YouTube may be best known for showing video clips from its users of hamsters’ pratfalls or attempts to don as many T-shirts as possible. Starting today, it will also become an easy way to view content from Al Jazeera English, the English-language version of the Qatar-based television news station.
Al Jazeera introduced its English language version in November but has been unable to secure a deal with a cable television company to broadcast nationwide. Critics accuse Al Jazeera, which is available in the United States through satellite television or the Internet, of spreading anti-American and anti-Israel propaganda.
But to YouTube, Al Jazeera English is just another “branded channel” that provides video content, much the way the National Hockey League, Capitol Records and the BBC do.
“Having a branded channel does not represent an endorsement of that channel’s content,” said Julie Supan, YouTube’s head of communications. She said in an e-mail message that YouTube strives “to provide a community where people from around the world can broadcast and express themselves by sharing videos in a safe and lawful manner.”
For Al Jazeera English, the real estate on YouTube offers “an opportunity for us to put our content in front of a whole swath of viewers watching around the world,” said Russell Merryman, the company’s editor in chief for Web and new media.
“We are aware of the reputation that we have, or the name,” Mr. Merryman said, “and we’re happy to counter that” by making programming more available for viewers to judge for themselves.
The YouTube channel will run segments from such Al Jazeera English shows as “Frost Over the World” with David Frost; “Inside Iraq,” billed as a weekly debate program offering opinions from guests on Iraq; and “Riz Khan,” a former BBC and CNN journalist who now works for Al Jazeera, along with new material produced exclusively for the venture, like “Political Bytes” featuring the network’s United Nations correspondent, Mark Seddon. It plans to add 10 to 15 new clips each week.
It remains to be seen how YouTube users will respond to Al Jazeera English, but some people close to the media industry said they welcomed an additional voice in political debate.
“The idea that people can click and watch English language programming on Al Jazeera is important because it’s an alternative point of view,” said John Stauber, executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy, a watchdog organization. He said he saw the arrangement as an encouraging sign about the diversity of news coverage that could increasingly find a home online. SARA IVRY
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