Live From Qatar

By Scott MacLeod, Vivienne Walt

Nigel Parsons zips through his day like any other top media executive. He has just dispatched his programming director to visit independent production houses in London, and shortly he will hold a personnel meeting with his news director. But in ticking off the specs for his new global headquarters, Parsons illustrates why there is nothing ordinary about his job. "We'll have an open-plan newsroom, and we hope to put in a small gym," he explains as he surveys the building site, a former parking lot in the tiny Persian Gulf state of Qatar. After a brief pause, he adds, "And the prayer rooms--don't forget the prayer rooms!"

As the boss of al-Jazeera International, Parsons is creating from scratch an English-language sister channel to the controversial Arabic broadcaster best known in the West for bringing Osama bin Laden to the world's television screens. In early 2006, al-Jazeera's English channel plans to start going head to head with the likes of CNN and the BBC in the battle for consumers of 24-hour news. The channel's budget is a closely guarded secret, as are the identities of the distributors and advertisers it is wooing, but al-Jazeera is clearly aiming high. "We think it is a fairly tired old industry," Parsons, 53, the son of a British army officer once stationed in the Middle East, says with a mildly cocky air. "We are quite happy to shake it up."

The idea is bold. The founding of al-Jazeera International marks the first time that a broadcaster based in the developing world will transmit English news and current-affairs shows to viewers throughout the U.S., Europe and the rest of the developed world. And there's more to come from al-Jazeera and its fabulously petro-rich bankroller, the government of the tiny state of Qatar. The English channel is the centerpiece of a plan to transform the company into a media powerhouse with greater clout in the Middle East and far beyond. "We are expanding to become a major international media group," al-Jazeera chairman Sheik Hamad bin Thamer al-Thani explained in a TIME interview. "The market is open. Our ambition is to be among the big broadcasters of the world."

It won't be easy, not the least because of al-Jazeera's reputation in the West for having an anti-American, pro-Arab bias. The network may have money to expand without worrying too much about revenue from potentially skittish advertisers: Qatar's Emir underwrites roughly 60% of the government-owned network's estimated $85 million annual budget. But whether the English channel will be able to wrest spots on U.S. cable networks or persuade satellite services to run its programming, not to mention grab an audience, is unclear. Even Arab Americans tend to watch other cable news stations, like Fox News and CNN, instead of al-Jazeera in Arabic, which is available in the U.S. on some satellite systems.

Al-Jazeera's expansion began in earnest last year when it launched a 24-hour all-sports satellite channel. Separate channels for children's programs and documentaries will join the new English channel in the coming months, and music and entertainment channels are also being discussed. Al-Jazeera's new look includes an overhaul of the nine-year-old mother channel. As it moves into new headquarters of its own in the Qatari capital of Doha in July, company officials say, the Arabic channel's broadcasts will emphasize factual reporting on issues like political reform. Hamad bin Thamer told TIME that the board is studying a report by Ernst & Young on how to become more financially competitive, with a view toward privatizing al-Jazeera. No date has been set for an IPO, but the chairman suggests that when it happens, a majority stake could be reserved for Qatari citizens, with the remaining shares open to all international investors.

Al-Jazeera's Arabic channel has gradually been toning down its partisan rhetoric since 2003, when Qatar's Emir and al-Jazeera's founder, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, a progressive ally of the U.S.'s, who is known to be privately dismayed by some of al-Jazeera's shriller broadcasts, started replacing members of the seven-member board of directors with reformers favoring a more straightforward approach. The board ousted founding al-Jazeera managing director Mohammed Jassim Ali, a Qatari who championed al-Jazeera's aggressive style and anti-Yankee tilt. As al-Jazeera executives see it, the channel needs to be more in tune with the demands for democracy and reform that are in the air throughout the Arab world.

