Al Jazeera's English website launch soon

The much awaited English-language website of Qatar-based Al Jazeera channel will be launched by the end of summer. Media reports had suggested the website was to be launched at the beginning of this year, but nothing materialised.

Abdulaziz Ibrahim Al Mahmoud, Chief Editor, AlJazeera.net, refused to give an exact date of the launch preferring to say "end of summer this year". As to why they did not launch as was reported in the media, he said that somebody must have mistakenly suggested the launch as the beginning of this year.

Setting up a news website is like launching a newspaper, the whole process goes through a lot of "teething problems", he said, adding that the process of writing a style book, recruting personnel designing the website, all take a lot of time.

He said their website will not be just another English website and would have "an Arab ambience", which therefore needs time to be constructed.

Al Mahmoud was in Dubai for the launch of the Al Jazeera's Arabic website voice portal service. The service which is currently accessible in the UAE only allows a subscriber to access Al Jazeera's new content in Arabic voice format.

He pointed out that there are many other loopholes that also need to be plugged. Security for the website is also another big issue since during the U.S.-led war against Iraq, traffic to the Arabic page was routed to an American patriotic site called "Let Freedom Ring".