Saturday, January 29, 2011

BREAKING. Al Jazeera broadcasts unmatched and brilliant coverage of the unrest in Egypt; decides to share its TV content.


No other news channel is more utterly ferocious and compelling in their unmatched and simply brilliant coverage of the massive unrest in Egypt than Al Jazeera (Top 401 / DStv 408) since yesterday - and now the Arabic news channel is allowing other news networks to use their footage.

ALSO READ: Al Jazeera demands an end to interference in coverage after being cut from Nilesat; bureau's telephones cut off.

I can tell you that the Al Jazeera's website has seen a 2 500% increase in traffic since yesterday while international news crews are battling to get the story about what is unfolding in Egypt out while journalists are harassed, beaten and prevented to do their work. Al Jazeera that provided utterly compelling news coverage of the Tunisian revolt a few weeks ago, has now decided to share its content freely with other news networks who are struggling.

Al Jazeera has has seven news teams in Cairo, Egypt which is more than any other international news network and has multiple TV journalists in Alexandria, Suez and Ismailia. ''Al Jazeera has made their content available for other news sources to use,'' Al Jazeera tells me and already international outlets have been taking advantage of the free content.

Al Jazeera's management in Qatar sent an email to staff yesterday late saying: ''Braving the same violent attacks by policemen against demonstrators, including physical assaults, rubber bullets, and tear gas, Al Jazeera journalists were on location, doing their jobs, and capturing the scene faced by the Egyptians to help carry their voices to our audience around the world.''

''This is the pedigree of journalism we have built our foundation on. It is why we have become the Network of choice for accurate and professional information coming from the region.''