How Sheikh Hamad revolutionised Arab media through Al Jazeera
The late Father Emir broke the monopoly of state-controlled broadcasting and established an enduring platform for a free press in the Middle East. Following the
The late Father Emir broke the monopoly of state-controlled broadcasting and established an enduring platform for a free press in the Middle East. Following the passing of Qatar’s Father Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, his founding of the Al Jazeera News Channel stands as a defining geopolitical and cultural milestone. Launched in 1996, the channel ended the states’ monopoly on broadcasting in the Middle East and challenged the hegemony of Western media in shaping the region’s narrative. Within a few years, Al Jazeera had grown into one of the world’s most influential media organisations and in July 2005, it officially became known as Al Jazeera Media Network. In a statement on Sunday, the network’s director general mourned its founder, praising his unprecedented boldness in reshaping the region’s media landscape. “He was the visionary behind the original idea and the one who laid the foundations of this great media institution,” said Sheikh Nasser bin Faisal Al Thani. “Sheikh Hamad recognised the power of the word and the vital role of free and independent media in shaping societies and enlightening minds,” the statement read. ”We recall his words at the Network’s twenty fifth’s anniversary … speaking with pride of all that Al Jazeera had achieved and describing the Network as the greatest Arab media endeavour.” ‘Not a traditional Gulf official’ The foundation for this media revolution was laid well before Al Jazeera’s first broadcast.
Mohamed Krishan, a founding anchor, recalled a meeting with Sheikh Hamad in 1993 when he was still Qatar’s crown prince. “It was clear the man had a bold, transformative vision for his country and the region,” Krishan said. “We left stunned, saying it was impossible for such words to come from a Gulf official. He was not a traditional Gulf official at all.” When Sheikh Hamad became Emir in 1995, he turned that vision into reality, issuing a bold directive to launch a news channel within six months. Krishan recalled that when Al Jazeera gathered a diverse team of journalists in Doha for the project in the summer of 1996, “we came loaded with big promises”. “We were told: ‘Work professionally, trust in God and no one will stop you. Work as you see the profession and its ethics’,” he said. Many Arab journalists working for Al Jazeera said they were ”shocked by the scale of freedom”. “When they told me it was broadcasting from Qatar, I said, ‘No, that’s not true … for it to come from a Gulf state with this style, this openness and this very high ceiling of freedom? I said no, impossible’,” said Taysir Allouni, a prominent Al Jazeera journalist who was working in Spain at the time. Al Jazeera quickly broke the Arab world’s reliance on Western agencies for news, deploying correspondents to the field to tell stories as witnesses to events.
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