BBC Monitoring

Text of report by Lebanese newspaper Al-Safir website on 3 September

[Report by Ziyad Haydar from Damascus: "Denying disputes inside editorial board, Waddah Khanfar tells Al-Safir: Al-Jazeera English is the voice of the south"]

The Director of Al-Jazeera satellite TV network, Waddah Khanfar, has denied the existence of differences inside the editorial board of the Al-Jazeera English Channel. He added that the channel has decided to be the voice of the "South", which means approaching the issues of the oppressed people and countries, regardless whether they were third world or advanced, noting that even advanced countries have their South.

Following the announcement of the inauguration of training courses conducted in cooperation between Al-Jazeera's Media Training and Development Centre and the Syrian International Academy for Training and Development in Damascus the day before yesterday, Khanfar answered questions posed by journalists.

Responding to a question by Al-Safir newspaper on whether his talk about Al-Jazeera ta! rgeting "The soul of the society for which it broadcasts" applies to Al-Jazeera International launched eight months ago, Khanfar explained that the talk about "the collective mind" does not apply to the Al-Jazeera English since "little is common among the wide English speaking public". He further explained that Al-Jazeera management wanted the channel to be "the voice of the south", indicating that this means the "cultural and social South", which exists all over the world and represents those whose voices are not heard through the main media channels. Khanfar believes that Al-Jazeera English "fills the vacuum and expresses the soul of this south".

After denying differences inside the editorial board of Al-Jazeera English, Khanfar said that Al-Jazeera establishment decides the editorial policy of the channel and that "the ceiling is set by the news room and the journalists."

Answering Al-Safir's question on whether Al-Jazeera's current financer, Qatar National B! ank, will enable it to continue to work in the future, Khanfar explain ed that at the time Al-Jazeera had two options; "either to become a commercial entity or a model for a government-financed entity", noting that the channel opted for the second option which allows it to protect its credibility. He stressed that the State of Qatar never attempted to interfere in the channel's news policy, admitting, however, that "Qatar benefited from the channel" but that does not "mean interfering in the editing policy". He noted that the fact that "Qatar embraces the most important media establishment in the Arab world" is one of the aspects benefiting Qatar.

Khanfar, who worked as a reporter before joining the Al-Jazeera network, said that 11 years after its launching the channel, which currently has employees from 55 nationalities, always looks for "in-depth media" which consolidates its policy of approaching "the soul of the society from where it broadcasts".

Source: Al-Safir website, Beirut, in Arabic 3 Sep 07