Exhibition spotlights evolution of Al Jazeera

‘Expertise Al Jazeera’ spotlights 25 years of community’s progress from a single TV channel to a worldwide media phenomenon.

Guests can immerse themselves with digital actuality in AJ Distinction’s award profitable multimedia challenge 'Nonetheless Right here' [Mersiha Gadzo/Al Jazeera]

Al Jazeera first went on air with its Arabic-language TV channel on November 1, 1996, with a group of some 250 employees, and has since developed over greater than 1 / 4 of a century into a worldwide media community.

Exploring the Qatar-based media community’s trajectory over the previous 25 years, the “Expertise Al Jazeera” multimedia exhibition has opened for the general public on the Fireplace Station, Doha’s main up to date artwork house.

“We communicate concerning the mission and imaginative and prescient behind Al Jazeera, which was based underneath the initiative of His Highness, the daddy emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who actually noticed a necessity within the area for a channel that's unbiased and enjoys a freedom of media that has not traditionally existed, particularly within the area,” curator and museography supervisor of the exhibition Anaghime Ziani advised Al Jazeera.

A complete of six sections have been organised in a sequential, chronological thread, she mentioned.

“We begin with a element that could be very well-known about Al Jazeera, and thru that place to begin, we discover the corresponding themes,” Ziani mentioned.

The exhibition’s first theme is constructed round Al Jazeera’s slogan created shortly after the channel’s launch: “The opinion and the opposite opinion”.

“[The slogan] encapsulates the editorial requirements that the community stands for, to painting the a number of sides to the story, the requirements that the channel nonetheless stands for till at the present time,” Noora Al Hedfa, Worldwide Communications Officer at Al Jazeera mentioned.

The exhibition begins off with ‘The Opinion’ part, displaying reporting of the Israeli-Palestinian battle [Mersiha Gadzo/Al Jazeera]

As guests enter the exhibition, giant video installations play footage of the community’s reporting from the occupied Palestinian territory, the newest Russia-Ukraine struggle, and from Tahrir Sq. through the 2011 Egyptian revolution.

As they transfer alongside, they're proven a number of the dangers and difficulties confronted by Al Jazeera journalists. 

The community has confronted the jamming of its satellite tv for pc indicators, the closing and bombing of its places of work, together with in Baghdad and Gaza Metropolis, and harassment, persecution in addition to focused killings of its journalists.

Since its launch in 1996, 12 Al Jazeera journalists have been killed within the line of obligation.

Most lately, Israeli forces shot useless Al Jazeera Arabic reporter Shireen Abu Akleh whereas she was protecting a navy raid in Jenin within the occupied West Financial institution in Might. On the time she was carrying a helmet and flak jacket clearly marked with the phrase “PRESS”.

Witnesses, Al Jazeera, and quite a few investigations by the United Nations, human rights teams, and media organisations discovered that Israeli forces shot Abu Akleh.

Israel initially claimed she might have been killed by Palestinian gunmen, however by September, Israeli authorities mentioned there was a “excessive chance” that Abu Akleh was “by accident hit” by Israeli military hearth.

An interview with slain journalist Shireen Abu Akleh from 2021 is performed on the exhibition [Mersiha Gadzo/Al Jazeera]

On show are objects by Arabic correspondent Tarek Ayoub, who died from extreme accidents that he sustained when a US airstrike hit Al Jazeera’s Baghdad bureau in April 2003.

Guests can view a group of letters from Al Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Hajj from Guantanamo Bay the place he was wrongfully detained for over six years. The one journalist to be detained on the web site in Cuba, he was protecting the US struggle towards the Taliban, when he was arrested on false expenses by Pakistani authorities in 2001.

He was held with out trial and endured torture and interrogations till he was launched in Might 2008 as an harmless man, with out cost.

Correspondent Tarek Ayoub’s private objects are on show [Mersiha Gadzo/Al Jazeera]

A spotlight of the exhibition is the Nonetheless Right here set up, the place guests are invited to utilize digital actuality and augmented actuality know-how to immerse themselves in an award-winning multimedia challenge.

Created by AJ Distinction, Al Jazeera’s Emmy-nominated immersive storytelling and media innovation studio, Nonetheless Right here explores the difficulty of incarceration and gentrification within the US, and was produced in collaboration with previously incarcerated girls.

By placing on a headset, guests can accompany a personality named Jasmine Smith as she returns residence to Harlem in New York Metropolis after serving 15 years in jail for killing her associate in self-defence. The challenge premiered on the 2020 Sundance Movie Competition and has acquired 11 worldwide awards.

Guests use audio with augmented actuality within the ‘Nonetheless Right here’ challenge [Mersiha Gadzo/Al Jazeera]

Visitors may also try manufacturing gear from the Nineteen Nineties and a smaller reproduction of an Al Jazeera studio geared up with cameras.

Al Jazeera at this time spans over 10 linear and digital channels in six languages and a community of over 70 bureaus worldwide, reaching over 400 million households.

Al Hedfa, advised Al Jazeera that the media community has labored in collaboration with Qatar museums for greater than two years to carry the exhibition to life.

The exhibition opened on November 2 and can run till March 25. Tickets price 50 Qatari riyals ($14), however guests aged 16 and underneath can enter free of charge.