Aljazeera, the most famous television channel in the Arab world, will open a branch in Brazil before the end of this year.
The information was given by the channel’s editor in chief, Ahmed Sheikh, during the inauguration of the network’s new newsroom, in Doha, last week.
The newsroom is in the same place as the channel’s old installations, which will also continue being used.
“We have very good audience in Latin America. In Argentina, in Venezuela, in Brazil there are very active Arab communities,” said the editor.
The cities considered to receive the Arab reporters are São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasília.
Before opening the office in Brazil, however, Aljazeera will set up their newsroom in Caracas, capital city of Venezuela, in July.
The channel’s reporting team has been in Brazil two times this year to make reports on the summit for South American and Arab countries, which took place in May, in Brasília.
One of the reports made was a documentary on Brazilian economy and politics. The history of president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was shown in a video.
Setting up an Aljazeera newsroom in Brazil, in fact, is part of the channel’s audacious expansion plan.
Between February and March next year the network will set up a channel in English. The idea is to make the contents accessible to the audience that doesn’t speak Arabic.
Today everything is transmitted in the Arab language. “Our website, in English, already is very popular,” says the editor in chief.
The project still isn’t completely settled, but it is already known that this will be a separate channel from the current one and will have offices in many English speaking countries.
Aljazeera also plans to open, next year, a documentary channel, in the line of the Discovery Channel model, and another directed at children. The company wishes to become even broader than it already is.
Aljazeera currently has 54 million spectators in the world. In North America, for example, the channel is watched in 135,000 homes.
The network, which belongs to the Qatari government and is transmitted via satellite, employs 1,250 people, amongst journalists, directors, producers and administrators.
In spite of having an editorial committee and professional administrators, the main executive is Hamad Bin Thamer Al Thani, of the Qatari royal family.
Aljazeera was opened in 1996 and became notorious in the whole world after covering the war in Iraq.
The channel is considered controversial in some parts of the world due to the transmission of news about terrorism.
Aljazeera was prohibited in 30 countries, according to information from the television channel.
Today, Aljazeera is directed to journalism. There are 15 hours per day of news bulletins being transmitted. The channel has 70 correspondents in the whole world.
In the beginning of last year, Aljazeera opened a training center to train Arab professionals in the communications area.
The courses offered involve not only television work, but also printed and electronic media and radio. The training is open to professionals outside the channel.
Anba – www.anba.com.br