The Arabic channel may continue to dominate Middle East ratings--surveys generally show that more than half of Arab viewers tune in to its news broadcasts--but it is the English channel that will make or break al-Jazeera's name throughout the world. Al-Jazeera International will not be a translation of the Arabic service, Parsons says, but an independent operation staffed by about 230 journalists in more than 30 foreign bureaus. The editors and reporters will be native English speakers, including many Westerners. (The in-house mosque is a standard feature of office buildings in the gulf states, to be used by any Muslim employees.) Parsons has snagged senior managers from respected media organizations, including his alma mater, the London-based Associated Press Television News. He wants some old journalistic hands in front of the camera too. He has signed up Riz Khan, a former program host on CNN International, whose daily Washington-anchored show will pose questions from viewers to newsmakers and celebrities.

Al-Jazeera International has inked distribution deals in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. But Parsons is bracing for the coming political and commercial battles in the U.S. When a Wall Street Journal commentary recently accused the Arabic channel of collaborating with al-Qaeda, the article became mandatory reading at al-Jazeera International's temporary offices (and, for that matter, at Doha Palace, Qatar's seat of power, where the Emir has stubbornly resisted pressure from the U.S. and Arab governments to interfere with al-Jazeera's editorial independence).

The question is not only whether American viewers will tune in but if U.S. advertisers will risk indirect association with a news organization that the State Department accuses of having a "clear pattern of false and inflammatory reporting" that endangers the lives of Americans, particularly U.S. personnel in Iraq. "There is no baggage heavier than anything that is related to 9/11," says Tom Wolzien, a media analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein in New York City. "Advertisers would be very careful in figuring out what the implications are to their product." Says Steve Tatham, author of a forthcoming book on Arab media reporting from Iraq: "People associate al-Jazeera with anti-Western sentiment." It doesn't help things that al-Jazeera's star correspondent, Tayseer Alouni, is on trial in Madrid on charges of being an al-Qaeda operative. Al-Jazeera is standing by its reporter, saying his contacts were consistent with his work as a journalist who covered bin Laden's organization.

Another obstacle is getting access to America's estimated 90 million households equipped to receive cable or satellite transmissions. Parsons reports that initial talks with U.S. distributors--he declines to name them--have gone smoothly. But according to U.S. cable operators and cable-television executives, the limited number of slots are nearly full for all-news channels on major U.S. satellite systems, and it will not be easy for al-Jazeera International to find a place on so-called basic-tier cable packages either. "There are not many of us out there, but it is very, very competitive for distribution, advertising and, of course, audiences," says Richard Sambrook, director of BBC World Service and Global News Division. But, he adds, "al-Jazeera has deep pockets, and therefore they are going to be serious competitors."

Parsons blames al-Jazeera's negative image in the West on critics who do not even understand Arabic. "Somebody accused us of pushing a Sunni Wahhabi agenda on the world. I don't even know what a Sunni Wahhabi agenda is," he says. "Warts and all, the [staff members] have done a fantastic job. Nobody's perfect, but they have blazed a trail." At the same time, Parsons argues that Western news organizations' coverage is slanted. In covering the Iraq war, he contends, "there was a dereliction of duty. Not enough organizations showed the other side. There was an attempt to sanitize the war. We don't agree that's a good thing." News director Steve Clark, 52, a veteran of Britain's Sky News, says al-Jazeera International will make a mission of covering the developing world but doesn't intend to "sound like some alternative channel that is wacky and different."

Al-Jazeera execs see the controversy over its coverage as a plus as much as a minus. "They have a hugely recognizable brand name, thanks to the U.S. Administration," says S. Abdallah Schleifer, director of the Adham Center for Television at the American University in Cairo. Parsons goes so far as to suggest that the English channel could cash in on al-Jazeera's bad-boy rep with viewers who have become cynical about the mainstream media. "In the younger market, al-Jazeera actually carries a lot of street cred," he says. "It is perceived as being slightly antiestablishment, the enfant terrible of broadcasting." In a 4 1/2-min. p.r. video being prepared for potential distributors and advertisers, al-Jazeera execs refrain from using bin Laden's image but otherwise do little to downplay militancy. To a techno beat, the video shows a gunman with an AK-47 rifle, street mayhem in Jerusalem and other disturbing images from the Arabic channel's news footage.

