Al Jazeera English marks 20 years of global news reporting
Nov 15, 2026
November the 15th, 2006,
a new voice joins the global news conversation.
Turn to silence!
Day one of a new era in television news.
The first Al Jazeera English Bulletin hits the airwaves,
and within the hour, a breaking story.
A tsunami is heading towards the north of Japan.
The debut of a 24-hour English language news
and current affairs channel designed to break the mold.
The first to be based in the Middle East.
I'm Nur Adel in the Gaza Strip.
I'm Farah Sebenzo in Zimbabwe.
I'm Harun Mutasin in Darfur.
I'm Ragheb Omar in Tehran.
The ambition?
To tell the stories shaping the world from every corner.
I'm from Somalia.
With a deliberate focus on forgotten causes
and underrepresented people and places.
Filling a gap in the market that made the slogan,
the voice of the voiceless, one that would endure.
Behind the cameras,
new angles on stories shaping the news agenda came into focus.
From wars...
Suddenly, it's not a good idea to be right there,
but nowhere else feels safe now.
...to revolutions...
Egypt's most famous square is in the hands of the people.
...tragedies...
Whoa!
...to triumphs...
Through upheaval, uncertainty...
They say that this dried blood is the blood from Gaddafi.
...and extraordinary change.
For 20 years, our teams have been on the ground,
in six continents, connecting the dots and the divides,
supported by thousands of journalists
and staff in bureaus around the world.
This is the beating heart of Al Jazeera, where it all comes together.
What began as a single broadcast has expanded
into a global operation with a global audience.
Now much has changed, the scale, the reach, the platforms.
But one thing has remained the same, the goal,
to go beyond the headlines and tell stories that matter.
For 20 years, Al Jazeera English brought
the news into viewers' homes, but this year...
We'll live this hour in Tehran, Beirut, Doha.
...the story came much closer to our home.
The U.S.-Iran war turned the focus on the Gulf,
and Doha itself came under threat.
Journalists accustomed to reporting from the front lines
found the story unfolding on their own doorstep.
Two decades on, the world remains as complex
and interconnected as ever.
And there is so much more for us to report.
Zain Basravi, Al Jazeera, Doha.