- The Arabic-language TV network al-Jazeera has seen its
European subscriber numbers double since the start of the war in Iraq amid
huge demand for an alternative to western media coverage.
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- The controversial broadcaster said it has signed up 4
million new subscribers in Europe since last Wednesday, doubling its viewership
on the continent.
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- "We had 4 million subscribers in Europe and I would
estimate we have added another 4 million over the last week," said
Alan Marmion, al-Jazeera's media consultant.
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- "There are a lot of Arabic speakers in Europe -
around 4 million in France alone. Canal Plus have even given us a transponder
just so they could broadcast us.
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- "It's not just because of the war - we were already
pushing out our distribution before the war began. But the fact that we
provide alternative images means people are coming to us rather than us
going to them."
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- Al-Jazeera had around 35 million Arabic-speaking viewers
before the start of the war in Iraq but the vast majority of these were
in the Arabic world, where it is free.
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- Outside the Middle East, only 10 million people had access
to the network, but this figure has swollen since the outbreak of hostilities
last week.
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- Al-Jazeera has been given greater freedom than western
broadcasters in Iraq, with as many as eight camera crews operating outside
the confines of the military although it does also have some journalists
embedded with the allied forces.
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- Although western TV crews remain in Baghdad, al-Jazeera
has the only camera crew known to be operating in Basra, Iraq's second
city which is still under attack. It also has crews in Baghdad and Mosul.
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- It was an al-Jazeera camera crew that helped ITN establish
the whereabouts of Terry Lloyd, the veteran reporter who died after coming
under fire on Saturday. He was taken to a Basra hospital where al-Jazeera
were allowed to film.
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- The channel has also been at the centre of the controversy
surrounding the broadcasting of footage of Iraqi and American casualties
that many western news organisations considered too shocking to screen.
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- One image shown repeatedly on Sunday showed the head
of a child aged about 12 that had been split apart, reportedly in the US-led
assault on Basra.
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- Others came from northern Iraq, where American missiles
targeted the Kurdish Islamist Ansar al-Islam organisation.
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- Al-Jazeera made its name in the west during the war in
Afghanistan, when its exclusive access to Osama bin Laden made it the envy
of its European and US rivals.
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- Although the channel is available free of charge throughout
the Arab world, in Europe it is mainly a pay-TV channel.
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- In the UK, where 87% of Arabic-speaking households have
access to al-Jazeera, it is available on BSkyB's family package of channels,
although it is also possible to pick up the French signal via satellite.
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- An English-language version of al-Jazeera is planned
and could launch by the end of this year.
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- http://media.guardian.co.uk/iraqandthemedia/story/0,12823,921694,00.html
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