Al Jazeera launching in SA 'within weeks'
The Arabic news channel, Al Jazeera, will be broadcasting from South Africa "within weeks". It will have offices in 12 African countries, which include South Africa and Zimbabwe. This was announced in Johannesburg yesterday, Thursday 21 September, by Nigel Parsons, the managing director of Al Jazeera International.
Parsons said the channel will reverse the news flow. At present Africans are accustomed to seeing, but not liking, the world through northern eyes. Present news perspectives flow from the north to the south and reflect what is news and what is important seen through those eyes.
Al Jazeera will report from the inside out, not looking at Africa from the outside, but from the inside. It will have African journalists reporting on African events on an English-language channel throughout the continent.
Parsons said that it will not just report the tragedies of Africa but also its hopes and successes.
He was speaking at the International Media Forum in Sandton yesterday, which brought together senior editors from the world's most important media with business, government and communication professionals. The Forum was partnered by the International Marketing Council of South Africa (IMC).
For more details, log on to: www.internationalmediaforum.com.
