How does your experience with Arabic channels differ from the English Al Jazeera channel?
I have always been working in news. And news has universal values such as accuracy, balance, impartiality, speed and depth that don’t differ from East to West. It varies from one channel to the other, depending on their resources. If a news organisation has proper resources, you can obtain news very fast from different locations in the world. If you have good analysts, you can do more in-depth news than the competitor. In its essence news is the same but the character and tone might differ. Because in some channels you might need to reach the audience in a challenging way. In other channels it might be more subtle. The BBC’s Arabic news channel, which you were with when it was launched, has not made the impact that Al Jazeera Arabic, Al Arabiya and even the BBC’s Arabic radio service have. Do you think the BBC’s Arabic news channel has failed? What is the measure of failure? Its orientation is a little bit different. There is an assumption of what the Arab audience wants, as with any o