Al-Jazeera's coverage stirred business problems in the network's own backyard long before its executives decided to go West. For the past nine years in the Middle East, al-Jazeera has faced an unofficial boycott led by Saudi Arabia, whose government was stung by criticism on al-Jazeera of its rulers. The English channel is apt to employ the sort of guerrilla business tactics that the Arabic channel has used. Initially limited to advertising from Qatari companies, the Arabic channel gradually attracted international brands and boosted its revenues threefold by, among other things, making deals with parent companies rather than with regional subsidiaries. Although al-Jazeera is subsidized by the Qatari government, it has attracted advertisements from Nokia, Olympus, Sony, Adidas, Hyundai, Jaguar and others. But, says Pierre Azzam, regional director in Dubai of the advertising agency Impact-BBDO, ads on al-Jazeera seem to have dropped since the 2003 Iraq invasion because of political sensitivities--a claim that al-Jazeera denies. Nonetheless, anticipating commercial resistance to the English channel, Parsons is offering discounts to advertisers willing to sign substantial prelaunch deals.

The relaunch of a reformed Arabic channel, meanwhile, could enhance al-Jazeera's standing in the Arab world. It could also help ease resistance to its English sister channel, especially considering that despite being separate entities, the two organizations will consult on editorial plans and share space and technical crews in some foreign bureaus. The Arabic channel's new managing director, Wadah Khanfar, 36, a Jordanian who had served as bureau chief in Iraq and Afghanistan, bristles at the suggestion that al-Jazeera has succumbed to the Bush Administration's demands for reform in the Arab world. "We were never the channel of Osama bin Laden," he says, "and we are not going to be the American channel."

Khanfar says al-Jazeera will be adopting "a new style, a new outlook, a new philosophy of reporting news" in response to the needs of Arab society. The channel's news bulletins and tumultuous talk shows will put fresh emphasis on domestic Arab issues like democracy and human rights. Programming, including new segments on Arab culture, social taboos, youth topics, tourism and investigative journalism, will seek to replace "slogans," "political rhetoric" and "dreamy wishful thinking" with "reality" and "solid solutions," Khanfar says. "We need to upgrade ourselves from magnificent speeches to rational, in-depth analysis of what is going on." In reports about Iraq, the U.S. "occupation army" has become simply the "American military." In coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, however, a recent report on the Israeli-constructed wall separating the two sides included extended footage of an Israeli soldier pinning a Palestinian to the ground with his boot. The repetitive broadcasting of such images is one of the reasons that U.S. critics charge al-Jazeera with anti- Western bias.

Not surprisingly, that is a brush that Parsons prefers not to be tarred with as he sets out to conquer the U.S. market. He recently paid courtesy calls to critics in Washington. In a meeting on Capitol Hill, Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher of California opened the discussion, Parsons recalls, by declaring, "You're the channel that hates freedom and loves terrorism." Another conservative whom Parsons visited was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Elizabeth Cheney, daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney. According to Parsons, she expressed concern that his channel would pander to anti-American sentiments. "She was skeptical in the beginning, but at the end she was friendly," he says. "She seemed prepared to judge us on our merits."

That is all Parsons can ask for. Relaxing in his threadbare office in an old villa across from the site of his future headquarters, he couldn't be happier being cast as the underdog. "Some are saying that it can't be done out of Doha," he declares with a bravado that would make a Ted Turner proud. "Well, they always said it couldn't be done out of Atlanta. But CNN proved everyone wrong." Come next year, Parsons will discover if he has done the same. --With reporting by Amany Radwan/Cairo

With reporting by Amany Radwan/Cairo