality and on our view of the other. You know, perhaps more than anyone else, how, on the road to achieving this, we caught a thorn or two. But it is a tax we knew we would probably have to pay before we could reach out through thorns to a rose of freedom and respect for the other. And we are happy with this headache because we know that we were throwing a stone into still water, not through sensationalism, as some like to think, but through giving a chance to a fact supported by evidence, and analysis supported by knowledge, and an opinion based on respect for other opinions. In such a context it is no secret that some of our offices in Arab capitals were temporarily closed down in response to a news item we ran, or an opinion given the basic right of freedom of expression. However, a recent independent survey in one of those countries confirmed the fact that Al-Jazeera comes first, with a viewership rate 42 percent ahead of the national and satellite channels of that country—a story that frequently repeats itself elsewhere.

It is highly important here to underline the fact that Al-Jazeera is an independent channel which is not in competition of any sort with anyone. It does have its own character defined since inception to fill in a journalistic vacuum which for so long ignored the very basic needs of the Arab viewer. The birth of Al-Jazeera in 1996 coincided with a pressing need to hear an independent and impartial voice that can honestly tell Arab viewers what really happens around them. In that sense, Al-Jazeera is just about the only Arab channel devoted to news, current affairs programs, documentaries, and scheduled programs that bring together the official, the intellectual, and the ordinary citizen in a live dialogue. With the launch of the channel we were lucky to be joined by a number of the best Arab journalists who had acquired a long and extensive experience during their previous work for well-established Western organizations. We blended their comprehensive vision of TV journalism with the hands-on experiences of qualified journalists from within the Arab world underneath our umbrella of “the opinion and the counter-opinion.”

A thing or two of what is happening now to some other Arab channels is being attributed by some independent analysts and observers to what has come to be known as the Al-Jazeera effect. Have we become a phenomenon? Perhaps, especially when you add to this the fact that we emanate from the most conservative region in the Arab world, with a philosophy that does not only address the Gulf, the Arab world, but each and every Arab citizen wherever they happen to be.

We had to face up to the challenge of geography. We beat it. We had to face up to the challenge of technology. We beat it. Now we are still figuring out how to best face up to the challenge of inhibitions and political sensitivities without compromising our integrity. Al-Jazeera does not belong to a certain state, nor does it seek to belong. It does not belong to a certain region, nor does it seek to belong. It does not belong to a certain idea of any sort, nor does it seek to belong. Al-Jazeera only belongs to reality, truth, and free opinion. This perhaps is what has made Al-Jazeera a rich meal and an honest message bound to be part of the public, the mind of the intellectuals, and the attention of the officials. It is probably also what made our channel a reliable source, not only for the viewers but also for world news agencies and mass media—a fact epitomized in a picture on the front page of the Times of London of allied fighters bombing Iraq. In a corner of the picture you see the famous CNN logo; underneath it you see Al-Jazeera’s logo.

Only once did we participate in an official competition during the 1998 Cairo Festival for Radio and TV Production. We received three prizes in the fields of investigative journalism and artistic creativity. Last year we were granted a special prize from Prince Klaus of the Netherlands and another from the Ibn Rushd Centre for Oriental Studies in Berlin. A few days ago Al-Jazeera won another special prize from the Lebanese government for distinguished coverage of the Israeli withdrawl from South Lebanon.

One other significant contribution by Al-Jazeera is the role it has been playing in correcting the distorted image of the Arab culture in the western world. It’s as if westerners suddenly realized that within the Arab world there exist some voices whose commitment to such concepts as democracy and civil liberties is not shrouded in empty slogans. My generation, and many other generations before and after, has long suffered from the boring language of one voice and the persistent policy of reinforcing the status quo. So much so that the only hope for the nation to reinvent itself was the few of us who were fortunate enough to have a window on the outside world, especially the west. Only the likes of us now realize that we do have an alternative to the language of one voice and the policy of reinforcing the status quo. Unfortunately, this is not yet available to everyone. He who lacks something cannot give it, and similarly, he who ignores something cannot realize its meaning. This “something,” among other things, is the freedom of choice. But you might like to agree with me that the freedom of choice is absolutely nothing if it is not preceded by the freedom of information. Only then can we make sensible choices.

With this philosophy deep in our hearts and minds, Al-Jazeera “descended” on us, to use a humble description of an Egyptian critic, to tell us about events and suddenly it became an event in itself. Perhaps as quickly as we reached the hearts and minds of many Arabs and non-Arabs around the world, we were faced with some frustrations and a lot of suspicions. However, we can only find condolence in the sincere support of the vast majority of the public and in what Jean-Paul Sartre once said, “All new ideas are suspected, resisted, and even fought, for nothing more than they haven’t become ordinary yet.”

Mr. President, honored guests, graduates and their honored families: allow me in the name of Al-Jazeera and in my name to extend my deepest thanks, appreciation, and gratitute to Professor Abdallah Schleifer for practical support of a journalistic philosophy, which happened to fall at the heart of our own philosophy. You, Professor Schleifer, have created the Adham Center for Television Journalism more than a decade ago, at a time many in our neighborhood wondered how on earth it is possible for these two words to meet: “television” and “journalism.”

And you, graduates, are the fruit of this philosophy. Be proud of this. For you shall be in a day or two fought over by the most prestigious media organizations, Arab and non-Arab. They know that they will be saving months of training courses and years of journalistic experience based on mastering the TV language. Look around you in this room and you will find some of your predecessors—correspondents, producers, directors, camera operators, and editors. They work in America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. All of them have taken up their much-deserved positions in the most prestigious media organizations. We for instance have Lamees El Hadidi, who is currently keeping a professional eye on one of the most interesting stages in the development of the Egyptian economy. We of course have our London bureau chief Yosri Fouda, who is being honored tonight and who is a living example of the comprehensive TV journalist. He researches, presents, produces, and edits his own investigative series of “Top Secret.” Knowing that he had gone through a variety of schools academically and professionally, I once asked him what was so different about the Adham Center. “I learned from the Egyptians that there was something called camera,” he said, “and I learned from the British why they invented the camera. And I learned from the Germans when I can use the camera. And I learned from the Dutch how I can use the camera. But the Americans,” he added, “threw a camera into my arms, and when I came back they sent me again to the field and gave me a deadline of an hour.”

We too have carefully selected our men and women before immediately throwing them into the field—from South Africa to Sweden and from the Philippines to the United States of America. Now the number of correspondents and local bureaus that we have around the world is probably higher than anyone else in our industry.

I am glad to be able to announce tonight that Al-Jazeera channel widely opens its arms to AUCians, especially to graduates of the Adham Center. You are most welcome to join us in our headquarters in Doha, here in Cairo, or anywhere in the world. This priority to work with us, should you choose to, is but a recognition of what you had to prove on your way to the highest standards of qualification.

We look forward to translating this into reality with our colleagues at the Adham Center, and we look forward to other forms of cooperation through which we can perhaps offer practical experience to some of the Adham Center students, and in return the Adham Center can perhaps incorporate some of our journalists into intensive training courses.

Finally, Mr. President, I am glad and honored to extend to yourself and to the American University in Cairo the deepest thanks and appreciation of our chairman, HE Sheikh Hamad Ben Thamer Al-Thani, and vice-chairman Mr. Mahmoud Al-Sahlawi, and warmest congratulations of each and every member of the Al-Jazeera channel to each and every graduate and their honored families. I wish you all a most wonderful professional career, insha’allah.”