Al Jazeera's long-awaited English language rolling news channel, which launched on Wednesday, is determined not to "follow the pack" but set its own news agenda, according to London bureau chief Sue Phillips She said: "If the rest of the world was leading on a Tony Blair speech or an opening of parliament, the channel might decide to lead with a story from Africa or from Japan."
Defending the decision not to go big on the Japan tsunami threat on Wednesday afternoon, Phillips said that the decision was taken "in a similar way to lots of organisations". "We react like most news organisations," she said. "But one of the differences with Al Jazeera is that we have incredible freedom and vast resources around the world that we can decide what stories to go with and not simply follow the pack."
Al Jazeera English has a team of more than 700 staff working in 18 bureaux worldwide in addition to the Al Jazeera network's 40-plus bureaux. The channel is broadcast in English around the world including New Zealand and Latin America and will be broadcast from centres in Doha, Kuala Lumpur, Washington DC and London.
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