What to Know About Al Jazeera, the Broadcaster Targeted by Israel
Al Jazeera said the strike killed five of its journalists and denied Israeli claims that its reporters have ties to Hamas. It accused Israel of attempting to silence reporters before a planned offensive to take over Gaza City, which Israel announced on Friday.
The network has said that Israel has fabricated evidence to support its accusations, and the attack on Sunday inflamed long-running tensions between the Israeli government and the Qatari network. Al Jazeera has faced similar criticism — and bans — from other Middle Eastern countries.
Here is what to know about the broadcaster.
Why is Al Jazeera criticized?
Al Jazeera was founded in 1996 with funding from the government of Qatar and a mission to produce independent news, free of any influence, in Arabic. While it is a private business, it continues to receive financial support from the Qatari government.
'Media in the Arab world, till then, was characterized by state-controlled narratives that denied audiences the right to know and the right to be heard,' Al Jazeera says of the impetus for its creation.
The network, which says it has 70 bureaus worldwide and more than 3,000 employees, was the first regional broadcaster to give airtime to Israeli officials and analysts, but it has also come under criticism from Israeli officials and the Palestinian Authority, which administers part of the West Bank. Both governments accusing Al Jazeera of supporting Hamas.
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