Al Jazeera International announces launch date

As the world's first international English-language news and current affairs channel headquartered in the Middle East, Al Jazeera International is uniquely positioned to reverse the information flow from South to North and to provide a voice to under-reported regions around the world. With broadcast centres strategically placed in Doha, Kuala Lumpur, London and Washington DC, and supporting bureaux worldwide, Al Jazeera International is a new force in the global English speaking media with the ability to seek out and cover different perspectives of news through on-the-ground reporting wherever news is made.

On 15th November Al Jazeera International will provide a fresh approach to news and current affairs to a worldwide audience with a combination of 12 hours of live news plus interview programmes and in-depth features and analysis from the world's hot spots over a 24 hour day.

Wadah Khanfar, Director General of the Al Jazeera Network said:

"We are extremely proud of what Al Jazeera has achieved over the past ten years. Al Jazeera today is an international media organisation. Al Jazeera International will build on the pioneering spirit of Al Jazeera and will carry our media model, based in the South, to the entire world. The launching of the English Channel offers the chance to reach out to a new audience that is used to hearing the name of "Al Jazeera" without being able to watch it or to understand its language. The new channel will provide the same ground-breaking news and impartial and balanced journalism to the English speaking world."

"It has been a fantastic endeavour to build this TV channel over the last two years with the support of the Al Jazeera network. Everyone involved in the project deserves credit," said Nigel Parsons, Managing Director, Al Jazeera International, "We will extend the Al Jazeera spirit into the English-speaking world."

Al Jazeera International is part of the Al Jazeera Network and the sister channel to Al Jazeera. The announcement of the channel's forthcoming launch on November 15th coincides with the 10-year anniversary of Al Jazeera Arabic language channel.

Al Jazeera's English language website, aljazeera.net/english is being re-launched with the launch of the English language channel to reflect the channel's look and feel and editorial content. It will showcase Al Jazeera International's agenda setting editorial mission and will provide constantly updated coverage of news events from around the world, along with in-depth analysis and background. It will provide RSS feeds, live streams and downloadable clips from the channel, as well as interactive discussions and polling. Programme and presenter information as well as weather reports, live business data and sport will also be available via the website.