n the arid desert of the eastern coast of the Arabian peninsula, lies Qatar. In a great contrast to the natural habitat of the region, Doha, its capital city, has managed to create a luscious and comfortable enclave for gas hunters and others interested in setting up and manitaining "work and consume" hotspots all across the Gulf coast. In Doha, luxury perfects isolation. It is a convenienant hideaway for truth manufacturers, or media types, or anybody else interested in shaping and preparing their chip for the Power Games. In Qatar, Al Jazeera, leading Arabic news getter, exists in a state outside the realm of the "media." It extends its impact by becoming a dynamic piece of Arab popular identity and culture. It is an organization despised and regularly attacked by the American government and its delegates in the Iraqi Governing Council.bigHead recently flew to Doha, island in the sand, and met with Jihad Ali Ballout, Manager of Communcations and Media Relations at the satellite news agency. shakomakoNET features this article as the first installment of a series of articles on influential figures and factors, such as Ballout himself, who work in and mold mass media in the Arabic world. The following is a transcript of a conversation between Jihad and bigHead in his office in a tower in a downtown office building in Doha. The office shows off a view of the ocean, challenging anyone who occupies it. Ballout sits at his desk, overflowing ashtray and Turkish coffee. He is an engaging character with a commanding understanding of the region. His golden necklace speaks Lebanese, as he does. Educated in America, Ballout was a representative of Philip Morris in the Middle East for a while, and a journalist, working at times for Iraq's official newspaper. He definitely made the conversation an interesting look into the clandestine world of manufacturing the truth in a part of the world where great efforts are undertaken to avoid the truth. Here is the dialogue...

bigHead: On the Al Jazeera web site you state the realm in which you exist is "free from the shackles of censorship." Is that true?
Ballout: That's very true. A measure of the pressure on Al Jazeera will show how true that is. Since our launch in November of 1996, we haven't ceased to upset Arab governments. There have been occasions where countries withdrew their diplomats from Qatar, Al Jazeera offices have been closed, bombings, harassment. Rumsfeld (US Secretary of Defence) recently went on a scathing attack and said that "Al Jazeera is hurting us." This gives you a measure of how free we are from censorship.

bigHead: You take pride in the fact that you are a thorn in the side of the beast of Arabic governments. But one of the beast's tricks is to make citizens forget about internal problems by flooding them with empty promises of a strong and prosperous Arabia. And through the choice of your content, the majority of which is glossy pan Arab day dreaming, you do the same too. Don't you?
Ballout: Al Jazeera offers a news output service on issues important to Arab public opinion. Therefore, we covered the War on Iraq and Palestine. But that doesn't mean that we neglect variation in our programming. For example we have a show called "For Women Only." We discuss issues like how divorced Arab women are considered outcasts in the Arabic world. Shedding light on these topics forces these issues out of the shadow of tabboo, and raises awareness surrounding them. We neither stress any particular topic nor do we camouflage others. We are news. We aren't a public relations firm, we are into news coverage, and that has been the basis of our success.

bigHead: Most media conduits are owned by large corporations with a specific set of interests in addition to profit. All media conduits, despite who owns them, rely on the corporate support for their survival. Where does Al Jazeera fit in all of this?
Ballout: Al Jazeera is owned by the Emir of Qatar, but I'm happy to say it ends at that. During Qatari support of the war, we were deemed anti-war. Financing doesn't affect us.

bigHead: But would you air a story exposing the government of Qatar?
Ballout: Our fundamental ethos is to cover anything of importance. Al Jazeera covered the Qatari coup, unedited. The fortune, the maltreatment, it was all there. We even had Amnesty International come and speak about the human rights record of the Qatari government, and they weren't very complimentary. When Rumsfeld (US Secretary of Defence) came to sign pre-war arrangements for setting up a command centre in Qatar, and Qatari officials weren't calling it a war, Al Jazeera was there. We received an email that day and were told of a protest being held by Qatari dissidents in Egypt, we went there. We got footage back of people pulling Qatar to shreds, and we showed it unedited. We showed footage of people holding up signs that read Qatar=Kuwait=Israel. A couple of months ago, we had a live call in show for the Foreign Minister of Qatar, and he face some very tough questions. We will cover Qatar if it is of relevance to the entire Arabic world, but we are not a domestic news agency.

