What is al Jazeera?
The Guardian has an interesting article on al Jazeera, the 24 hour Arabic-language satellite TV station. Many of the staff come from an ill-fated Arabic BBC TV service, which failed because a Saudi company responsible for transmitting it was pressured by its government into pulling it off the air.
As the article says: "That would have been the end of it had the Emir of Qatar not offered $100 {million}, spread over five years, to fund a new and independent-minded TV station. Ready-trained staff from the BBC channel joined it en masse, bringing - as they see it - BBC values with them."