Before going into changes of media attitudes in the region in recent years, let's begin with a brief idea about Al Jazeera. In 1996, the venture between BBC and Saudi Orbit to produce an Arabic TV news service broke down because of BBC concern about editorial integrity after Saudi criticism of a programme.

At the time, the tiny Gulf emirate of Qatar was at the dawn of new era, after the white palace coup that brought the current Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, to the throne. The new leadership in Qatar seized the opportunity of the void air in the region to launch a professional, independent news channel. That was Al Jazeera, the Arabic word for Peninsula launched from Qatari capital Doha. The core team was recruited from the ex-BBC staff laid off after closure of the BBC Arabic TV. People in the region began to tune to an Arabic news channel instead of tuning to the CNN. The later gained a huge fame in the region after its exclusive coverage of the 1991 war in Iraq, when their correspondent Peter Arnett was given the privilege of being the only correspondent in Iraqi capital Baghdad at the time.

Unfortunately, the world outside the Arab region didn't know of Al Jazeera at large until the Anglo-American attack on Iraq in 1998 when Western TVs began using exclusive footage of Al Jazeera from Iraq. But millions of Arab viewers were already – for two years – watching for the first time a different news product they used to get only from foreign broadcasts like the BBC Arabic. This stirred a lot of controversy and criticism, especially from Arab governments not used to free media. The Qatari government afforded the brunt of such situations, with countries like Libya, Jordan, Morocco and others withdrawing their ambassadors from Doha when Al Jazeera broadcast news not to their likes. Al Jazeera offices were closed and re-opened in Amman, Damascus, Kuwait, Baghdad, Cairo, Rabat, Ramallah and almost every Arab capital.

Then, Al Jazeera became more famous with its exclusive coverage of the war in Afghanistan, after 9/11 events in the US. Tayeseer Aluni, of Al Jazeera, was the only correspondent left in Afghanistan, and footage of the American war there, were shown on TVs all over the globe with Al Jazeera logo. Al Jazeera became the only source for the other opinion – that of Taliban or Al Qaida.

Since the fall of 2001, Al Jazeera became a brand name in media – not only in the region but globally. This was apparently because it seemed to provoke both parties of a story, merely by reporting what they would like to censor.

Challenged arrogance

It was not only because Al Jazeera challenged the arrogance of George Bush and Tony Blair about the war that it brought itself the criticism. Some of this is partly because of jealousy and arrogant prejudice against Arabs and Muslims. Our colleagues in US and Britain could hardly swallow that a bunch of professional Arab journalists can produce independent, objective news coverage of a great quality and even better than theirs.

That's why those try all the time to twist facts by arguing that Al Jazeera gained fame not because of professionalism and objectivity but because of sensational coverage and unprecedented political freedom not known to Arabs. They would just murmur when you tell them, why then millions from Japan, Korea, Brazil and Kenya watch Al Jazeera. Up to the launch of Al Jazeera seven years ago, Arab people from Atlantic to the Gulf, used to get the official ceremonial news from government controlled or manipulated media outlets in the region.

In case of major events, like war or disturbances in one's own country, one tuned to a foreign broadcast or gets a western newspaper to know the truth about what is going on in his own home.

As official Arab media was seen as merely a propaganda mouthpieces for governments, and a tool to shape the public opinion the way ruling regimes wanted people used to verify the truth of news by attributing it to Radio London, the popular name for the BBC Arabic Service Radio.

For the first time, people watched open debates about issues they never thought can be discussed in public without fear of persecution. Wide range of opposition figures had an opportunity to express their views freely on Al Jazeera talk shows and even challenge traditional and conservative views held by intellectuals representing the current regimes. Millions of Arab viewers embraced Al Jazeera as an Arab alternative to CNN and BBC, and later they almost abandoned the Western media relying mainly on their Arab channel. In the streets from Morocco to Manama you'd hear somebody saying: "So and so happened I saw it on Al Jazeera".

This new and credible media outlet forced a change in the way official and semi-official media handle news in the region. Three years after the launch of Al Jazeera, Abu-Dhabi TV launched a somewhat news channel with a sort of independence from the state information service.

Though the experiment achieved some success at the beginning, it quickly diluted mainly because the channel was a general one more than a fully 24 hour news channel and partly because the core team for the launch came from Al Jazeera and they opted to copy the origin and stopped short of innovation.

Though there was another Arab satellite TV channel before Al Jazeera broadcasting from London, it was a general channel with a news product not much different from what viewers got locally here in the region.

Free-zone style

That was MBC, that later opted to move to Dubai media city. Capitulating on the free-zone style here, MBC launched Al Arabiya news channel which came to the forefront in the last war on Iraq. As a 24 hour news channel with a considerable margin of political freedom, Al Arabiya is taking the lead now in competing with Al Jazeera. It was Al Jazeera's example that led to the presence of three Arab satellite channels competing in the war coverage in Iraq this year, depriving CNN and BBC of their privilege as the credible, fast and unbiased news sources for Arab viewers.

Even official, or semi-official, TVs in Arab countries are trying to put a sort of relatively uncensored talk shows, but this still very low in quality and credibility. Yet, a new attitude is developing in the region and now we hear about a new Saudi news channel and Dubai TV is revamping its operations. All these changes may please Al Jazeera which initiated the change, but in the meantime it raises new challenges. One of them being the American TV in Arabic. To guarantee the success of a US Arab TV, independent Arab outlets like Al jazeera need to be diluted.

This challenge is most important one now, and I think Arab media professionals in Al jazeera and likes – are aware of it and willing to take it.

Ahmed Mustafa is a Qatar-based Arab writer. The article is the core of a speech and discussion at the monthly meeting of German Business Council in Dubai, where the writer was the guest speaker