bigHead: To many Iraqis, the name of Al Jazeera invokes a sense of anger because they believe that you are another tool of Saddam's propaganda. Is that true?
Ballout: Many Iraqi dissidents view Al Jazeera as being pro-Saddam. But as a news organization, the sense of opposition to the war forced our coverage to be anti war. Those were the current affaits. Very few people like Saddam, but in the eyes of the Arab world, he stood up to America, we just reflected the consensus. And those who are Baathists are very different from those who are against the war. Those accusations are not true.

bigHead: You can't say that Al Jazeera is not biased?
Ballout: Only God is perfect. At the end of the day, its people that do the work. But all this interest in Al Jazeera shows the magnitude of our effect in the Arabic world. Al Jazeera was the first to destroy old taboos between the government and those whom it governs. We broke the monopoly. In generat Arabs don'ty trust Arabic media. Before Al Jazeera, when I was interested in getting news, I used to rely on the BBC or Radio Monte Carlo. That was ridiculous. W have changed the equation, and all the accusations against us are a measure of our success. Our mere presence in the Arab world has given an to other media organizations to rise. Our coverage is part and parcel of the sociocultural dynamics in the region. People here believe that there is injustice in the Arab world, and that there rights are being taken away. We aren't inflaming anything, its already there. And the only way in which we influence this reality is through bringing the attention of the disenfranchised to it. Being "balanced" can be a claim made any journalist who fulfills a narrow mandate. If you were to compare Al Jazeera with any other news organizations, and especially those in America, who claim to be the forerunners in fair journalism, you will see that Al Jazeera is much less biased than they are.

bigHead: Al Jazeera seems to be doing all the right things in the media arena, has that set you apart from the rest of the competition?
Ballout: There are two levels of competition for Al Jazeera. We feel that our immediate competition is BBC or CNN. We started before the war in Afghanistan but during the war we were the only news agency there. During the last war in Iraq, we worked well in comparison to the competition. In fact it seemed that the consensus was that we were the best and the most comprehensive. We were the best. And on the other level, if it wasn't for Al Jazeera there wouldn't be interactive and comprehensive media in the Arabic world. With regards to competition on that leveo, it boils down to their margin of freedom. The Arabic viewer is savvy and can digest news, and they can express these abilities through Al Jazeera. Whearas prior to Al Jazeera, Arabs would rely on foreign sources to get their own news. The success of Al Jazeera forced Arabic media powers to push the envelope, and we made them do that kicking ansd screaming. Al Arabiya and Al Hurra say they compete with us, but Rumsfeld answers to us. Never has there been a news organization that has threatened a superpower. Rumsfeld says it. He says that the rise of resistance is attributed to Al Jazeera. Key figures in the US administration must be seeing something.

Al Jazeera is undoubtedly the most trusted news service in the Arabic world. It is regarded as being independent of the puppetry of official government controlled media. The regular abuse and harassment it is subjected to by America has made it a hero of the Arabic people. But at the end of the day, it is Al Jazeera's raw, insightful, and highly charged brand of journalism that sets it apart from its competition. Al Jazeera recently launched a sports channel and is in the process of launching an english satellite news service. Launching the english service would make Al Jazeera a serious contender for the title of "world news leader" currently being fought over by the BBC and CNN primarily. But Al Jazeera, despite its revolutionary approach to the media of news coverage, it is still another conduit for the commofidication of the truth. In fact, it is a brand name. Plans to launch a documentary channel as well as a childrens channel will finalize the creation of the marketing machine that is the Arab's world most recognizable media outpost. The truth continues to be packaged and manufactured to further a certain way of comprehension. The BBC, CNN, or Al Jazeera claim to show the truth when in reality they are creating the truth. Open your third eye and stay tuned for more media moguls.