Doha, Qatar – As Al Jazeera marks its 30th anniversary with a special commemorative event, the media network’s history is a timeline of milestones and challenges – from risks, obstacles and attacks, to international awards and recognition from the communities whose stories it strives to tell. Launched on November 1, 1996, the network broke new ground in Arab broadcasting, bringing previously marginalised political perspectives into the mainstream and creating space for debate on issues seldom openly discussed on regional television. On Sunday, the network hosted an event to commemorate its enduring legacy at its headquarters in the Qatari capital, Doha, attended by the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and other delegates.
Since Qatar’s late Father Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani launched the independent channel – a first in the Arab world – the network has promised to provide “the opinion and the other opinion”. It launched its first TV broadcast as an Arabic-language satellite news channel in 1996 from Doha and has since then grown into the Al Jazeera Media Network, with several outlets in multiple languages. A private corporation for public benefit, the network now includes television channels, websites and other digital platforms.
As governments have banned it, and as its offices have been bombed in many parts of the world, the network has exacted a huge cost for staying on air. Yet it has been instrumental in covering key events in the last three decades in the region and beyond. In 2001, when the United States attacked Afghanistan, Al Jazeera was the only foreign broadcaster in Kabul, its updates and pictures travelling the world.
Then in 2011, millions followed the Arab Spring uprising live on Al Jazeera. Its coverage won a prestigious Peabody Award. However, the network’s reporting has led to numerous threats over the years.
Exclusive pictures have made Al Jazeera hard to ignore, but have also made the network a target. In 2003, a US strike hit its Baghdad office, killing correspondent Tareq Ayyoub. Two dozen Al Jazeera journalists have been killed since.
In 2022, an Israeli soldier shot Palestinian correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh in Jenin, the 12th Al Jazeera journalist killed in 19 years. Another 12 were then killed in just 30 months, every one of them by Israel during its genocidal war in Gaza. One of them was Anas al-Sharif, who for many viewers was the face of the war.
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