Al Jazeera English documentary wins RTS Educational Television Award

Notes and media contacts

About Al Jazeera English:

Al Jazeera English is the first English language world news channel to be headquartered in the Middle East. Launched in November 2006, Al Jazeera English is setting the global news agenda and acts as a bridge between cultures. With unique access as the channel of reference for Middle East events, and broadcast centres strategically placed around the world in Doha, Kuala Lumpur, London and Washington DC, Al Jazeera English is balancing the information flow from South to North, providing independent and impartial news for a global audience from a grass roots level, giving voice to different perspectives from under-reported regions around the world.

Al Jazeera English is available in over 100 countries to over 140 million households worldwide, and was recently awarded "Best 24 Hour News Program" at the 48th Annual Monte Carlo Television Festival. The channel also recently received its first three International Emmy nominations - two in news and current affairs for its groundbreaking coverage of the military crackdown in Myanmar and its Red Mosque coverage and one for digital programmes for their coverage of the US election.

Al Jazeera started out over twelve years ago as the first independent Arabic news channel in the world dedicated to providing comprehensive television news and live debate for the Arab world. Al Jazeera has been ranked by brandchannel.com as the most impactful television broadcast news brand globally.

About RTS:

In a sector that is simultaneously expanding, consolidating and fragmenting, the Royal Television Society provides unrivalled opportunities for learning and getting in contact with people at all levels across the television community.

The introduction of e-membership - a form of free, electronic, paperless membership linked to a series of low-cost early evening events - supports the Society's ambition to be an organisation that everyone in television can afford to join, and no one can afford not to join.

Full Members and Patrons are still at the heart of the Society and are able to influence its direction through their Council representatives and officers. They have priority booking at events and receive the RTS's monthly magazine, Television which is essential reading for anyone who wishes to keep abreast of the key debates.

The Society recognises and rewards excellence through its Awards Ceremonies for Programme Making, Television Journalism, Sport, Education, Craft & Design , Technical Innovation and Student Television. The system for jury selection and adjudication has made RTS Awards the most highly respected in the television community.

The RTS also organises regular dinners in central London which are addressed by leaders in the world of television; the annual Fleming, Shoenberg and Huw Wheldon Memorial Lectures and international conferences. These include the biennial Cambridge Convention recognised as the pre-eminent high-level gathering of broadcasting executives.

The Society has 14 national and regional Centres in the UK, each of which tailors an annual programme to meet the unique requirements of its members, plus Centres in the Republic of Ireland and North America.

The archives of the Society go back to its foundation in 1927, and are open to Members and academic researchers by appointment with the Archivist.

Media contact:

For further information please contact:

Christina Aivaliotis
Al Jazeera
Tel: +974 489 2555