Al Jazeera Applies for Canadian License
Former CBC News editor-in-chief Tony Burman said Tuesday that Al Jazeera English applied to regulators to begin broadcasting in Canada today.
If the application is sucessful Al Jazeera could open a Canadian bureau and begin broadcasting in the fall.
Burman was speaking at a Canadian Journalism Foundation event in Toronto. You can follow his speech and Q and A session on Twitter here.
Burman, who left the CBC 16 months ago, now runs the two-year-old Al Jazeera English service from Qatar. During the speech he said he was frustrated that the CBC often covered American stories like an American network, instead of presenting a Canadian perspective and he hoped to change that with Al Jazeera English.
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Great! More jobs for Canadian broadcasters.
And thanks for proving how unhelpful Twitter can be.
Live blogging still rules.
For a session with Burman that can be understood, go here.
Allan, you didn’t prove much yourself. Your link is dead.
Let’s do this: Find a similar service HQ’ed in Israel, offer them the same license deal as Al Jazeera, get them both on our airwaves where we can all see them and their respective content.
How about it, everyone?
Then let’s bring it back to life HERE.
I agree with Dwight Williams , but I know it would never happen. Canada media regulators are too racist , biased and prejudiced against anything Christian or Jewish to allow it.
I also know our media will not cover the story about the Boston Muslim TV Network owner who recently be-headed his wife.
I also know that with both sides of the news available thru the internet , the TV propoganda industry is dying one megabyte at a time. Might as well invite Al Jazeera to the funeral as well.
Dwight, first, there is no similar Israeli service. Israel is a tiny country. It does not have the market to support a worldwide 24 hour news service. Second, Al Jazeera English has nothing to do with Israel and not so much to do with the Middle East. It is basically a playground for lefty English-speaking journalists and a smattering of their counterparts until th emoney runs out.
During the speech he said he was frustrated that the CBC often covered American stories like an American network, instead of presenting a Canadian perspective and he hoped to change that with Al Jazeera English.
Huh? What does this mean? He thinks that if Canadians subscribe to AJE, CBC will respin its U.S. coverage? That AJE will spin its U.S. coverage from what Tony deems to be a Canadian perspective?
If the application is sucessful Al Jazeera could open a Canadian bureau and begin broadcasting in the fall.
They don’t really have to open a Canadian “bureau” (do you mean a news bureau?) or even an office in Canada for this licence. They just need the cable or satellite guys to beam down the signal, and subscribers to buy it.
Burman said this was going to happen when he appeared at the University of British Columbia last week. The video of his talk there is on the UBC journalism school website.
I wholly support Al-Jazeera coming to Canada. Both in English and Arabic, in fact. They are no more propoganda than Fox News or any of the number of Christian broadcasters shown here.
Canadians aren’t stoopid. We don’t believe journalism is “neutral” and we are wholly capable of consuming news critically.
If Al Jazeera can be shown in Israel, why not Canada?
Surely Qatar is smaller than Israel by most, if not all, measures.
Kev: Last I checked, Qatar is punching well above its apparent weight via Al Jazeera(and I believe their Canadian bureau is effectively run out of their US offices right now). If, as Serge claims, Israel doesn’t yet have such a service, surely there ought to be nothing standing in the way of their starting one? There will certainly be an interested audience ready and waiting around the world for it.
Including Canadians of all faiths and ethnicities.
Maybe I’m naive, but I hope not.
Israel does have a 24 hour network to promulgate its propaganda, it’s called CNN.
If folks want Al Jazerra it should be availible.
I’m happy with CBC Newsworld, BBC World Service & CNN that come with my cable package. No interest in paying for any extra news channels. I wish I could swap CTV Newsnet for MSNBC or be able to get rid of the plethora of sports channels I never watch.
As for Mr Burman’s view that the CBC covers internationally story like the Americans without a Canadian perspective is way off base.
The CBC is renowned around the world for its accurate reflection of what happens on the planet. Newsworld International was heralded by many folks for its coverage of 9/11 and its aftermath.
How quickly folks take a swipe at the CBC after working for them for years befitting from a pension and generous golden handshake. If Mr. Burman were making his comments as a regular Joe it would be fine but as the head of a competing news service I think it has some spin to it.
If Al Jazzera English opens a bureau in Canada it will be very small.
On some boards I frequent there has been some observation amongst freelancers who work for AJE in getting paid in a timely fashion.
http://www.b-roll.net/forum/showpost.php?p=214697&postcount=12
Kev, Dwight, sure, Qatar is a small country, but the addressable Arabic-language market numbers in the hundreds of millions. The addressable Hebrew-language market (that’s the language they speak in Israel) is about 7 million. So, Dwight, the thing “standing in their way” is called economies of scale. No, a global 24-hour Hebrew-language news broadcaster is not viable.
I wasn’t talking about Hebrew-language service, although that should be addressed as well as the anglophones, the francophones and whoever else is interested.
Here is a rare interview with Al Jazeera’s Faisal al Kasim. His show was cited in the CRTC’s 2004 decision that stipulated cable cos. distributing Al Jazeera must edit out any instances of illegal hate speech. http://uaestudents.blogspot.com/search?q=faisal