Eight years ago, I wrote an optimistic column praising the Qatari-based Al Jazeera satellite network. My piece, “The Al Jazeera Revolution Turns Ten,” was published in five languages and reprinted around the world. The success and changes that the Doha-based television station brought to Arab media disappeared with the so-called Arab Spring. While Al Jazeera's original Arabic channel remains the most watched news station in the Arab region, its professionalism and impartiality has taken a few hits in recent years. The international Al Jazeera English is, however, a different story.
The English channel's tone is softer, and it is audibly calmer. Well-known and respected reporters, anchors and editors from a number of nations comprise the Doha-based station team and the channel's foreign outposts. This version of Al Jazeera won a Peabody Award in 2012 for its Arab Spring coverage. Its 24-hour news coverage shifts among regions and their priorities, allowing it, for example, to provide prime-time viewers in China with news relevant to them at 8:00 p.m. The concept has been so successful that CNN International felt compelled to add an anchor to prime-time evening hours broadcasting out of Abu Dhabi.