If wars and genocides were Africa’s only news, African newspapers and international news networks like CNN would run the same stories. But Al-Jazeera International (AJI) aims to be different.
As part of a “fresh 360 degree [change] to news coverage,” the soon-to-be-launched television network plans to run African news stories as part of its normal news cycle — not just when violence occurs.
“For South African viewers, a fresh approach means two things. We will treat any African story as a normal news event, and we won’t fall into the trap of only dealing with Africa when there’s war,” explains Claude Colart, the senior producer at AJI’s Johannesburg bureau, which began setting up earlier this year.
AJI, the English-language offshoot of Al-Jazeera Arab Language News Channel, launched in 1996, will start broadcasting worldwide, 24 hours a day, from next March or April. Like its Arabic-language parent, it will headquartered in Doha, Qatar.
It announced on Monday that former senior e.tv and SABC reporter Kalay Maistry will be its Southern African correspondent.
Established last year, AJI has hired a string of “name” international reporters, including Steve Clark, previously executive producer at Sky News, and Riz Khan, who hosts a show on CNN. The MD, Nigel Parsons, previously directed Associated Press Television News.
When the network begins broadcasting next year, its anchors will not address “our viewers in North America” or any other region, as the network will broadcast the same content worldwide.
Kuala Lumpur, London and Washington DC are three of the 30 locations around the world where it will have bureaus. It is half way to establishing a bureau in Kenya, and has plans to have an office in West Africa.
Two of the three staff members in Johannesburg are South Africans, which Colart says reflects Al-Jazeera’s commitment to ensuring that its staff are drawn from all nationalities and religions. Despite Al-Jazeera’s popularity in the Arab-speaking world, AJI has already hired Israeli reporters.
Interviewed this week, Maistry said that the fact that the bureau was based in Johannesburg did not mean its news coverage would focus on South Africa.
She said she expected some viewers to be drawn to the network out of curiousity and others out of “morbid fascination”. Either way, “when people see what we have to offer, they will have a chance to make up their own minds”.
South African viewers will be able to view AJI on satellite television. The network is still negotiating with SABC to air its programmes on public television.
The channel expects to have a global audience of more than a billion English-language speakers.