Al jazeera may launch in India

Al jazeera, the television news network, most recognised for its access to exclusive video footages about Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts, may become available to Indian viewers by next year.

Al Anstey, managing director of Al jazeera English, who was in Mumbai on Saturday, said that he was hoping to conclude discussions with the Indian ministry officials for a ‘landing license’ in India very soon.

“I’ve lived in India for a couple of years and I’ve seen the growth of national news networks in this country. India is a very important market for us. It’s a vast, complicated, and rich market for stories and we’re now in the final stages of our launch here,” he said, in a conversation with DNA.

Headquartered in Doha, Qatar, and known as the first epicentre of English language news in the Middle East, the network has been trying hard for the India launch of Al jazeera English since the past four years. Reports about its impending India launch have come and gone, but Anstey is confident that this time around, the license will finally be granted.

“I’ve had conversations with cable operators and distributors in India and they are very keen to get the channel rolling,” he said.

“When you see the channel’s content, you’ll notice that we indeed have something different to offer. Al jazeera is about first-hand reporting, totally committed to the news gathering process, an area where commitment from news networks has been decreasing, thanks to cost pressures.”

Anstey is, however, not marketing Al jazeera as “the channel that gets you Osama and Al Qaeda video clips”.

“There is this misconception about Al jazeera. Each one of those Al Qaeda and Osama videos was studied accurately, through levels of editorial scrutiny, before
sharing it with other networks. And every news channel that aired it went through an evaluation process of its own,” he says.

Al jazeera currently has a news bureau in New Delhi, headed by Anmol Saxena.