Aljazeera ready to beam live from March

Kolkata, Jan 28 (UNI) Aljazeera International, awaiting clearance to transmit Al Jazeera English in India, today stated that the channel worked on high journalistic ethics on all isuues from Osama Bin Laden to the Jewish people of Israel.

Aljazeera Network Regional Distribution Director Diana Hosker told UNI, ''The channel works on high journalistic ethics. The code of ethics laid out by the channel was one of the most elaborate ones. We don't transmit news unless it is editorially suitable and valuable from the journalistic point of view.'' ''As you know that we have access to tapes from Osama (Bin Laden) first. But only those that merit broadcast after assessing them scrupulously and meticulously based on their journalistic value are brought to the air,'' she said.

''We are also one of the first people to bring the Jewish people on television and have the backing of the largest DTH in Israel, with wide acceptance in that country. We are like any other english channel, only our thrust is to show the world from the Southern hemisphere's point of view,'' she said.

''We are the voice of the voiceless with a motto to give importance to the three As Arab world, Asia and Africa and also Latin America,'' she said.

Asked what was taking them so long to launch the channel in India as it was already launched worldwide from November 15, 2006, she said, ''We don't really know. But it is taking us longer than usual, shall we say. We are, however, patient. We have also got a go-ahead from Singapore Broadcasting Corporation which is considered to be one of the strictest.'' ''We are hopeful of getting the permission by March. We don't see why there would be a problem,'' she added.

Asked about the Channel's policy with regards to Pakistan, she said, ''It is also a big market and we are having strategic talks with the country.'' Talking about the method of operations in India, Bureau Chief Anmol Saxena said, ''We will work on content sharing with regional or national channels in India, besides having our own India-centric programmes.

''India is one of the biggest democracies in the world and being telecast in India is key to our distribution footprint and strategic to our development,'' he said.

Aljazeera is the main sponsor of the Cable TV Show 2008 that began here today.

UNI BA PC PK HT1624