BTAC to BT: Keep Al Jazeera

I haven’t seen it in the news today, but, last night, the Burlington Telecommunications Advisory Committee and the Cable Advisory Council reached a joint decision on whether Burlington Telecom should pull Al Jazeera English from its program schedule, as the city-owned cable system threatened to do.

The verdict: Hell no, AJE must not go!

The committees passed a joint resolution, distributed to various media this morning by BTAC chair Greg Epler-Wood, recommending that BT “maintain its carriage” of AJE, which should please the many citizens who pleaded on behalf of the network at recent public hearings.

The three-page resolution was interesting for a couple of additional reasons. For one, the resolution notes that, despite assertions by BT general manager Chris Burns that AJE was the subject of numerous complaints, the committee never saw any “consistent or widespread agreement or evidence from respected sources to substantiate” those claims.

The resolution also said that the committees were unable to consider the contractual circumstances — also cited by Burns in defending his decision to pull AJE — because BT never provided the requested information to the committees.

The fallout from the battle over Al Jazeera bears watching. The decision comes at a time when BTAC, which sought to distance itself from Burns’ decision from the very beginning, and BT aren’t seeing eye-to-eye on the committee’s advisory role.

For a rundown of all AJE-related the coverage, go here.

This article appears in Jun 25 – Jul 1, 2008.

The recommedation by two advisory committees that Al Jazeera news channel should continue to be offered on Burlington Telecom cable is not unusal but in line with how professional bodies elsewhere reflect on the merits and demerits of this news channel serving as an alternate source on global developments. The Citizens Advisory committee established by the Vermont Public Service Board and the Telecom Advisory Committee created by the Burlington City Council pondered if having Al Jazeera English brings any value to Burlington viewers. The timing of their deliberations coincided with that of the juries at two presigious media awards who recently looked at AJE’s professional credentials.Al Jazeera English has excelled at the 17th Amnesty International UK Media Awards announced in London on 17th June . The awards recognise excellence in human rights reporting and acknowledge journalism’s significant contribution to the UK public’s awareness and understanding of human rights issues. In the category of International television and radioAl Jazeera English’s entry “The lost tribe – Secret army of the CIA” was declared the winner. The other two contestants short-listed were:Assignment: Louisiana burning, BBC World Service Inside Myanmar – the crackdown, Al Jazeera English.Those serving on the Amnesty’s panel of judges for entries in the category of International television and radio were Mike Blakemore, Katherine Butler, Tim Marshall, Naresh Puri and Tim Singleton.It may be recalled that on 10th June 2008, the award for “Best 24 Hour News Program” at the 48th Monte Carlo Television Festival conferred upon Al Jazeera English is not an aberration, but, one in a series of accomplishments scored by a news channel launched only in November 2006. The award recognized Al Jazeera English’s “extensive international reach and efforts to dig deeper to give its international audience a richer understanding of the events that affect their lives.” Al Jazeera English beat entries from BBC News, Sky News, Lisboa TV and the Phoenix Satellite Television Company to take home the award.Even a cursory glance at AJE’s accomplishments since its launch Al Jazeera English has proved it to be a unique news channel, winning a number of nominations in recognition of its professional quality and technical accomplishments. This also shows AJE’s potential to set new standards in the coming years:Al Jazeera English’s Far East Correspondent Hamish Macdonald won Royal Television Society”s Young Journalist of the Year Award for 2007 while it’s Africa correspondent Haru Mutasa was also among the three nominees.Al Jazeera English was nominated for news channel of the year in its first year of broadcasting and was up against BBC News 24 and 2006’s winner Sky News. The awards were presented on 20 February 2008 at a ceremony at the London Hilton, hosted by ITV News at Ten’s Julie Etchingham. Over all, Aljazeera English won Royal Television Society Television Journalism Award nominations in the following categories: News – International Afghanistan: Taliban Embed – Al Jazeera English News Hour Al Jazeera English News Channel of the Year Al Jazeera English Young Journalist of the Year Hamish Macdonald – Al Jazeera English News Hour Al Jazeera English Haru Mutasa – Al Jazeera English News Hour Al Jazeera English.At the 12th Asian Television 2007 Awards, it won the award for Best Single News/Report (Kylie Grey, Orange) Environment Special, and came runners-up for Best news programme Half Hour Bulletin-from Kula Lumpur. Additionally, Al Jazeera English has won three awards at the BDA World Gold Awards. AJE was presented with three Bronze trophies at the 2007 PROMAX & BDA International Conference in New York 14 June 2007 in the categories of Art Direction & Design: Topical CampaignAn even-handed approach to judge a news channel is to look at its demerits and merits. Are there some commentators overwhelmed by an urge to become an executioner before even pretending to be judge and jury? In Aljazeera’s case, many critics with a disposition to dismiss everything new, haste to pass a judgement prior to looking at it sufficiently enough and objectively enough.

