Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera, literally, "The Island,"is an international news network headquartered in Doha, Qatar. Initially launched as an Arabic news and current affairs satellite TV channel with the same name, Al Jazeera has since expanded into a network with several outlets, including the Internet and specialty TV channels in multiple languages. Al Jazeera is accessible in several world regions and is owned by Qatar Media Corporation.
The original Al Jazeera channel's willingness to broadcast dissenting views, including on call-in shows, created controversies in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf. The station gained worldwide attention following the September 11, 2001 attacks, when it was the only channel to cover the war in Afghanistan live from its office there.


During the 2011 Egyptian protests, on 30 January, the Egyptian government ordered the TV channel to close its offices. A day after, on 31 January, Egyptian security forces arrested six Al Jazeera journalists for several hours and seized their camera equipment. There were also reports of disruption in Al Jazeera Mubasher's Broadcast to Egypt. Al Jazeera has been criticized by Egyptian newspapers and television shows for its allegedly biased coverage of news that are related to Egypt and its government, and they argue that these continuous attacks against Egypt is to destroy Egypt’s image in the region as many of them suggest.

Also some of the staff at Al Jazerra are former BBC staff members. BBC was shut down after two years of operation because of the censorship demands of the Saudi Arabian government. That former BBC staffs were hired by Al Jazeera on the promise that there would be no government censorship.