Cairo/London - Roadside bombs, suicide attacks and sectarian violence: Five years after the US-led invasion of Iraq the images of a country at war are as vivid as ever. Brought to us daily by reporters and film crews from the Middle East and transmitted by international television news networks, such as the United States' CNN or Britain's BBC, the fighting and the suffering in Iraq has become a media staple.
Yet, no other television news channel has shaped the reporting on the Iraq crisis as al-Jazeera.
While Western news media tend to report on troop movements and military missions, the Qatar-based al-Jazeera has been focussing on the victims, and more than any other broadcaster has shown the ugly face of the war.
"Al-Jazeera were the first to show pictures of kidnapped US soldiers and pictures of the victims, while Western media are not interested in showing US casualties," says Oliver Hahn, a journalism professor at the Business and Information Technology School in Iserlohn and research fellow at the Erich Brost Institute for Journalism in Europe at the Technical University of Dortmund, western Germany.
Headquartered in Doha, al-Jazeera has a local advantage in the Middle Eastern region.
"They often have the better sources because they have local knowledge," Hahn tells Deutsche Presse-Agenture dpa, "and they cater better to the local and regional market because they have correspondents in countries where others don't."
But most of all, they are trusted by the people of the Middle East.
"Al-Jazeera is a real counterweight to CNN and the BBC," says Hahn. Together with al-Arabiya and Abu Dhabi TV, both based in the United Arab Emirates, the channel adds to the plurality of perspectives and sources, he thinks.
"Al-Jazeera offers a hybrid journalism culture of the Western world adapted to the needs of Arab people," says Hahn.
"When al-Jazeera was founded in 1995/96 it was revolutionary, a news pioneer in a region which had so far been catered to by a state- run system mainly interested in which Emir meets whom when," according to Hahn.
The news channel's Arabic service can be received via satellite by up to 1 billion people worldwide, although its actual regular audience is harder to measure, says Hahn, who has just set up an Arab-European Media Observatory with his Egyptian colleague Ibrahim Saleh, professor at the American University in Cairo.
Over time, the channel has had a number of exclusive scoops, some of which have proven highly controversial.
Shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the US in 2001, al- Jazeera broadcast video tapes of Osama bin Laden and Sulaiman Abu Ghaith justifying the action, drawing criticism that it was siding with the perpetrators.
However, "others would have broadcast them too. They were newsworthy," Hahn says.
Far from allying with terrorists, al-Jazeera sees itself as contributing to the democratization process in the Middle East.
With financial backing from the Emir of Qatar, al-Jazeera aims to fuel public debate, for instance through talk shows and phone-ins that often discuss political, social and human-rights issues.
Yet, democratization cannot be achieved by a news channel alone, says Hahn. "The region needs popular participation, ... a political opposition."
Al-Jazeera was launched after the BBC World Service's Arabic language television station had to close over disagreements with its Saudi co-owners. Many of the BBC's staff then moved to al-Jazeera.
One of them was Salah Negm. Educated in Egypt and the US, he has worked for al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya before returning to the BBC as News Editor for a new Arabic Television service.
Negm however does not believe in the perceived distinctions between Eastern and Western news channels, he tells Deutsche Presse- Agentur at the BBC's Broadcasting House in London.
"There's no such thing as Western-style news. There are only universally-recognized journalistic values. ... You have to be accurate, you have to be objective, and that's true for everyone," he says.
However, it's important to cater to a specific audience, Negm says.
"You have to consider the context of the region and the audience. That's the BBC way of doing things, and we have been broadcasting for 70 years," Negm says.
"The news agenda doesn't differ very much. We treat important events around the world, ... although we might do more local reporting," he explains.
The BBC's new television service is to complement its existing radio and online service. But the return of BBC television to the region also recognizes the growing demand for independent Arabic news.
As a trusted worldwide brand, the BBC sees itself as an authority people turn to to verify what has actually happened. And its staff are sure it will spark new competition in the region. As a BBC spokesman puts it, "the presence of the BBC should raise the standards for everyone."