One reply on “BTAC to BT: Keep Al Jazeera”

Jim says:

June 27, 2008 at 10:34 am

The recommedation by two advisory committees that Al Jazeera news channel should continue to be offered on Burlington Telecom cable is not unusal but in line with how professional bodies elsewhere reflect on the merits and demerits of this news channel serving as an alternate source on global developments. The Citizens Advisory committee established by the Vermont Public Service Board and the Telecom Advisory Committee created by the Burlington City Council pondered if having Al Jazeera English brings any value to Burlington viewers. The timing of their deliberations coincided with that of the juries at two presigious media awards who recently looked at AJE’s professional credentials.Al Jazeera English has excelled at the 17th Amnesty International UK Media Awards announced in London on 17th June . The awards recognise excellence in human rights reporting and acknowledge journalism’s significant contribution to the UK public’s awareness and understanding of human rights issues. In the category of International television and radioAl Jazeera English’s entry “The lost tribe – Secret army of the CIA” was declared the winner. The other two contestants short-listed were:Assignment: Louisiana burning, BBC World Service Inside Myanmar – the crackdown, Al Jazeera English.Those serving on the Amnesty’s panel of judges for entries in the category of International television and radio were Mike Blakemore, Katherine Butler, Tim Marshall, Naresh Puri and Tim Singleton.It may be recalled that on 10th June 2008, the award for “Best 24 Hour News Program” at the 48th Monte Carlo Television Festival conferred upon Al Jazeera English is not an aberration, but, one in a series of accomplishments scored by a news channel launched only in November 2006. The award recognized Al Jazeera English’s “extensive international reach and efforts to dig deeper to give its international audience a richer understanding of the events that affect their lives.” Al Jazeera English beat entries from BBC News, Sky News, Lisboa TV and the Phoenix Satellite Television Company to take home the award.Even a cursory glance at AJE’s accomplishments since its launch Al Jazeera English has proved it to be a unique news channel, winning a number of nominations in recognition of its professional quality and technical accomplishments. This also shows AJE’s potential to set new standards in the coming years:Al Jazeera English’s Far East Correspondent Hamish Macdonald won Royal Television Society”s Young Journalist of the Year Award for 2007 while it’s Africa correspondent Haru Mutasa was also among the three nominees.Al Jazeera English was nominated for news channel of the year in its first year of broadcasting and was up against BBC News 24 and 2006’s winner Sky News. The awards were presented on 20 February 2008 at a ceremony at the London Hilton, hosted by ITV News at Ten’s Julie Etchingham. Over all, Aljazeera English won Royal Television Society Television Journalism Award nominations in the following categories: News – International Afghanistan: Taliban Embed – Al Jazeera English News Hour Al Jazeera English News Channel of the Year Al Jazeera English Young Journalist of the Year Hamish Macdonald – Al Jazeera English News Hour Al Jazeera English Haru Mutasa – Al Jazeera English News Hour Al Jazeera English.At the 12th Asian Television 2007 Awards, it won the award for Best Single News/Report (Kylie Grey, Orange) Environment Special, and came runners-up for Best news programme Half Hour Bulletin-from Kula Lumpur. Additionally, Al Jazeera English has won three awards at the BDA World Gold Awards. AJE was presented with three Bronze trophies at the 2007 PROMAX & BDA International Conference in New York 14 June 2007 in the categories of Art Direction & Design: Topical CampaignAn even-handed approach to judge a news channel is to look at its demerits and merits. Are there some commentators overwhelmed by an urge to become an executioner before even pretending to be judge and jury? In Aljazeera’s case, many critics with a disposition to dismiss everything new, haste to pass a judgement prior to looking at it sufficiently enough and objectively enough.